The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1906-04-05
relieved the monotony on board ship to
all with the exception of myself. To

all with the exception of myself. To
me, as 1 then thought, my duties
were somewhat monotonous, for every
sail that was reported from the mast
head was the officer called upon to 60
aloft and make her out, for the reason
that had the best pair of eyes In the
ship, could see objects at a greater dis
lance and at sea could make them out
quicker than any man in the ship, with
but one exception, and that exception
was a Gay Head Indian. He was man
about fifty years of age and had spent
most of his life in New Bedford
wbaler. He told me that he thought
that he had spent at least two years q
his life at the masthead looking out for
.spouters, and so strong had the habit
of reporting to the deck what he saw
become that instead of the usual call
of sail, hor he would invariably sing
out, "there she blcws?" Whenever
vessel was reported in sight from the
masthead it was reported to the captain,
and no matter whether l was on duty
or off. on deck or in my room, was the
one called upon to 60 aloft and make
her out, i. e., tell what she was, which
way heading, etc. This would occur
perhaps twenty times day; some days
less and some days more.
| soon became so used to this going
aloft that it was no effort for me to do
so. In fact. | rather liked it. We had
four men detailed as masthead look
outs. all selected by reason OF their
keen eyesight and alertness. 1t was
nv habit in good weather when OFT
duty TO spend good part of my time
aloft. either in the tops with the cap
tains of the tops, or roosting on the
fore or main topsail yard with the look
outs. While proving around in the
foretop one day | discovered that the
head of our foremost had been sprung
: How long it had been in this condition
= we could not tell, but probably not
, long This was considered unsafe and
was the cause of our early return to
New York for repairs. MI Dean, the
, executive officer. fiShed the mast and
, did the best job of its kind | ever saw,
, Int board of survey was called who
, pronounced it unsafe, and we were Or
, dered to proceed to New York by Flag
[ Officer Farragut. We left our station
: on July 18th. We had not received any
: mail for twenty days, and the Rhode
, Island, the mail steamer, was not due
for ten days. The distance from Texas
to New York is about 1000 miles and a
fair passage in a sailing vessel is about
20 days, but owing to the crippled con-
| dition of our foremost, and light, baf-
l fling winds, it was a month before we
reached New York. We fell in with no
vessels on our passage, so that we were
, two months without news. You may
well believe that we were a news-hun-
gry set, and when we took pilot on
t. board off Sandy Hook we nearly de-
youred him so anxious were we to
know what had been done in relation
to the great war drama that was going
on. We had heard nothing of the seven
DAYS fight before Richmond and of our
} defeat. But we had reason to miStrust
: that something had gone wrong, for
, few days before we left we heard heavy
| firing in the direction of Galveston and
we supposed they might be celebrating
| rebel victory and it caused us to feel
| very uncomfortable.
Only one event transpred on our
: passage home that is worth mentioning.
: 1t was now the 18th Of July, and we
: had not seen the face of woman since
October or for about nine months, and
had began to realize that it was not
good for man to be alone; That without
woman man would sink back to say
agery and barbarism. We were then
willing to admit that women are super
ior to men, and when ordered home we
were all buoyed up with the thought
that we should soon greet our wives
and sweethearts. To illustrate how
strong hold they had on our hearts |
, will tell this little story: 1t was bright
| and clear on the day we got underway
homeward found. The wind was off
shore and we skinned along as near
l the land as the depth of water would
, admit. At the mouth of the Velas-
, CO river there was small rebel
, fort, and as we passed it we saw the
{ hutter of a woman's dress as she stood
on the parapet of the fort, apparently
watching us. When the quartermaster
reported it every eye in the ship was
r turned in that direction and every spy
glass in the ship was brought into re-
QUESTION, though nothing could be seen
at that distance but the outline of the
form and the flutter of the dress in the
breeze We could not tell whether the
face was white or black. All we knew
was this: it was the form and the
dress of a woman. Whether it was a
lady or negro wench we had no means
of ascertaining, but it created quite a
5 little excitement for the time. The
2 ooo+oip and tho offinpr Of the deck each