Dana, Richard Henry, 1815-1882; Sailors; Seafaring life; Voyages and travels
Sunday, Oct. 4th. This was the day of our arrival; and somehow or
other, our captain always managed not only to sail, but to come into
port, on a Sunday. The main reason for sailing on the Sabbath is not,
as many people suppose, because Sunday is thought a lucky day, but
because it is a leisure day. During the six days, the crew are
employed upon the cargo and other ship's works, and the Sabbath, being
their only day of rest, whatever additional work can be thrown into
Sunday, is so much gain to the owners. This is the reason of our
coasters, packets, etc, sailing on the Sabbath. They get six good
days' work out of the crew, and then throw all the labor of sailing
into the Sabbath. Thus it was with us, nearly all the time we were on
the coast, and many of our Sabbaths were lost entirely to us. The
Catholics on shore have no trading and make no journeys on Sunday, but
the American has no national religion, and likes to show his
independence of priestcraft by doing as he chooses on the Lord's day.
Santa Barbara looked very much as it did when I left it five months
before: the long sand beach, with the heavy rollers, breaking upon it
in a continual roar, and the little town, imbedded on the plain, girt
by its amphitheatre of mountains. Day after day, the sun shone clear
and bright upon the wide bay and the red roofs of the houses;
everything being as still as death, the people really hardly seeming to
earn their sun-light. Daylight actually seemed thrown away upon them.
We had a few visitors, and collected about a hundred hides, and every
night, at sundown, the gig was sent ashore, to wait for the captain,
who spent his evenings in the town. We always took our monkey-jackets
with us, and flint and steel, and made a fire on the beach with the
driftwood and the bushes we pulled from the neighboring thickets, and
lay down by it, on the sand. Sometimes we would stray up to the town,
if the captain was likely to stay late, and pass the time at some of
the houses, in which we were almost always well received by the
inhabitants. Sometimes earlier and sometimes later, the captain came
down; when, after a good drenching in the surf, we went aboard, changed
our clothes, and turned in for the night--yet not for all the night,
for there was the anchor watch to stand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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