Rollo on the Atlantic Part 8

"Yes," said Rollo, "I saw them."

"Then, besides," continued the surgeon, "if the men strike the bells themselves, the sound, coming regularly every half hour, proves that they are at their posts and attending to their duties. So that, even if a machine could be invented to strike the time on board ship ever so truly, I do not think they would like to adopt it.

"Another difference in striking the time on board ship," continued the surgeon, "is, that they strike it by half hours instead of by hours.

Scarcely any of the ship's company have watches. In fact, watches are of very little use at sea, the time is so continually changing from day to day. The sailors, therefore, and nearly all on board, depend wholly on the bells; and it is necessary, accordingly, that they should be struck often. Every two bells, therefore, means an hour; and a single bell at the end means half an hour. Now, I will strike the bells for you, and you may tell me what o'clock it is. We begin after twelve o'clock.

"Ding!"

"Half past twelve," said Rollo.

"Ding--ding!" said the surgeon again, imitating the sound of the bell with his voice.

"One o'clock," said Rollo.

"Ding--ding! Ding!" said the surgeon.

"Half past one o'clock."

"Ding--ding! Ding--ding!"

"Two o'clock!"

"Ding--ding! Ding--ding! Ding!"

"Half past two."

"Ding--ding! Ding--ding! Ding--ding!"

"Three!"

"Ding--ding! Ding--ding! Ding-ding! Ding!"

"Half past three."

"Ding--ding! Ding--ding! Ding--ding! Ding--ding!"

"Four o'clock."

"Yes," said the surgeon, "that is eight bells, and that is the end. Now they stop and begin again with one bell, which means half past four; and so they go on to eight bells again, which makes it eight o'clock. The next eight bells is twelve o'clock at night, and the next is at four o'clock in the morning, and the next at eight o'clock. So that eight bells means four o'clock, and eight o'clock, and twelve o'clock, by day; and four o'clock, and eight o'clock, and twelve o'clock, by night."

"Yes," said Rollo, "now I understand it."

"Eight bells is a very important striking," continued the surgeon. "It is a curious fact, that almost every thing important that is done at sea is done at some eight bells or other."

"How is that?" asked Rollo.

"Why, in the first place," replied the surgeon, "at eight bells in the morning, the gong sounds to wake the pa.s.sengers up. Then the watch changes, too; that is, the set of men that have been on deck and had care of the ship and the sails since midnight go below, and a new watch, that is, a new set of men that have been asleep since midnight, take their places. Then the next eight bells, which is twelve, is luncheon time. At this time, too, the captain finds out from the sun whereabouts we are on the ocean, and also determines the ship's _time_ for the next twenty-four hours. The next eight bells is at four o'clock, and that is dinner time. The next eight bells is at eight o'clock, and that is tea time. At all these times the watches change too; and so they do at the eight bells, which sound at midnight."

"Yes," said Rollo, "now I understand it. I wished to know very much what it meant, and I had a great mind to go and ask the helmsman."

"It was well that you did not go and ask him," said the surgeon.

"Why?" asked Rollo.

"Because the officers and seamen on board ships," replied the surgeon, "don't like to be troubled with questions from landsmen while they are engaged in their duties. Even the sensible questions of landsmen appear very foolish to seamen; and then, besides, they commonly ask a great many that are absolutely very foolish. They ask the captain when he thinks they will get to the end of the voyage; or, if the wind is ahead, they ask him when he thinks it will change, and all such foolish questions; as if the captain or any body else could tell when the wind would change. Sailors have all sorts of queer answers to give to these questions, to quiz the pa.s.sengers who ask them, and amuse themselves.

For instance, if the pa.s.sengers ask when any thing is going to happen, the sailors say, 'The first of the month.' That is a sort of proverb among them, and is meant only in fun. But if it happens to be near the end of the month, the pa.s.senger, supposing the answer is in earnest, goes away quite satisfied, while the sailors wink at each other and laugh."

"Yes," said Rollo. "I heard a lady ask the captain, a short time since, when he thought we should get to Liverpool."

"And what did the captain say?" asked the surgeon.

"He said," replied Rollo, "that she must go and ask Boreas and Neptune, and some of those fellows, for they could tell a great deal better than he could."

"The captain does not like to be asked any such questions," continued the surgeon. "He cannot possibly know how the wind and sea are going to be during the voyage, and he does not like to be teased with foolish inquiries on the subject. There is no end to the foolishness of the questions which landsmen ask when they are at sea. Once I heard a man stop a sailor, as he was going up the shrouds, to inquire of him whether he thought they would see any whales on that voyage."

"And what did the sailor tell him?" asked Rollo.

"He told him," replied the surgeon, "that he thought there would be some in sight the next morning about sunrise. So the pa.s.senger got up early the next morning and took his seat on the deck, watching every where for whales, while the sailors on the forecastle, who had told the story to one another, were all laughing at him."

Rollo himself laughed at this story.

"These questions, after all, are not really so foolish as they seem,"

said the surgeon. "For instance, if a pa.s.senger asks about seeing whales, he means merely to inquire whether there are whales in that part of the ocean, and whether they are usually seen from the ships that pa.s.s along; and if so, how frequently, in ordinary cases, the sight of them may be expected. All this, rightly understood, is sensible and proper enough; but sailors are not great philosophers, and they generally see nothing in such inquiries but proofs of ridiculous simplicity and chances for them to make fun.

"You can tell just how it seems to them yourself, Rollo," continued the surgeon, "by imagining that some farmer's boys lived on a farm where sailors, who had never been in the country before, came by every day, and asked an endless series of ridiculous questions. For instance, on seeing a sheep, the sailor would ask what that was. The farmer's boys would tell him it was a sheep. The sailor would ask what it was for.

The boys would say they kept sheep to shear them and get the wool. Then presently the sailor would see a cow, and would ask if that was a kind of sheep. The farmer's boys would say no; it was a cow. Then the sailor would ask if they sheared cows to get the wool. No, the boys would say; we milk cows. Then presently he would see a horse, and he would ask whether that was a cow or a sheep. They would say it was neither; it was a horse. Then the sailor would ask whether they kept horses to milk them or to shear them and so on forever."

Rollo laughed loud and long at these imaginary questionings. At last he said,--

"But I don't think we ask quite such foolish questions as these."

"They do not seem so foolish to you," replied the surgeon, "but they do to the sailors. The sailors, you see, know all the ropes and rigging of the ship, and every thing seen at sea, just as familiarly as boys who live in the country do sheep, and cows, and wagons, and other such objects seen about the farm; and the total ignorance in regard to them which landsmen betray, whenever they begin to ask questions on board, seems to the sailors extremely ridiculous and absurd. So they often make fun of the pa.s.sengers who ask them, and put all sorts of jokes upon them. For instance, a pa.s.senger on board a packet ship once asked a sailor what time they would heave the log. 'The log,' said the sailor, 'they always heave the log at nine bells. When you hear nine bells strike, go aft, and you'll see them.' So the pa.s.senger watched and counted the bells every time they struck, all the morning, in the hopes to hear _nine_ bells; whereas they never strike more than eight bells.

It was as if a man had said, on land, that such or such a thing would happen at thirteen o'clock."

Rollo and Jennie laughed.

"So you must be careful," continued the surgeon, "what questions you ask of the officers and seamen about the ship; and you must be careful, too, what you believe in respect to the things they tell you. Perhaps it will be the truth they will tell you, and perhaps they will be only making fun of you. You may ask _me_, however, any thing you like. I will answer you honestly. I am at leisure, and can tell you as well as not. Besides, I like to talk with young persons like you. I have a boy at home myself of just about your rating."

"Where is your home?" asked Rollo.

"It is up on the North River," said the surgeon, "about one hundred miles from New York. And now I must go away, for it is almost eight bells, and that is dinner time. I shall see you again by and by. There's one thing more, though, that I must tell you before I go; and that is, that you had better not go to any strange places about the ship where you do not see the other pa.s.sengers go. For instance, you must not go up upon the paddle boxes."

"No," said Rollo. "I saw a sign painted, saying that pa.s.sengers were not allowed to go up on the paddle boxes."

"And you must not go forward among the sailors, or climb up upon the rigging," continued the surgeon.

"Why not?" asked Rollo.

"Because those parts of the ship are for the seamen alone, and for others like them, who have duties to perform on shipboard. What should you think," continued the surgeon, "if some one who had come to make a visit at your house were to go up stairs, looking about in all the chambers, or down into the kitchen, examining every thing there to see what he could find?"