YUBA COUNTY
GENEALOGICAL NUGGETS
Round Cape Horn :
voyage of the passenger-ship James W. Paige, from Maine to California in the year 1852;
BY J. LAMSON.
BANGOR:
PRESS OF O. F. & W. H. KNOWLES.
1878
CHAPTER XI.
I HAVE spoken of the amusement the passengers have had in making wooden trinkets
from the wood taken on board at Talcahuana. The captain and first mate have been
made the recipients of many of these toys; but to-day they have issued an order
prohibiting any further manufacture of them. The passengers all remonstrated
against the arbitrary order, but were obliged to submit; for the captain has
control of the wood.
One of the principal sources of amusement during the voyage has been card
playing. It has helped many, who had no other occupation or source of amusement,
to pass their time pleasantly; and to others it has proved an agreeable
relaxation. Much mischief has doubtless been prevented by it, and many a quarrel
avoided. I have not heard of an unpleasant dispute or altercation from card
playing since we set sail, though there are seldom less than six or eight
companies engaged in it during the pleasant weather. Several packs of cards were
included in my outfit, but though I have not, in a single instance, had occasion
to use them myself, they have nevertheless, done good service. Captain J. has
often threatened to break up this wicked amusement, but I think he has not dared
to attempt it. Though very strong in his denunciations of card playing, there
are other games which meet his approbation. He has himself made a checker-board,
and spends many a leisure moment in playing checkers with Mrs. L---t.
Still another source of amusement with many of the passengers is dancing. We
have two fiddlers on board the ship, and are therefore well supplied with the
necessary music. There is a space between the two houses covering a few square
feet, and another space still smaller between the forward house and the
windlass, where a small number of persons can crowd through a figure in a dance,
and these spaces have been sometimes used for that purpose. I have attempted to
take this kind of exercise, but in such a circumscribed space and such a rolling
ballroom, I have found the amusement any thing but amusing.
From what I have already recorded of Mr. Johnson, it will be seen that he has
been guilty of some indiscretions (to call them by no harsher name) that are not
very creditable to him as a man or a Christian. I have now to state a fact,
which proves him to be destitute of common honesty. At his particular request I
had lent him several sheets of my journal, in which were some passages
reflecting on the conduct of Captain J. and the first mate. These passages, he
gave me his word, should not be repeated nor revealed. I heard no more about it
for several days and until last night, when the reverend gentleman came
deliberately to me, and said, that considering all the circumstances of the
case, he felt it his duty, notwithstanding his promise, to repeat those
obnoxious passages to the captain and mate. He asked me if I had any objection.
I replied that it could answer no good purpose; that he very well knew that the
captain had repeatedly threatened me with personal violence, and this would only
serve to increase his rage, and, perhaps, furnish him with a pretext for putting
his threats into execution; and that I would not consent to the disclosure. To
all my remonstances he only replied that his duty impelled him to the course he
was about to pursue, and that his conscience would no longer permit him to
remain silent. So he left me to perform his duty and quiet his conscience by
breaking his word and violating his promise, and making a revelation, which
could answer no other purpose than to make mischief, to increase a personal
animosity, which was already bitter enough, to prolong a quarrel which it should
have been his duty as a Christian minister to allay, and to stir up strife when
be should have endeavored to promote conciliation. "Blessed are the
peace-makers."
It will be thought that we have a jumble of strange characters in our company,
and so indeed we have. Perhaps I have occupied too much space with the bad
portion of them. Perhaps, too, I have attached too much importance to the little
scrapes and wrangles, of which I have given so many accounts. One might suppose
that I had treasured up every quarrel that has occurred during the voyage, and
that I delighted in telling them. But it is not so. I would give a correct
impression of the voyage, its pleasures and pains; and the record of a portion
of our disputes is necessary to this end. But I have omitted more than I have
recorded, and I have related others in the fewest words into which I could
condense them.
In addition to the ladies whose names have appeared in the progress of this
narrative, is Mrs. A. G. B., who is going to join her husband in Stockton. She
is a very quiet, and I believe a religious woman. She passes a great part of her
time in her state-room, and keeps entirely aloof from all the bickerings that
are of such frequent occurrence in the ladies' cabin. She comes on deck after
supper to take the air. I have occasionally passed an hour very agreeably with
her, enjoying a pleasant sunset and twilight, or talking of friends at home. Her
daughter Mary is a pretty girl of seventeen, who reads French, and has a variety
of accomplishments. Mrs. B. has two soils on board, one a boy, and the other, a
married man, whose wife and daughter, a sprightly little girl of three years,
accompany him.
One of the passengers in the main cabin is a deaf-mute, Elisha Osgood, a
cabinet-maker. He gave our chaplain a wild reproof for his belligerent
propensities a few days since. Learning that Mr. J. had a revolver, he proposed
to buy it. Mr. J. refused to sell it; whereupon Osgood wrote upon his slate,
"You had better sell your revolver, and buy a bible."
Mr. Gardner, the second mate, is a clever follow, and is endowed with much more
intelligence than the first mate, and is more popular with the passengers and
crew, though far from being a favorite with the captain.
There is a quiet good-natured fellow among us, by the name of John F. Dolliff,
who loves sport, and is a practical joker. He is possessed of kind, humane
feelings withal, and I am indebted to him for many a glass of lemonade, given me
in the former part of our voyage, at a time when I was suffering the most
tormenting thirst from seasickness. Dolliff's voice bears a great resemblance to
that of Captain J., which has given rise to some sport among us. He sometimes
orders the stewards to trim the lamp in the binnacle, calls out to the man at
the wheel to tell him how the ship heads, and gives a variety of orders, which
are generally obeyed. One dark night, after the captain had turned in, he put on
his--the captain's--coat and hat, and walked out. He called to the mate, asked
several questions about the wind and weather, which were all respectfully
answered, and then directed him to reef the top-sails. This order, absurd enough
under the circumstances, was not given in nautical style, and while the
perplexed mate hesitated, some one who was in the secret laughed, and betrayed
the joke.
T. W. Dolliff, a cousin of the above-named, is, or rather was the most
pugnacious man among us, though he exhibited no indications of his pugnacity on
board the bark. He was said to be pretty well covered with scars, which he had
received in numerous combats. At Talcahuana he fell in with a bully, who was
imbued with a great hatred of Yankees, and who challenged any and all who were
present to fight him. Dolliff had not had a fight for many months, and was
really pining for a little amusement of that sort. This opportunity to indulge
in his favorite recreation was too good to be lost, and he readily accepted the
challenge. A little space in the room was cleared for the combatants. They took
their places, and after a moment's maneuvering, the fellow made a pass at
Dolliff, which he parried, and at the same instant he dealt him a blow that laid
him sprawling on the floor. The bully got up and prepared for a second
encounter, which ended in the same manner. Unwilling to yield, he made a third
attempt, and a third time he measured his length upon the floor, when he wisely
gave up the contest, acknowledged the superiority of the Yankee, and treated the
company.
Within three weeks Dolliff has been attacked with rheumatic pains attended with
fever, which have laid him up. He has been removed from the main cabin, where he
must have died, had he remained there, and a berth has been provided for him in
our room. Every thing that can be, is done to make him comfortable; but our ship
is badly supplied with necessaries for the sick. He will, in all probability,
have a lingering illness, and he must be taken to a hospital in San Francisco,
California, of which he has a great dread.
August 14. One of our passengers, Mr. Gould, has generously treated us to a rich
pound-cake. His wife made it in Bangor. It was put into a tin box and soldered
up, and on being opened, was found as fresh and sweet as when first baked.
August 15. No religious services to-day. There are many conjectures as to the
cause of this omission of his duty by our chaplain, the most plausible of which
is, his consciousness of the strong disgust which his recent treachery,
falsehood, and attempt at mischief-making have excited.
We occasionally see a beautiful bird making its flight high above us, but seldom
coming near the ship. Its plumage as seen at a distance is pure white, its head
resembles that of a dove, its neck slender and delicate, and with a tail
composed of two long, pointed, and flowing white feathers, and wings long and
slender, it floats through the air with a gracefulness peculiar to itself, and
excelling that of any other bird I have seen. This is the Tropic Bird, (Phoeton
phoenicurus.) The long taper tail feathers have given the sailors a hint for a
name, and they call it "The Marlin-spike."
August 17. Crossed the Tropic of Cancer in longitude 127 west. The mate
signalized the day by closing the hatches over the main cabin. The reason
assigned for this act was a quarrel at breakfast between an Irishman and one of
the stewards, which disturbed the mate's repose. Much excitement prevailed in
consequence of this act, and the fifty men shut up in that "black hole"
remonstrated against the injustice of being punished for a little squabble, in
which only two of their number were engaged. Finding their arguments were of no
avail with the mate, they carried their case to the captain. To their
remonstrances he replied that this case was beyond his control; that he
commanded the after-part of the ship, and the mate the forward part; that this
hatchway, being in the mate's room, was under his sole command; and that he, the
captain, had no more authority to order it to be taken off, than the mate had to
command him on the quarter-deck. All this appeared very much like nonsense to
our land lubbers, who doubted if the maritime law recognized a division of
authority, which seemed to them so utterly absurd and ridiculous. At this point
of the discussion, Mr. Tyler, one of the passengers, remarked that he had
hitherto kept aloof from all the wrangles we had had, but that he should not
remain quiet under this arbitrary act. He assured the captain that if the
hatches were not removed, there would be a greater row than we had ever
witnessed on board this bark. But neither the captain nor mate would make any
concession, and it was determined by the passengers that they should have no
sleep as long as the cause of their disquiet remained. There was a prospect of a
stormy night between decks, and extensive preparations were made for a musical
concert, which would not have been very conducive to slumber, when our brave
officers, thinking they would find the contest an unequal one, suddenly and
wisely resolved to remove the hatches, the consequence of which was an immediate
restoration of peace.
August 22. A sudden and wonderful transformation has been wrought in our
chaplain. From being very reserved in his intercourse with the passengers, he
has all at once become exceedingly familiar. I have been surprised within two or
three days past to see him engaged in high frolics with the men, scuffling,
knocking off hats, throwing ropes over the men's heads, running and jumping like
a boy over the houses and decks, and playing a hundred capers, and pranks, which
have attracted much attention, and excited not a little ridicule throughout the
ship. The cause of this sudden change in the good parson is so palpable, that
very few do not understand it; and the lost popularity he is so desirous to win
back will scarcely be recovered by this means. His duties as our chaplain, which
have never been arduous, are now wholly neglected; and well they may be, for
very few will listen to him. He began his labors with us after the first two or
three stormy weeks, with a prayer once a week, besides a sermon on Sundays.
These were well attended, a large majority of our company being present. After a
lapse of several weeks, the week-day prayer was omitted. Then the Sunday service
was suspended for a time in consequence of his fight with Julia S. He attempted
to renew his meetings in the main cabin, but received a hint that his services
would not be acceptable to the occupants of that part of the ship. However, when
warm weather returned he preached on the house-top, though to very small
audiences, until the perpetration of his treachery with me, which has brought
such a load of odium upon him, that he has not dared to attempt to preach since.
He has proved an artful and dishonest man, and has exercised a pernicious
influence over our weak-minded and ignorant captain, and has been his counsellor,
adviser and supporter in nearly all the quarrels in which he has been engaged
with his passengers. That his influence in this bark is confined to the captain,
a single fact will prove. He some time since got up a certificate for
signatures, the purport of which was to plaster over Mrs. L---t's conduct. Not a
passenger would sign it.