face, he divided the men into two gangs; one,
under the boatswain, to attend to the rigging, clear the canvas of the
ice, get the pumps and the capstans to work, and see all ready for
getting sail on the schooner; the other, under the second mate, to get
tackles aloft and break out the cargo, taking care to trim ship whilst
so doing.

They fell to their several jobs with a will. 'Tis the habit of our
countrymen to sneer at the Americans as sailors, affirming that if ever
they win a battle at sea it is by the help of British renegades. But
this I protest; after witnessing the smartness of those Yankee whalemen,
I would sooner charge the English than the Americans with lubberliness
came the nautical merits of the two nations ever before me to decide
upon. They had the hatches open, tackles aloft, and men at work below
whilst the mariners of other countries would have been standing looking
on and "jawing" upon the course to be taken. Some overran the fabric
aloft, clearing, cutting away, pounding, making the ice fly in storms;
others sweated the capstans till they clanked; others fell to the pumps,
working with hammers and kettles of boiling water. The wondrous old
schooner was never busier, no, not in the heyday of her flag, when her
guns were blazing and her people yelling.

I doubt whether even a man-of-war could have given this work the
despatch the whaler furnished. She had eight boats and sixty men, and
every boat was afloat and alongside us ready to carry what she could to
the ship. I wished to help, but the captain would not let me do so; he
kept me walking and talking, asking me scores of questions about the
schooner, and all so shrewd that, without appearing reserved, I
professed to know little. The great show of clothes puzzled him. He also
asked if the crucifix in the cabin was silver. I said I believed it was,
fetched it, and asked him to accept it, saying if he would give me the
smallest of his boats for it I should be very much obliged.

"Oh, yes," says he, "you can have a boat. The men would not sail with
you without a boat;" and after weighing the crucifix without the least
exhibition of veneration in his manner, he put it in his pocket, saying
he knew a man who would give him a couple of hundred dollars for the
thing on his telling him that the Pope had blessed it.

"Ay, but," says I, "how do you know the Pope has blessed it?"

"Then _I_'ll bless it," cried he; "why, am I a cold Johnny-cake that my
b