lly we agreed to get up the anchor, especially as the captain
threatened to make a signal to the British man-of-war for assistance, so
we had to go anyway. I remember seeing the United States frigate
Merrimac in the harbour and wishing myself aboard her. The next time I
saw that vessel it had been transformed into an ironclad by the rebels,
and had destroyed the Congress and the Cumberland. The first week at sea
we had very pleasant weather. After that it became gradually colder and
stormy. No more sleeping on deck. The forecastle was the only place for
us then.

Two quarts of water a day was our allowance, one pint each for
breakfast, dinner, and supper; the remaining pint was for drinking
during the following hours of the twenty-four. The hardtack that we had
to eat was covered with green mould and full of large white meal worms.
The salt pork was red with rust and filled with white spots. Probably
the hogs were killed on account of measles and pickled for sailors' use
at sea. The salt beef, or horse-meat, as it was called, was rather tough
eating; besides, everything we ate or drank was highly flavoured with
guano.

Off the coast of Patagonia we encountered a heavy northwest gale of
wind; then our misery began in earnest. In harbour the deck was only
sixteen inches above water; in rough weather the seas were continually
washing over the decks. It was necessary to make gill guys by fastening
ropes diagonally across the deck from forward to aft. In going from one
place to another we could take hold of the guy nearest to us, then get
over and reach for the next before letting go of the first one. That was
the only way to keep from being washed overboard or thrown against the
ship's rail.

One night we heard water swashing under the forecastle deck. We told the
mate about it. There was a bulkhead dividing the forecastle from the
main hold; on the other side was a short half-deck. We cut a hole in it
and lowered a lantern. A lot of water could be plainly seen. The vessel
rolling would mix the guano with it. By working all of the men we got it
out. All the crew supposed it to be the same water that we used in
cleaning out our quarters, but we said nothing about it to the mate. We
used plenty of it and let it run into the hold. The next night we heard
the same swashing again; then we knew there was a leak somewhere. From
that time the muddy water had to be taken out in buckets and thrown on
the deck twice a day. The seas