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- 2153
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:14.838Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 2091
- text
- CHAPTER XI.
HE HELPS WASH THE DECKS, AND THEN GOES TO BREAKFAST
The next thing I knew, was the loud thumping of a handspike on deck as
the watch was called again. It was now four o’clock in the morning, and
when we got on deck the first signs of day were shining in the east.
The men were very sleepy, and sat down on the windlass without
speaking, and some of them nodded and nodded, till at last they fell
off like little boys in church during a drowsy sermon. At last it was
broad day, and an order was given to wash down the decks. A great tub
was dragged into the waist, and then one of the men went over into the
chains, and slipped in behind a band fastened to the shrouds, and
leaning over, began to swing a bucket into the sea by a long rope; and
in that way with much expertness and sleight of hand, he managed to
fill the tub in a very short time. Then the water began to splash about
all over the decks, and I began to think I should surely get my feet
wet, and catch my death of cold. So I went to the chief mate, and told
him I thought I would just step below, till this miserable wetting was
over; for I did not have any water-proof boots, and an aunt of mine had
died of consumption. But he only roared out for me to get a broom and
go to scrubbing, or he would prove a worse consumption to me than ever
got hold of my poor aunt. So I scrubbed away fore and aft, till my back
was almost broke, for the brooms had uncommon short handles, and we
were told to scrub hard.
At length the scrubbing being over, the mate began heaving buckets of
water about, to wash every thing clean, by way of finishing off. He
must have thought this fine sport, just as captains of fire engines
love to point the tube of their hose; for he kept me running after him
with full buckets of water, and sometimes chased a little chip all over
the deck, with a continued flood, till at last he sent it flying out of
a scupper-hole into the sea; when if he had only given me permission, I
could have picked it up in a trice, and dropped it overboard without
saying one word, and without wasting so much water. But he said there
was plenty of water in the ocean, and to spare; which was true enough,
but then I who had to trot after him with the buckets, had no more legs
and arms than I wanted for my own use.
I thought this washing down the decks was the most foolish thing in the
world, and besides that it was the most uncomfortable. It was worse
than my mother’s house-cleanings at home, which I used to abominate so.
At eight o’clock the bell was struck, and we went to breakfast. And now
some of the worst of my troubles began. For not having had any friend
to tell me what I would want at sea, I had not provided myself, as I
should have done, with a good many things that a sailor needs; and for
my own part, it had never entered my mind, that sailors had no table to
sit down to, no cloth, or napkins, or tumblers, and had to provide
every thing themselves. But so it was.
The first thing they did was this. Every sailor went to the cook-house
with his tin pot, and got it filled with coffee; but of course, having
no pot, there was no coffee for me. And after that, a sort of little
tub called a “kid,” was passed down into the forecastle, filled with
something they called “burgoo.” This was like mush, made of Indian
corn, meal, and water. With the _“kid,” a_ little tin cannikin was
passed down with molasses. Then the Jackson that I spoke of before, put
the kid between his knees, and began to pour in the molasses, just like
an old landlord mixing punch for a party. He scooped out a little hole
in the middle of the mush, to hold the molasses; so it looked for all
the world like a little black pool in the Dismal Swamp of Virginia.
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