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Sea Tales - Caution Approaching Land
At length we began to heave-to after dark, for fear of making the land at night, on a coast where there are no lighthouses and but indifferent charts, and at daybreak on the morning of —
Tuesday, January 13th, 1835, we made the land at Point Conception, lat. 34°32'N., lon. 120° 06' W. The port of Santa Barbara, to which we were bound, lying about fifty miles to the southward of this point, we continued sailing down the coast during the day and following night, and on the next morning, January 14-th, we came to anchor in the spacious bay of Santa Barbara, after a voyage of one hundred and fifty days from Boston.
. . . . This wind (the southeaster) is the bane of the coast of California. Between the months of November and April (including a part of each), which is the rainy season in this latitude, you are never safe from it ; and accordingly, in the ports 'which are open to it, vessels are obliged, during these months, to lie at anchor at a distance of three miles from the shore, with slip-ropes on their cables, ready to slip and go to sea at a moment's warning. The only ports which are safe from this wind are San Francisco and Monterey in the north, and San Diego in the south.
As it was January when we arrived, and the middle of the southeaster season, we came to anchor at the distance of three miles from the shore, in eleven fathoms water, and bent a slip-rope and buoys to our cables, cast off the yard-arm gaskets from the sails, and stopped them all with rope-yarns. After we had done this, the boat went ashore with the captain, and returned with orders to the mate to send a boat ashore for him at sun down. . . .
Sea Tales - Running Out to Sea Ahead of A Storm
Sea Tales - Heaving To
Sea Tales - Slipping Anchor
This night, after sundown, it looked black at the southward and eastward, and we were told to keep a bright lookout. Expecting to be called, we turned in early. Waking up about midnight, I found a man who had just come down from his watch striking a light. He said that it was beginning to puff from the southeast, that the sea was rolling in, and he had called the captain ; and as he threw himself down on his chest with all his clothes on, I knew that he expected to be called, I felt the vessel pitching at her anchor, and the chain surging and snapping, and lay awake, prepared for an instant summons. In a few minutes it came, — three knocks on the scuttle, and " All hands ahoy ! bear-a-hand up and make sail.'
We sprang for our clothes, and were about half dressed, when the mate called out, down the scuttle, " Tumble up here, men ! tumble up ! before she drags her anchor." We were on deck in an instant. " Lay aloft and loose the topsails ! " shouted the captain, as soon as the first man showed himself. Springing into the rigging, I saw that the Ayacucho's topsails were loosed, and heard her crew singing out at the sheets [A rope, attached to the clew [The lower corners of square sails or the corner of a triangular sail at the end of the boom], used to control the setting of a sail in relation to the direction of the wind. The sheet is often passed through a tackle before being attach to fixed points on the deck] as they were hauling them home. This had probably started our captain ; as " Old Wilson " (the captain of the Ayacucho) had been many years on the coast, and knew the signs of the weather.
We soon had the topsails loosed ; and one hand remaining, as usual, in each top, to overhaul the rigging and light the sail out, the rest of us came down to man the sheets.
While sheeting home, we saw the Ayacucho standing athwart our hawse, sharp upon the wind, cut ting through the head seas like a knife, with her raking masts, and her sharp bows running up like the head of a greyhound. It was a beautiful sight. She was like a bird which had been frightened and had spread her wings in flight.
After our topsails had been sheeted home, the head yards braced aback, the fore-topmast staysail hoisted, and the buoys streamed, and all ready forward for slipping, we went aft and manned the slip-rope which came through the stern port with a turn round the timber-heads.
"All ready forward?" asked the captain.
"Aye, aye, sir; all ready," answered the mate.
"Let go !"
" All gone, sir " ; and the chain cable grated over the windlass and through the hawse-hole, and the little vessel's head swinging off from the wind under the force of her backed head sails brought the strain upon the slip-rope.
" Let go aft ! "
Instantly all was gone, and we were under way. As soon as she was well off from the wind, we filled away the head yards, braced all up sharp, set the foresail and trysail, and left our anchorage well astern [behind the rear of the ship], giving the point a good berth.
"Nye 's off too," said the captain to the mate ; and, looking astern, we could just see the little hermaphrodite brig under sail, standing after us. It now began to blow fresh ; the rain fell fast, and it grew black ; but the captain would not take in sail until we were well clear of the point.
As soon as we left this on our quarter, and were standing out to sea, the order was given, and we went aloft, double-reefed each top sail, furled the foresail, and double-reefed the trysail, and were soon under easy sail. In these cases of slipping for southeaster there is nothing to be done, after you have got clear of the coast, but to lie-to under easy sail, and wait for the gale to be over, which seldom lasts more than two days, and is sometimes over in twelve hours ; but the wind never comes back to the southward until there has a good deal of rain fallen.
" Go below the watch," said the mate ; but here was a dispute which watch it should be. The mate soon settled it by sending his watch below, saying that we should have our turn the next time we got under way. We remained on deck till the expiration of the watch, the wind blowing very fresh and the rain coming down in torrents.
When the watch came up, we wore ship, and stood on the other tack, in towards land. When we came up again, which was at four in the morning, it was very dark, and there was not much wind, but it was raining as I thought I had never seen it rain before.
We had on oil-cloth suits and southwester caps, and had nothing to do but to stand bolt upright and let it pour down upon us. There are no umbrellas, and no sheds to go under, at sea. While we were standing about on deck, we saw the little brig drifting by us, hove to under her fore topsail double reefed ; and she glided by like a phantom. Not a word was spoken, and we saw no one on deck but the man at the wheel.
Toward morning the captain put his head out of the companion-way and told the second mate, who commanded our watch, to look out for a change of wind, which usually followed a calm, with heavy rain. It was well that he did ; for in a few minutes it fell dead calm, the vessel lost her steerage- way, the rain ceased, we hauled up the trysail and courses, squared the after-yards, and waited for the change, which came in a few minutes, with a vengeance, from the northwest, the opposite point of the compass.
Owing to our precautions, we were not taken aback, but ran before the wind with square yards. The captain coming on deck, we braced up a little and stood back for our anchorage. With the change of wind came a change of weather, and in two hours the wind moderated into the light steady breeze, which blows down the coast the greater part of the year, and, from its regularity, might be called a trade-wind.
The sun came up bright, and we set royals, skysails and studding-sails, and were un der fair way for Santa Barbara. The little Loriotte was astern of us, nearly out of sight ; but we saw nothing of the Ayacucho. In a short time she appeared, standing out from Santa Rosa Island, under the lee of which she had been hove to all night. Our captain was eager to get in before her, for it would be a great credit to us, on the coast, to beat the Ayacucho, which had been called the best sailer in the North Pacific, in which she had been known as a trader for six years or more. We had an advantage over her in light winds, from our royals and skysails which we carried both at the fore and main, and also from our studding-sails ; for Captain Wilson carried nothing above top-gallant-sails, and always unbent his studding-sails when on the coast. As the wind was light and fair, we held our own, for some time, when we were both obliged to brace up and come upon a taut bowline, after rounding the point ; and here he had us on his own ground, and walked away from us, as you would haul in a line. He afterwards said that we sailed well enough with the wind free, but that give him a taut bowline, and he would beat us, if we had all the canvas of the Royal George.
The Ayacucho got to the anchoring ground about half an hour before us, and was furling her sails when we came to it. This picking up your cables is a nice piece of work. It requires some seamanship to do it, and to come-to at your former moorings, without letting go another anchor. Captain Wilson was remarkable, among the sailors on the coast, for his skill in doing this ; and our captain never let go a second anchor during all the time that I was with him.
Coming a little to windward of our buoy, we clewed up the light sails, backed our main topsail, and lowered a boat, which pulled off, and made fast a spare hawser to the buoy on the end of the slip-rope. We brought the other end to the capstan, and hove in upon it until we came to the slip-rope, which we took to the windlass, and walked her up to her chain, occasionally helping her by backing and filling the sails. The chain is then passed through the hawse-hole and round the windlass, and bitted, the slip-rope taken round outside and brought into the stern port, and she is safe in her old berth.
At length we began to heave-to after dark, for fear of making the land at night, on a coast where there are no lighthouses and but indifferent charts, and at daybreak on the morning of —
Tuesday, January 13th, 1835, we made the land at Point Conception, lat. 34°32'N., lon. 120° 06' W. The port of Santa Barbara, to which we were bound, lying about fifty miles to the southward of this point, we continued sailing down the coast during the day and following night, and on the next morning, January 14-th, we came to anchor in the spacious bay of Santa Barbara, after a voyage of one hundred and fifty days from Boston.
. . . . This wind (the southeaster) is the bane of the coast of California. Between the months of November and April (including a part of each), which is the rainy season in this latitude, you are never safe from it ; and accordingly, in the ports 'which are open to it, vessels are obliged, during these months, to lie at anchor at a distance of three miles from the shore, with slip-ropes on their cables, ready to slip and go to sea at a moment's warning. The only ports which are safe from this wind are San Francisco and Monterey in the north, and San Diego in the south.
As it was January when we arrived, and the middle of the southeaster season, we came to anchor at the distance of three miles from the shore, in eleven fathoms water, and bent a slip-rope and buoys to our cables, cast off the yard-arm gaskets from the sails, and stopped them all with rope-yarns. After we had done this, the boat went ashore with the captain, and returned with orders to the mate to send a boat ashore for him at sun down. . . .
Sea Tales - Running Out to Sea Ahead of A Storm
Sea Tales - Heaving To
Sea Tales - Slipping Anchor
This night, after sundown, it looked black at the southward and eastward, and we were told to keep a bright lookout. Expecting to be called, we turned in early. Waking up about midnight, I found a man who had just come down from his watch striking a light. He said that it was beginning to puff from the southeast, that the sea was rolling in, and he had called the captain ; and as he threw himself down on his chest with all his clothes on, I knew that he expected to be called, I felt the vessel pitching at her anchor, and the chain surging and snapping, and lay awake, prepared for an instant summons. In a few minutes it came, — three knocks on the scuttle, and " All hands ahoy ! bear-a-hand up and make sail.'
We sprang for our clothes, and were about half dressed, when the mate called out, down the scuttle, " Tumble up here, men ! tumble up ! before she drags her anchor." We were on deck in an instant. " Lay aloft and loose the topsails ! " shouted the captain, as soon as the first man showed himself. Springing into the rigging, I saw that the Ayacucho's topsails were loosed, and heard her crew singing out at the sheets [A rope, attached to the clew [The lower corners of square sails or the corner of a triangular sail at the end of the boom], used to control the setting of a sail in relation to the direction of the wind. The sheet is often passed through a tackle before being attach to fixed points on the deck] as they were hauling them home. This had probably started our captain ; as " Old Wilson " (the captain of the Ayacucho) had been many years on the coast, and knew the signs of the weather.
We soon had the topsails loosed ; and one hand remaining, as usual, in each top, to overhaul the rigging and light the sail out, the rest of us came down to man the sheets.
While sheeting home, we saw the Ayacucho standing athwart our hawse, sharp upon the wind, cut ting through the head seas like a knife, with her raking masts, and her sharp bows running up like the head of a greyhound. It was a beautiful sight. She was like a bird which had been frightened and had spread her wings in flight.
After our topsails had been sheeted home, the head yards braced aback, the fore-topmast staysail hoisted, and the buoys streamed, and all ready forward for slipping, we went aft and manned the slip-rope which came through the stern port with a turn round the timber-heads.
"All ready forward?" asked the captain.
"Aye, aye, sir; all ready," answered the mate.
"Let go !"
" All gone, sir " ; and the chain cable grated over the windlass and through the hawse-hole, and the little vessel's head swinging off from the wind under the force of her backed head sails brought the strain upon the slip-rope.
" Let go aft ! "
Instantly all was gone, and we were under way. As soon as she was well off from the wind, we filled away the head yards, braced all up sharp, set the foresail and trysail, and left our anchorage well astern [behind the rear of the ship], giving the point a good berth.
"Nye 's off too," said the captain to the mate ; and, looking astern, we could just see the little hermaphrodite brig under sail, standing after us. It now began to blow fresh ; the rain fell fast, and it grew black ; but the captain would not take in sail until we were well clear of the point.
As soon as we left this on our quarter, and were standing out to sea, the order was given, and we went aloft, double-reefed each top sail, furled the foresail, and double-reefed the trysail, and were soon under easy sail. In these cases of slipping for southeaster there is nothing to be done, after you have got clear of the coast, but to lie-to under easy sail, and wait for the gale to be over, which seldom lasts more than two days, and is sometimes over in twelve hours ; but the wind never comes back to the southward until there has a good deal of rain fallen.
" Go below the watch," said the mate ; but here was a dispute which watch it should be. The mate soon settled it by sending his watch below, saying that we should have our turn the next time we got under way. We remained on deck till the expiration of the watch, the wind blowing very fresh and the rain coming down in torrents.
When the watch came up, we wore ship, and stood on the other tack, in towards land. When we came up again, which was at four in the morning, it was very dark, and there was not much wind, but it was raining as I thought I had never seen it rain before.
We had on oil-cloth suits and southwester caps, and had nothing to do but to stand bolt upright and let it pour down upon us. There are no umbrellas, and no sheds to go under, at sea. While we were standing about on deck, we saw the little brig drifting by us, hove to under her fore topsail double reefed ; and she glided by like a phantom. Not a word was spoken, and we saw no one on deck but the man at the wheel.
Toward morning the captain put his head out of the companion-way and told the second mate, who commanded our watch, to look out for a change of wind, which usually followed a calm, with heavy rain. It was well that he did ; for in a few minutes it fell dead calm, the vessel lost her steerage- way, the rain ceased, we hauled up the trysail and courses, squared the after-yards, and waited for the change, which came in a few minutes, with a vengeance, from the northwest, the opposite point of the compass.
Owing to our precautions, we were not taken aback, but ran before the wind with square yards. The captain coming on deck, we braced up a little and stood back for our anchorage. With the change of wind came a change of weather, and in two hours the wind moderated into the light steady breeze, which blows down the coast the greater part of the year, and, from its regularity, might be called a trade-wind.
The sun came up bright, and we set royals, skysails and studding-sails, and were un der fair way for Santa Barbara. The little Loriotte was astern of us, nearly out of sight ; but we saw nothing of the Ayacucho. In a short time she appeared, standing out from Santa Rosa Island, under the lee of which she had been hove to all night. Our captain was eager to get in before her, for it would be a great credit to us, on the coast, to beat the Ayacucho, which had been called the best sailer in the North Pacific, in which she had been known as a trader for six years or more. We had an advantage over her in light winds, from our royals and skysails which we carried both at the fore and main, and also from our studding-sails ; for Captain Wilson carried nothing above top-gallant-sails, and always unbent his studding-sails when on the coast. As the wind was light and fair, we held our own, for some time, when we were both obliged to brace up and come upon a taut bowline, after rounding the point ; and here he had us on his own ground, and walked away from us, as you would haul in a line. He afterwards said that we sailed well enough with the wind free, but that give him a taut bowline, and he would beat us, if we had all the canvas of the Royal George.
The Ayacucho got to the anchoring ground about half an hour before us, and was furling her sails when we came to it. This picking up your cables is a nice piece of work. It requires some seamanship to do it, and to come-to at your former moorings, without letting go another anchor. Captain Wilson was remarkable, among the sailors on the coast, for his skill in doing this ; and our captain never let go a second anchor during all the time that I was with him.
Coming a little to windward of our buoy, we clewed up the light sails, backed our main topsail, and lowered a boat, which pulled off, and made fast a spare hawser to the buoy on the end of the slip-rope. We brought the other end to the capstan, and hove in upon it until we came to the slip-rope, which we took to the windlass, and walked her up to her chain, occasionally helping her by backing and filling the sails. The chain is then passed through the hawse-hole and round the windlass, and bitted, the slip-rope taken round outside and brought into the stern port, and she is safe in her old berth.
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