Dana, Richard Henry, 1815-1882; Sailors; Seafaring life; Voyages and travels
Sunday, April 24th. We had now been nearly seven weeks in San Diego,
and had taken in the greater part of our cargo, and were looking out,
every day, for the arrival of the California, which had our agent on
board; when, this afternoon, some Kanakas, who had been over the hill
for rabbits and to fight rattlesnakes, came running down the path,
singing out, "Kail ho!" with all their might. Mr. H., our third mate,
was ashore, and asking them particularly about the size of the sail,
etc., and learning that it was "Moku--Nui Moku," hailed our ship, and
said that the California was on the other side of the point.
Instantly, all hands were turned up, the bow guns run out and loaded,
the ensign and broad pennant set, the yards squared by lifts and
braces, and everything got ready to make a good appearance. The
instant she showed her nose round the point, we began our salute. She
came in under top-gallant sails, clewed up and furled her sails in good
order, and came-to, within good swinging distance of us. It being
Sunday, and nothing to do, all hands were on the forecastle,
criticising the new-comer. She was a good, substantial ship, not quite
so long as the Alert, and wall-sided and kettle-bottomed, after the
latest fashion of south-shore cotton and sugar wagons; strong, too, and
tight, and a good average sailor, but with no pretensions to beauty,
and nothing in the style of a "crack ship." Upon the whole, we were
perfectly satisfied that the Alert might hold up her head with a ship
twice as smart as she.
At night, some of us got a boat and went on board, and found a large,
roomy forecastle, (for she was squarer forward than the Alert,) and a
crew of a dozen or fifteen men and boys, sitting around on their
chests, smoking and talking, and ready to give a welcome to any of our
ship's company. It was just seven months since they left Boston, which
seemed but yesterday to us. Accordingly, we had much to ask, for
though we had seen the newspapers that she brought, yet these were the
very men who had been in Boston and seen everything with their own
eyes. One of the green-hands was a Boston boy, from one of the public
schools, and, of course, knew many things which we wished to ask about,
and on inquiring the names of our two Boston boys, found that they had
been schoolmates of his. Our men had hundreds of questions to ask
about Ann street, the boarding-houses, the ships in port, the rate of
wages, and other matters.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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