Under Sail 1

Under Sail 1

Under Sail

Author: Felix Riesenberg

CONTENTS

PAGE

 

INTRODUCTION 1

 

OUTWARD BOUND 12

 

THE OUTWARD PASSAGE 29

 

CHRISTMAS DAY ON THE HIGH SEAS 45

 

THE FIGHT 65

 

NEPTUNE COMES ON BOARD 77

 

LIFE IN THE FO'C'SLE 90

 

CAPE HORN 102

 

ROUNDING THE HORN 115

 

INTO THE PACIFIC 123

 

CABIN AND FO'C'SLE 133

 

CLEANING HOUSE AND A CELEBRATION 142

 

MAKING PORT 154

 

IN HONOLULU TOWN 168

 

UNLOADING--WITH A BIT OF POLITICS 179

 

HAWAIIAN HOSPITALITY 187

 

HONOLULU OF THE OLD DAYS 200

 

A DINNER ASHORE 212

 

BRITISH NEIGHBORS 223

 

THE MATE KEEPS US BUSY 233

 

THE LAND OF LANGUOR 245

 

LOADING SUGAR 253

 

GOOD-BYE TO HONOLULU 268

 

HOMEWARD BOUND 280

 

HAWAIIAN SHIPMATES 291

 

DRIVING SOUTHWARD 303

 

CAPE HORN AGAIN 318

 

MAN LOST OVERBOARD 332

 

AUSTRALIA'S STORY 342

 

STORMY DAYS 356

 

HEADED NORTH 366

 

FO'C'SLE DISCUSSIONS 377

 

THROUGH THE TRADES 388

 

APPROACHING HOME 399

 

THE END OF THE VOYAGE 408

 

THE LONG-LOOKED-FOR PAYDAY 420

 

 

 

 

ILLUSTRATIONS

 

 

PAGE

 

Old Smith 19

 

Frenchy 26

 

Deck Plan of Ship _A. J. Fuller_ 31

 

Jimmy Marshall 41

 

Fred 49

 

Joe 61

 

Skouse 70

 

Martin 108

 

Cape Horn 114

 

At Brewer's Wharf 175

 

Charlie Horse 196

 

Watching the Shore When In the Stream 235

 

Brenden Reading Letter 265

 

Jack Hitchen 270

 

Australia 343

 

Sketches of Diego Ramirez 357

 

Axel 382

 

Watching Shore at Delaware Breakwater 405

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

THE SQUARE RIGGERS

 

 

America is again facing forward to the sea. The ancient thrill of the

wide salt spaces, of the broad horizon beyond which adventure beckons

us, appeals once more to the youth of America. We are living in times

when the great importance of the sea as a career comes home to us at

every turn. The sea is the great bulwark of our liberty, and by the

sea we must persevere or perish in the world struggle of Anglo-Saxon

democracy against the powers of autocratic might.

 

When America returns to her own, she builds upon foundations of

tradition that have their footings on the solid bed rock of the

republic. One glorious era of our sea history was followed by another,

and as times progressed the breed of seamen ever rose capable and

triumphant to the necessities that called them forth.

 

The Revolutionary sailors, and those of 1812, were followed by the

great commercial seamen of the clippers. The mighty fleets of the

Civil War astonished the world, and in the period just previous to our

seafaring decline of a score of years past, the great sailers flying

the Stars and Stripes spread their white cotton canvas on every sea.

 

Their story has never been adequately told. They are not to be measured

in terms of tonnage, or in the annals of swift passages from port to

port. Their contribution to the legends of the sea remains obscure.

They carried a tradition of hard driving, and were a phase of our sea

life that formed and forged the link between the old and the new,

between the last days of sail and the great new present of the America

of steam and steel.

 

Men who go to sea today in our merchant marine, in positions of

command, are, in many instances, graduates of the ships of these latter

days of sail.

 

Looking back, and as time goes it is not so very far away; we can,

in our mind's eye, see the great wood-built craft that lined the

waterfront of South Street. These were the last of the American sailing

ships, entering from, and clearing to, every sea port under heaven.

They were not the famous California clippers of an earlier day, or the

swift Western Ocean packet ships, or the storied tea ships of the China

trade, but they were their legitimate successors. The ships of this

last glorious burst of sail, under the Stars and Stripes, were larger

craft, vessels built for the long voyage haul, for the grain trade, for

the sugar trade, and as carriers of general cargo to the Orient and the western coast of North America.