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Updated: May 24, 2025
Then, because poor Taylor called them by some name they deserved, they dragged him aft by his hair, and then triced him up to the main-rigging by the heels. I was in the watch below; of the rest of the crew, one was at the helm, another forward, and the others aloft; so that there was no one to interfere. At last, the man forward looked down the fore-scuttle and told us what had happened.
The Clarissa was a good vessel, and well found in almost every respect; but like most of the vessels in those days, had wretched accommodations for the crew. The forecastle was small, with no means of ventilation or admission of the light of day, excepting by the fore-scuttle.
He was now drawing to the finale, and began to sing, "The cook of the huffy got drank, Fell down the fore-scuttle, and Broke his gin bottle." Here his head fell back, he tumbled off his chair, and lay motionless on the carpet.
My next job was to close-reef and set the lug, which I did with the aid of the winch; and this done, I went forward, and, beginning with the fore-scuttle, proceeded to carefully batten down every opening in the deck, bringing the cabin lamp on deck in order that I might have a sufficiency of light to work by.
I secured the medicine-chest which luckily happened to be a fairly big one for a vessel of the brig's size and carried it forward to the fore-scuttle, where one of the seamen relieved me of it and passed it below.
This was exclusive of the time occupied in fixing the combings of the hatch and fore-scuttle, cabin-companion, skylight, and other openings. As we "got our hands in," however, we made more rapid progress; and, in little more than two months from the date of the Water Lily's arrival, the hull of the schooner was completed and in readiness for the reception of her spars.
Having individually ascertained that there was but one man, and that one not provided with any weapons, the negroes assumed a degree of courage. The first head that had made its appearance, the woolly hair of which was of a grizzly gray from age, was again popped up the fore-scuttle, with an interrogatory to Newton, in French, who he was, and what he wanted?
The fellow slouched away forward, lurching and slipping along the wet decks, and disappeared down the fore-scuttle.
"Not a doubt of that," said Captain Dinks laughing. "I was almost half- frozen in the mizzen rigging; and as for poor Frank Harness, when he came off the fore-scuttle, where he was stationed all night to pass the word from the look-outs forward, he could hardly move his limbs!
I found the fore-scuttle not only closed, but also secured by a stout iron bar, the slotted end of which was passed over a staple and secured by a padlock.
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