The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1882-10-11
SUNDAY AT SEA.

Around Cape Horn is the title of n
ei.t ming illustrated paper in the Century
M0gasane abounding in the crisp aud salty
pictures OF seattle, like the following sketch
OF the sailors first Sunday at sea.
The men before the mast numbered forty.
SIX, and were a molly set, from nearly every
quarter OF the globe. As their names
were yet unknown, the mates called them
out rapidly in turn, by some peculiar.
ity they noticed in them. :. Step out there
you fatty |" lyon fellow with the bio
Jio, come here !" or the like. INCLUDING
captain Hammond and his wife, the three
mates, the cook and stewart and their assist
ants, the carpenter and his mate, and NV.
self, we numbered Afty-eight souls on board
destined to share and share" alike what
ever fate might have been in store for the
good ship Three BsoNass. while she sailed
her solitary course Eighteen thousand
miles. a4i4 Haf1la4 y III
A sailing-ship bound across the seas win
generally contriye to leave port, as we did.
on Sunday. Sunday is poor day in port.
as no work can be done in loading the YES
sell IL the cargo is all in on Thursday. the
ship will be detained day on some pretext
s-ztnihar in ar<,ar 10 avoid eoil;ne. on A.
employed in cleaning up the decks, and the
crew take an account of stock, as they did
on our first Sunday All performed unusu
al additions, and most of them dressed for
the day and idled about in the sun, sleeping,
mending their clothes, or chatting in the
desultory manner in which score or two of
people who have never known each other
before, gradually find their affinities, and adj
Just themselves to the little world in which
they are to live together for few months
The reckless, thriftless character of sailor
is the natural result of the life to which he is
doomed. Going to sea before he has the re-
hottest idea of what kind of career life in
the forecastle must inevitably be, he learns
to live in the present, and that fact alone
tends to produce recklessness Every voy-
age separates him from those he likes and
introduces him to new set of beings, toss
ed in hap-hazard fashion in his path, and
from whom in q few weeks he is destin
ed to separate, and never TO see them again.
Any storm is likely to be his last; every
time he goes aloft he is likely to fall to his
death. Deep reflection on the character of
his destiny or the prospects of lettering his
career can only result in suggestions of sui
eide or despair. He is therefore, always
like an overgrown boy in his mind, offering
strange alterations of simplicity and cum
ming now tender as woman, now callous
and cruel as tiger-a medley of astounding
contradictions of character, moved more
by the impulse of the moment than by set
tied convictions, and easily swayed by
mind or will stronger than his own.
In the afternoon the crew overhauled
their sea-chests. Everything was emptied
on deck, and an extraordinary hodge-podgeit
was of clothing, trinkets, dog-eared dime
novels, jaek-lnives, pipes, ditty boxes cheap
iooking-glasses, greasy cards, sou'-westers,
photographs, plugs of tobacco, and limp
hats and caps without end, the latter being
in excess of any other object, because the
wind makes sad havoc with head-coyerines
at saa Tha Asnasianaa. s>.,a Las -hsl Il. ..-~.
voyaglng may be fairly gagged by the num-
Der of hats and caps he slows in his baggage
when starting on a voyage. With boyish
eagerness each of the men now surveyed the
stock of the Others. An active barter was
started, and before it struck six bells half
the contents of the sea-chests had exchang-
ed owners, either by trade or theft. u