Dana, Richard Henry, 1815-1882; Sailors; Seafaring life; Voyages and travels
Sunday, October 4th. This was the day of our arrival; and, somehow
or other, our captain seemed to manage, not only to sail, but to
come into port, on a Sunday. The main reason for sailing on Sunday
is not, as many people suppose, because it 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, Sunday being
their only day of rest, whatever additional work can be thrown
into it is so much gain to the owners. This is the reason of our
coasters and packets generally sailing on Sunday. Thus it was with
us nearly all the time we were on the coast, and many of our
Sundays were lost entirely to us. The Catholics on shore do not,
as a general thing, do regular trading or make 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,
embedded 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 hardly seeming to earn their sunlight. Daylight was 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 which 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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