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Updated: June 25, 2025
But the fore-deck was so swept by the seas that nobody could keep his footing there, except the lookout men, who were holding watch at the beak of the vessel, not far from the cat-head.
I saw I was not forgotten, so afterward I kept quiet when he spoke. In a moment or two after this there was a wild yell from forward. This terminated into a deep bass roar, and we all jumped up to see what was the matter. The form of a man sat on the starboard cat-head, and in his mouth was a horn of enormous size, the mouth being fully three feet across. "Sooaye, Sooa-a-aye!" he roared.
The head sails were backed, the windlass came round ``slip slap'' to the cry of the sailors; ``Hove short, sir, said the mate; ``Up with him! ``Aye, aye, sir. A few hearty and long heaves, and the anchor showed its head. ``Hook cat! The fall was stretched along the decks; all hands laid hold; ``Hurrah, for the last time, said the mate; and the anchor came to the cat-head to the tune of ``Time for us to go, with a rollicking chorus.
Then the air suddenly grew damp, with a distinct taste of salt in it; the roar increased to a deafening bellow, and with a fierce, yelling shriek the squall burst upon us, and the brigantine bowed beneath the stroke until her lee rail was buried, and the water foamed in on deck from the cat-head to the main-rigging.
On removing the cat-head, after the ship arrived at Boston, it was found that there were two holes under it which had been bored for the purpose of driving treenails, and which, accidentally, had not been plugged up when the cat-head was placed over them. This provoking little piece of negligence caused us great discomfort.
What the deuce is that man up to under the starboard cat-head? "The men on the forecastle rushed to the side and looked over; two of them leaned over the rail with the bight of a rope between them, and a third came running aft to the mate. 'It's Foucault, sir, Parratt heard him say. 'He's hanged hisself from the cat-head.
A man on the spritsail yard with the lead, another on the cat-head with a handful of the line coiled up, another in the fore chains, another in the waist, and another in the main chains, each with a quantity of the line coiled away in his hand. ``All ready there, forward? ``Aye, aye, sir! ``He-e-ave! ``Watch! ho! watch! sings out the man on the spritsail yard, and the heavy lead drops into the water. ``Watch! ho! watch! bawls the man on the cat-head, as the last fake of the coil drops from his hand, and ``Watch! ho! watch! is shouted by each one as the line falls from his hold, until it comes to the mate, who tends the lead, and has the line in coils on the quarter-deck.
The fall was stretched along the decks; all hands laid hold; "Hurrah, for the last time," said the mate; and the anchor came to the cat-head to the tune of "Time for us to go," with a loud chorus. Everything was done quick, as though it were for the last time. The head yards were filled away, and our ship began to move through the water on her homeward-bound course.
She had settled in the water, already, so as to bring the lower bolts of both fore and main channels awash; and I supposed she might float for four-and-twenty hours longer, unless an injury that I had discovered under the larboard cat-head, and which had been received from the wreck, should sooner get under water.
"Yes, Madam Budd, yes; we was steering for a Mediterranean port, intending to clear a mole-head, when a sea took us under the larboard-quarter, gave us such a sheer to-port as sent our cat-head ag'in a spile, and raked away the chain-plates of the top-mast back-stays, bringing down all the forrard hamper about our ears."
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