Richard Henry Dana

Name: Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXII
Author: Richard Henry Dana

Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXII

Summary

“Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXII”, is a work by Richard Henry Dana. It explores elements such as watch, deck and eastward.

Quotes from Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXII (Richard Henry Dana)

Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXII

“ Beside this difficulty, the yard over which we lay was cased with ice, the gaskets and rope of the foot and leach of the sail as stiff and hard as a piece of suctionhose, and the sail itself about as pliable as though it had been made of sheets of sheathing copper. It blew a perfect hurricane, with alternate blasts of snow, hail, and rain. We had to fist the sail with bare hands. No one could trust himself to mittens, for if he slipped, he was a gone man. All the boats were hoisted in on deck, and there was nothing to be lowered for him. We had need for every finger God had given us. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXII

“ On deck, all was as dark as a pocket, and either a dead calm, with the rain pouring steadily down, or, more generally, a violent gale dead ahead, with rain pelting horizontally, and occasional variations of hail and sleet;—decks afloat with water swashing from side to side, and constantly wet feet; for boots could not be wrung out like drawers, and no composition could stand the constant soaking. In fact, wet and cold feet are inevitable in such weather, and are not the least of those little items which go to make up the grand total of the discomforts of a winter passage round the Cape. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXII

“ We were glad enough to get on deck, and still more, to go below. The oldest sailor in the watch said, as he went down,—“I shall never forget that main yard;—it beats all my going a fishing. Fun is fun, but furling one yard-arm of a course, at a time, off Cape Horn, is no better than man-killing.”
During the greater part of the next two days, the wind was pretty steady from the southward. We had evidently made great progress, and had good hope of being soon up with the Cape, if we were not there already. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXII

“ I gained a great deal of flesh, and we all ate like horses. At every watch, when we came below, before turning-in, the bread barge and beef kid were overhauled. Each man drank his quart of hot tea and night and morning; and glad enough we were to get it, for no nectar and ambrosia were sweeter to the lazy immortals, than was a pot of hot tea, a hard biscuit, and a slice of cold salt beef, to us after a watch on deck. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXII

“ Singing and joking, we were in no humor for, and, in fact, any sound of mirth or laughter would have struck strangely upon our ears, and would not have been tolerated, any more than whistling, or a wind instrument. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXII

“ From a north-east course we gradually hauled to the eastward, and after sailing about two hundred miles, which brought us as near to the western coast of Terra del Fuego as was safe, and having lost sight of the ice altogether,—for the third time we put the ship’s head to the southward, to try the passage of the Cape. The weather continued clear and cold, with a strong gale from the westward, and we were fast getting up with the latitude of the Cape, with a prospect of soon being round. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXII

“ Few words were spoken between the watches as they shifted, the wheel was relieved, the mate took his place on the quarter-deck, the look-outs in the bows; and each man had his narrow space to walk fore and aft in, or, rather, to swing himself forward and back in, from one belaying pin to another,—for the decks were too slippery with ice and water to allow of much walking. To make a walk, which is absolutely necessary to pass away the time, one of us hit upon the expedient of sanding the deck ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXII

“ It came on to blow worse and worse, with hail and snow beating like so many furies upon the ship, it being as dark and thick as night could make it. The mainsail was blowing and slatting with a noise like thunder, when the captain came on deck, and ordered it to be furled. The mate was about to call all hands, when the captain stopped him, and said that the men would be beaten out if they were called up so often; that as our watch must stay on deck, it might as well be doing that as anything else. Accordingly, we went upon the yard ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXII

“ The ship wore round fairly, the yards were steadied, and we stood off on the other tack, leaving behind us, directly under our larboard quarter, a large ice island, peering out of the mist, and reaching high above our tops, while astern; and on either side of the island, large tracts of field-ice were dimly seen, heaving and rolling in the sea. ”

Richard Henry Dana

Summary

Quotes from Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXII (Richard Henry Dana)

Common terms

Similar works

Get perspective with Kwize: daily news enlightened by great literature