CHAPTER I

DEPARTURE

The fourteenth of August was the day fixed upon for the sailing of the
brig Pilgrim on her voyage from Boston round Cape Horn to the western
coast of North America. As she was to get under weigh early in the
afternoon, I made my appearance on board at twelve o'clock, in full
sea-rig, and with my chest, containing an outfit for a two or three
year voyage, which I had undertaken from a determination to cure, if
possible, by an entire change of life, and by a long absence from books
and study, a weakness of the eyes, which had obliged me to give up my
pursuits, and which no medical aid seemed likely to cure.

The change from the tight dress coat, silk cap, and kid gloves of an
undergraduate at Cambridge, to the loose duck trowsers, checked shirt
and tarpaulin hat of a sailor, though somewhat of a transformation, was
soon made, and I supposed that I should pass very well for a jack tar.
But it is impossible to deceive the practised eye in these matters; and
while I supposed myself to be looking as salt as Neptune himself, I
was, no doubt, known for a landsman by every one on board as soon as I
hove in sight. A sailor has a peculiar cut to his clothes, and a way
of wearing them which a green hand can never get. The trowsers, tight
round the hips, and thence hanging long and loose round the feet, a
superabundance of checked shirt, a low-crowned, well varnished black
hat, worn on the back of the head, with half a fathom of black ribbon
hanging over the left eye, and a peculiar tie to the black silk
neckerchief, with sundry other minutiae, are signs, the want of which
betray the beginner at once. Beside the points in my dress which were
out of the way, doubtless my complexion and hands were enough to
distinguish me from the regular salt, who, with a sun-burnt cheek, wide
step, and rolling gait, swings his bronzed and toughened hands
athwart-ships, half open, as though just ready to grasp a rope.

"With all my imperfections on my head," I joined the crew, and we
hauled out into the stream, and came to anchor for the night. The next
day we were employed in preparations for sea, reeving studding-sail
gear, crossing royal yards, putting on chafing gear, and taking on
board our powder. On the following night, I stood my first watch. I
remained awake nearly all the first part of the night from fear that I
might not hear when I was called; and when I went on deck, so great
were my ideas of the impor