Now, the real fact is that unless she has some accident, or happens to come home in the dead of winter when it is impossible to do any work, she is in better condition when she reaches home than at any other time. When she sails from port her decks and sides are black and dirty from taking in cargo, her standing rigging is generally slack, there are loose ends hanging everywhere, and, as a sailor would express it, "everything is adrift." The longer the voyage is the better is the appearance of the ship, provided she has fine weather for the last month or so of it. The best-looking vessels I've ever seen were those that had come round Cape Horn or Cape of Good Hope on their return from the other side of the world. The captain kept us busy setting up and tarring all our standing rigging, setting the masts, ratting down or up the lower and topmast rigging, scraping the ship inside and out, decks, masts, and booms, and pounding the rust off the chains, bolts, and fastenings. The whole ship was gone over, inside and out, during our voyage. The work began the second day out from Gibraltar, and was continued almost all the time until we got back to Boston again. On the tenth day after passing the straits the watch on deck was busy with the work of touching up the ship. I was aloft, tarring down the standing rigging near the foremast, and my position was higher up than that of any other man of the crew. I happened to look off toward the leeward and thought I saw a speck on the water; I looked again and felt sure there was a boat or something of the sort. But it was a speck, and nothing more. I hesitated a moment as to what I should say or do; I concluded it best to call one of the officers and let him decide. So I shouted,-- "On deck there!" "Aye, aye, there; what is it?" came to me in the voice of the first mate. "There's something in sight away to leeward!" I answered. "I don't know what it is." "Aye, aye," was the reply; "go on with your work." The captain was in the cabin at the time, and the mate informed him of my report. Immediately Captain Dawson came on deck with his glass, mounted into the foretop, and asked me where away was my discovery. I indicated the direction, and he brought his glass to bear upon the object. He must have looked at it for nearly ten minutes, certainly for five; then, without saying a word, he descended to the deck and spoke to Mr. Stevens. A moment later the mate shouted for all who were aloft to come down; and as soon as we reached the deck the Washington's course was changed to the direction of the little speck I had seen. Not a word was said by the captain and mate to any of the crew as to the cause of the change of course. I told Haines and several others what I had seen, and that I thought we were about to take up a boat from a wrecked ship.