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Untitled Article
there : change of place was to me the most desirable thing . Conjecture Was roaming from stem to stern of the ship , as to her destiny , when orders were given to clear her of the superfluous live lumber , with which , indeed , she was most plenteously utowed , and to unmoor / then bring to the messenger ; ship and man the capstern bars . ' The process of getting under weign in a man of war is worth a page of talk ; but as I shall have to go through it
often enough in my tale ' s journey , I will take a future opportunity ( U for that talk . In this case there was no mystery in our move-(ments ; Spithead w as the goal of our travel . Up and down' was ( sung out from the forecastle : then stopper the cable , ' and pall the capstern / from the quarter-deck ; and unship the bars / all hands make sail , ' followed , and instantly the shrouds , on either side , were filled with men like swarming bees : no voice was
heard but his who gave command , and a noble voice it was ; but his words were repeated in the out-poured shrillness of the silver calls of the boatswain and his mates : and when every man had set his foot in the rigging , with hands grasping the ratlines , * Away aloft !'—away the swarm rushed with an upward rapidity , as if the life of each depended on his being first . There was another pause : then c trice up , lay ( lie ) out / and the
long-outstretched naked limbs of the ship were everywhere , upmingling in the blue of the sky , and down and out over the sea , alive with creepingthings , hurrying out to their extremities , between them and certain destruction , was a curved , swinging , loose rope , on which they struck their feet : this was all that held them from plunging into the sea , or crashing to mummy on the deck . Strange as it is , reader , there is not an atom of danger in this . I never saw an
accidental fall from a ship ' s yards in my life . I had seen sails set on board the Tender and other ships , but on a small scale ; here and there a man dotted the shrouds and the yards ; but , on this occasion , hundreds were rushing against each other , each only anxious to be first and to do his own work , at any expense of danger or life to the others . All seemed riot , confusion , desperation ; but all was silent ; for all was in obedience to a sure design ; it was order , precision , exactness , and familiarity with the action . ' Let fall , sheet home , haul onboard , hoist away ! ' were the next orders , delivered in one breath , and in an instant . Reader , this is one of the spectacles that throws such a charm over the trade of war . that hearts which would
shudder while the mind adverted to its horrors , and sicken with contempt at the paltry yet infamous sophistries , which have been too , too often employed in fashioning and encouraging it , throb with delight on beholding such spectacles , and pant for this and a thousand others , which throw around war an attractive splendour . If the blade were permitted to corrode with the blood in which it had been bathed , its owner would hate it and scorn himself : it is the sword ' s polish and the hilt ' s gilt which recommend
Untitled Article
48 Autobiography of Pel . Verfldce .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1834, page 22, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2629/page/22/
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