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- 1433
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:15.149Z
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- structure-extraction-lambda
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- 1365
- text
- water fairly poured down in sheets like a cascade, swashing about, and
afterward spirting up between the chests like the jets of a fountain.
Such were our accommodations aboard of the Julia; but bad as they were,
we had not the undisputed possession of them. Myriads of cockroaches,
and regiments of rats disputed the place with us. A greater calamity
than this can scarcely befall a vessel in the South Seas.
So warm is the climate that it is almost impossible to get rid of them.
You may seal up every hatchway, and fumigate the hull till the smoke
forces itself out at the seams, and enough will survive to repeople the
ship in an incredibly short period. In some vessels, the crews of which
after a hard fight have given themselves up, as it were, for lost, the
vermin seem to take actual possession, the sailors being mere tenants
by sufferance. With Sperm Whalemen, hanging about the Line, as many of
them do for a couple of years on a stretch, it is infinitely worse than
with other vessels.
As for the Julia, these creatures never had such free and easy times as
they did in her crazy old hull; every chink and cranny swarmed with
them; they did not live among you, but you among them. So true was
this, that the business of eating and drinking was better done in the
dark than in the light of day.
Concerning the cockroaches, there was an extraordinary phenomenon, for
which none of us could ever account.
Every night they had a jubilee. The first symptom was an unusual
clustering and humming among the swarms lining the beams overhead, and
the inside of the sleeping-places. This was succeeded by a prodigious
coming and going on the part of those living out of sight Presently
they all came forth; the larger sort racing over the chests and planks;
winged monsters darting to and fro in the air; and the small fry
buzzing in heaps almost in a state of fusion.
On the first alarm, all who were able darted on deck; while some of the
sick who were too feeble, lay perfectly quiet—the distracted vermin
running over them at pleasure. The performance lasted some ten minutes,
during which no hive ever hummed louder. Often it was lamented by us
that the time of the visitation could never be predicted; it was liable
to come upon us at any hour of the night, and what a relief it was,
when it happened to fall in the early part of the evening.
Nor must I forget the rats: they did not forget me. Tame as Trenck’s
mouse, they stood in their holes peering at you like old grandfathers
in a doorway. Often they darted in upon us at meal-times, and nibbled
our food. The first time they approached Wymontoo, he was actually
frightened; but becoming accustomed to it, he soon got along with them
much better than the rest. With curious dexterity he seized the animals
by their legs, and flung them up the scuttle to find a watery grave.
But I have a story of my own to tell about these rats. One day the
cabin steward made me a present of some molasses, which I was so choice
of that I kept it hid away in a tin can in the farthest corner of my
bunk.. Faring as we did, this molasses dropped upon a biscuit was a
positive luxury, which I shared with none but the doctor, and then only
in private. And sweet as the treacle was, how could bread thus prepared
and eaten in secret be otherwise than pleasant?
One night our precious can ran low, and in canting it over in the dark,
something beside the molasses slipped out. How long it had been there,
kind Providence never revealed; nor were we over anxious to know; for
we hushed up the bare thought as quickly as possible. The creature
certainly died a luscious death, quite equal to Clarence’s in the butt
of Malmsey.
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