. Master Rockafellar's voyage . we were out they hauled mefrom my hammock and ran me to the mizzenshrouds, up which they forced me to go, sayingthat the topgallant sail would be clewing up shortly,and I must be in the cross-trees in readiness tohelp furl it. A ratline carried away, and I fellthrough the rigging on to the deck. I broke nobones, but I lay senseless, which so terrified theyoung bullies that when I was taken to my ham- HE SAILS FROM CRA VESEND. 41 mock they never more offered to trouble me. Iwas ill for a fortnight, I say, and the memory of itmakes me sorryfor every young-ster whe
. Master Rockafellar's voyage . we were out they hauled mefrom my hammock and ran me to the mizzenshrouds, up which they forced me to go, sayingthat the topgallant sail would be clewing up shortly,and I must be in the cross-trees in readiness tohelp furl it. A ratline carried away, and I fellthrough the rigging on to the deck. I broke nobones, but I lay senseless, which so terrified theyoung bullies that when I was taken to my ham- HE SAILS FROM CRA VESEND. 41 mock they never more offered to trouble me. Iwas ill for a fortnight, I say, and the memory of itmakes me sorryfor every young-ster when he firstcomes to the life //and is seasick. However, onthe morning ofthe third dayfrom our quit-ting Gravesend,though I was stillvery ill, I couldstand no longerthe miseries ofmy confinementto the I wasbound to suffer,I thought it was .^better to feel ^wretched in theopen air thanamid the smellsand noise and gloom of the i , tiiuougii tue berth. It was the forenoon watch, as the hours from. 42 MASTER ROCKAFELLARS VOYAGE. eight to twelve are called. The fellows who hadbeen on deck since four oclock had come below ateight bells, and after breakfasting had turned in tosmoke a pipe and then get some sleep. They werein the port or chief mates watch, to which divisionof the ships company I was supposed to belong,though I dont remember how I came to know were still in soundings as it is termed—thatis to say, not yet out of the Channel, though wewere a long way down it On this morning there was a strong sea runningon the bow, but not so much wind as the motion ofthe ship would have led one to suppose. The mids,when they came below, had told the others whowere to relieve them that the vessel was under allplain sail saving the flying jib and fore and mizzenroyals, and that the old man as they termed thecaptain, was driving her; that they had heard themate say that he expected it would be an allhands job before four bells had gone—ten ocl
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