Harry conducted Rose to the poop of the Poughkeepsie, where she might
enjoy the best view of the operation of getting so large a craft under
way, man-of-war fashion. The details were mysteries, of course, and
Rose knew no more of the process by which the chain was brought to the
capstan, by the intervention of what is called a messenger, than if
she had not been present. She saw two hundred men distributed about the
vessel, some at the capstan, some on the forecastle, some in the tops,
and others in the waist, and she heard the order to “heave round.” Then
the shrill fife commenced the lively air of “the girl I left behind me,”
rather more from a habit in the fifer, than from any great regrets for
the girls left at the Dry Tortugas, as was betrayed to Mulford by the
smiles of the officers, and the glances they cast at Rose. As for the
latter, she knew nothing of the air, and was quite unconscious of
the sort of parody that the gentlemen of the quarter-deck fancied it
conveyed on her own situation.
Rose was principally struck with the quiet that prevailed in the ship,
Captain Mull being a silent man himself, and insisting on having a quiet
vessel. The first lieutenant was not a noisy officer, and from these
two, everybody else on board received their cues. A simple “all ready,
sir,” uttered by the first to the captain, in a common tone of voice,
answered by a “very well, sir, get your anchor,” in the same tone, set
everything in motion. “Stamp and go,” soon followed, and taking the
whole scene together, Rose felt a strange excitement come over her.
There were the shrill, animating music of the fife; the stamping time
of the men at the bars; the perceptible motion of the ship, as she drew
ahead to her anchor, and now and then the call between Wallace, who
stood between the knight-heads, as commander-in-chief on the forecastle,
(the second lieutenant's station when the captain does not take the
trumpet, as very rarely happens,) and the “executive officer” aft, was
“carrying on duty,” all conspiring to produce this effect. At length,
and it was but a minute or two from the time when the “stamp and go”
commenced, Wallace called out “a short stay-peak, sir.” “Heave and
pull,” followed, and the men left their bars.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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