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- 10771
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:14.843Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 10707
- text
- CHAPTER LIV.
SOME SUPERIOR OLD NAIL-ROD AND _PIG-TAIL_
It has been mentioned how advantageously my shipmates disposed of their
tobacco in Liverpool; but it is to be related how those nefarious
commercial speculations of theirs reduced them to sad extremities in
the end.
True to their improvident character, and seduced by the high prices
paid for the weed in England, they had there sold off by far the
greater portion of what tobacco they had; even inducing the mate to
surrender the portion he had secured under lock and key by command of
the Custom-house officers. So that when the crew were about two weeks
out, on the homeward-bound passage, it became sorrowfully evident that
tobacco was at a premium.
Now, one of the favorite pursuits of sailors during a dogwatch below at
sea is cards; and though they do not understand whist, cribbage, and
games of that kidney, yet they are adepts at what is called
_“High-low-Jack-and-the-game,”_ which name, indeed, has a Jackish and
nautical flavor. Their stakes are generally so many plugs of tobacco,
which, like rouleaux of guineas, are piled on their chests when they
play. Judge, then, the wicked zest with which the Highlander’s crew now
shuffled and dealt the pack; and how the interest curiously and
invertedly increased, as the stakes necessarily became less and less;
and finally resolved themselves into _“chaws.”_
So absorbed, at last, did they become at this business, that some of
them, after being hard at work during a nightwatch on deck, would rob
themselves of rest below, in order to have a brush at the cards. And as
it is very difficult sleeping in the presence of gamblers; especially
if they chance to be sailors, whose conversation at all times is apt to
be boisterous; these fellows would often be driven out of the
forecastle by those who desired to rest. They were obliged to repair on
deck, and make a card-table of it; and invariably, in such cases, there
was a great deal of contention, a great many ungentlemanly charges of
nigging and cheating; and, now and then, a few parenthetical blows were
exchanged.
But this was not so much to be wondered at, seeing they could see but
very little, being provided with no light but that of a midnight sky;
and the cards, from long wear and rough usage, having become
exceedingly torn and tarry, so much so, that several members of the
four suits might have seceded from their respective clans, and formed
into a fifth tribe, under the name of _“Tar-spots.”_
Every day the tobacco grew scarcer and scarcer; till at last it became
necessary to adopt the greatest possible economy in its use. The
modicum constituting an ordinary _“chaw,”_ was made to last a whole
day; and at night, permission being had from the cook, this self-same
_“chaw”_ was placed in the oven of the stove, and there dried; so as to
do duty in a pipe.
In the end not a plug was to be had; and deprived of a solace and a
stimulus, on which sailors so much rely while at sea, the crew became
absent, moody, and sadly tormented with the hypos. They were something
like opium-smokers, suddenly cut off from their drug. They would sit on
their chests, forlorn and moping; with a steadfast sadness, eying the
forecastle lamp, at which they had lighted so many a pleasant pipe.
With touching eloquence they recalled those happier evenings—the time
of smoke and vapor; when, after a whole day’s delectable _“chawing,”_
they beguiled themselves with their genial, and most companionable
puffs.
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