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- 10885
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- 2026-01-30T20:48:14.843Z
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- 10818
- text
- slowly, and gradually coming upon its deftly hidden and aromatic
_“heart;”_ for so this central piece is denominated.
It is generally of a rich, tawny, Indian hue, somewhat inclined to
luster; is exceedingly agreeable to the touch; diffuses a pungent odor,
as of an old dusty bottle of Port, newly opened above ground; and,
altogether, is an object which no man, who enjoys his dinners, could
refrain from hanging over, and caressing.
Nor is this delectable morsel of _old junk_ wanting in many
interesting, mournful, and tragic suggestions. Who can say in what
gales it may have been; in what remote seas it may have sailed? How
many stout masts of seventy-fours and frigates it may have staid in the
tempest? How deep it may have lain, as a hawser, at the bottom of
strange harbors? What outlandish fish may have nibbled at it in the
water, and what un-catalogued sea-fowl may have pecked at it, when
forming part of a lofty stay or a shroud?
Now, this particular part of the rope, this nice little “cut” it was,
that among the sailors was the most eagerly sought after. And getting
hold of a foot or two of old cable, they would cut into it lovingly, to
see whether it had any _“tenderloin.”_
For my own part, nevertheless, I can not say that this tit-bit was at
all an agreeable one in the mouth; however pleasant to the sight of an
antiquary, or to the nose of an epicure in nautical fragrancies.
Indeed, though possibly I might have been mistaken, I thought it had
rather an astringent, acrid taste; probably induced by the tar, with
which the flavor of all ropes is more or less vitiated. But the sailors
seemed to like it, and at any rate nibbled at it with great gusto. They
converted one pocket of their trowsers into a junk-shop, and when
solicited by a shipmate for a _“chaw,”_ would produce a small coil of
rope.
Another device adopted to alleviate their hardships, was the
substitution of dried tea-leaves, in place of tobacco, for their pipes.
No one has ever supped in a forecastle at sea, without having been
struck by the prodigious residuum of tea-leaves, or cabbage stalks, in
his tin-pot of bohea. There was no lack of material to supply every
pipe-bowl among us.
I had almost forgotten to relate the most noteworthy thing in this
matter; namely, that notwithstanding the general scarcity of the
genuine weed, Jackson was provided with a supply; nor did it give out,
until very shortly previous to our arrival in port.
In the lowest depths of despair at the loss of their precious solace,
when the sailors would be seated inconsolable as the Babylonish
captives, Jackson would sit cross-legged in his bunk, which was an
upper one, and enveloped in a cloud of tobacco smoke, would look down
upon the mourners below, with a sardonic grin at their forlornness.
He recalled to mind their folly in selling for filthy lucre, their
supplies of the weed; he painted their stupidity; he enlarged upon the
sufferings they had brought upon themselves; he exaggerated those
sufferings, and every way derided, reproached, twitted, and hooted at
them. No one dared to return his scurrilous animadversions, nor did any
presume to ask him to relieve their necessities out of his fullness. On
the contrary, as has been just related, they divided with him the
_nail-rods_ they found.
The extraordinary dominion of this one miserable Jackson, over twelve
or fourteen strong, healthy tars, is a riddle, whose solution must be
left to the philosophers.
- title
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