Cecil Northrop "Two Months Before the Mast"
This work (Two Months Before the Mast), by Cecil Northrop, identified by SUNY Maritime Archives, is free of known copyright restrictions in the United States (life of the author + 70 years).
TWO MONTHS BEFORE THE MAST
(with apologies to Dana)
by
Cecil P. Northrop
(Seaman S/S Santa Paula)
From: Cecil P. Northrop
525 Tribune Bldg.,
New York City
Telephone: Beekman 504)
BEFORE THE MAST TO THE WEST COAST
by Cecil P. Northrop
Well, here I am at sea at last, days out from New York and bound for the West Coast of South America through the Panama Canal. The mate says it will take about seventy five days to go to Talcahuano and back. That is three hundred miles farther south than Valpariso, and we might even go through the Straits of Magellan and return by Buenos Aires and the East Coast. The other boat belonging to this company went that way.
Every boy wants to go to sea sometime, especially after reading sea tales like Dana's Two Years Before the Mast. I thought I would go on a sailing ship at first, but a seagoing friend told me there was an awful lot of work, poor grub, and bad conditions on these ships. Sailing ships are fast going out of business and if not for the war having destroyed so much shipping, I don't think there would be any sailing ships left. They look wonderful and make you feel like you would want to sail in one.
I suppose you would like to hear just how I managed to get started on my first voyage. Well, here goes:
A friend of mine helped me in getting a letter from a shipping company, as some sort of letter is necessary in making the first voyage in- order to obtain a seaman's passport. Besides, I could not get my passport without a letter saying what ship I was going on. With this letter, New York applied to the Barge Office and after being kept waiting several hours and answering a lot of questions about being a citizen, besides being made to bring three small photographs of myself, I got the passport. As the ship was to sail the next day, I went to the dock and went up the gang plank just as the Shipping Commissioner was "signing on" the crew. This signing on is quite a grand affair. The Captain of the ship and all the officers are lined up in the cabin and two or three United States Commissioners sit at a table with big sheets of printed matter spread out in front of them. These sheets are the "Articles" or agreement between the shipping company and the men. I sign it in three places and was "on" from that time. They seem to want to scare the life out of you before they get you.
The week before I decided to go to sea, I was shopping around the water front looking over all sorts of sailor clothes, and bought the following "gear".
I did not know that I could buy nearly all this stuff on board the ship at very reasonable prices. The ship will let you have these clothes out of what is called the "slop chest". They advance it out of your wages. Lots of boys go to sea without any clothing suitable for sea life and as they don't always have the money, this ship store is a life saver.Sea Boots, rubber $6.75
Oil Skins 5.00
Heavy working shoes 6.00
Sheepskin Coat 10.00
Dungarees two pair 8.00
Sweater 4.00
Cap 1.00
Two Shirts 3.00
Socks, heavy 1.00
$44.75
The ship at first looked in terrible confusion, which I thought would take days to straighten out. There were great piles of rope in tangles, hatches with the covers in the middle, all the chain rails sagging, rope ends all over the deck, loose blocks swinging, papers and all kinds of dirt, empty barrels, cargo runners and hooks, broken slings, all the booms up with the many wires which hoist the cargo hanging from them, making the place look like a wreck. Being unused to any of this, I could not make head or tail out of it. I just took ahold where I saw the men pulling; being very little help I suppose, not understanding any of the orders given by the Bos'n, when he would say "unshackle that off guy", or "unreave that runner", or "hand me the end of that inch and a half rope". Not knowing what any of this meant, I at first looked around for some man, thinking he was referring to some "guy" who had to be unshackled. I did not know the sizes of the ropes, or what a "runner" was. When told to get anything I would run aft and repeat the message in a parrot like manner not having the least idea what it was. The store keeper would sometimes ask what part it was for, or for which side, "starboard or port"? and I would have to say right or left, which would always cause a laugh. It is surprising how quickly everything was in its place. We first lowered all the booms into the chocks and lashed them down, we then battened down the hatches and put the lock bars on. Then we unrove the runners. They are the wires by which the cargo is taken out. We took all the "guys" and strung them up. This is done by passing the bight over the guy itself when pulled taught and made fast with some yarns. The guys, by-the-way, are the ropes which hold the booms in place when taking out the cargo. The chain rail was then tightened, and in about two hours work everything was beginning to look shipshape and we were ready for sea. After a quick wash down, you would not have recognized the ship; there was such a change.
As soon as we cleared the dock, the tow lines on the tug were cast off, and we continued under our own power down the bay. When we had passed the Narrows and were well outside, we stopped and nearly turned a complete circle . A tug had followed us down and they pushed our bow around so that we could correct our compass if there were any error. This is called "swinging the ship" and is done to compare the ship's compass with some known point on shore, or compass brought from shore,
All this time I had been working so hard that I did not get a chance to give New York a farewell look. When under way again, we had
to send down the bow lines of which there are about four hundred feet and, being wet, they weighed like lead. I thought my back would break before we got to the end.
By this 'time it was dark and we went to supper. It was much better than I had expected! Roast pork, potatoes, carrots, spinach, tea, bread and jam. I thought it would be the story book "salt horse" that I would have to go to 'the galley for, and bring it myself in a small tub. But we had a mess boy to wait on us, the meal was brought in pails with divisions ("chow cane") so it was not so bad.
That night I did not sleep very well, as the beds are hard and filled with a sort of straw and so are the pillows. The lights are kept burning all night and of course the screw makes a noise like thunder. It took some time to get used to the single pieces o:r straw coming through the pillow or mattress and feeling like a needle going through you. But in a week or so I did not notice it.
The next day being Saturday, instead of being given a "royal" all to myself, they gave me a pail of "sugee" (soap and soda) and LET me scrub up the forecastle. I tried to keep a stiff upper lip, and make out that I did not care, and enjoyed it. To help this along I whistled a little but felt far from cheerful, feeling that it was not real sailor's work; which it is not, this usually being done by the mess boy. The floor was very dirty and as the water was slimy from the soap, I hated to put my hands in it. I did not know that I was noticed, but one one of the sailors said "I can see by your face that you hate to do that" which of course I denied . When I had finished this, I thought I was through with this kind of work for the day, and was just recovering my lost dignity, when I was given a pail or coal oil, and told to wash up the alley-ways amidships. This was worse than the forecastle, as it required my getting down on my knees with a wad of waste soaked in oil, where before I was able to use a mop. This seemed to be the last straw and it made me fighting mad, and I got rough and slopped it all over the place. Then the first Mate came along and when he saw how I was doing it he laughed, and got down on his knees and showed me the way he wanted it done. This made me feel a little better and I finished·work in good shape within an hour.
lt was then about dinner time as I had "stalled" all morning. For dinner we had a meal that was first rate, two kinds of meat, green stuff, coffee and pie for des[s]ert. I then began to notice the men around me: they were nearly all Danes, all big men, their language as rough as it comes, but they all had nice table manners, every one washed before coming to the table which, for men of their type, was unusual.
We then started to paint the deck of the wheel house aft. It i s one of the hottest places in the ship, completely [e]nclosed and contains a good size steam engine, which turns the rudder. This engine is always leaking steam, so of course the heat is terrible and the air breathless.
It being cold on deck and the sea running pretty high I was dressed in everything I had, to keep warm. Well, I began to paint first half hour was alright. Then I began to feel a little sick, which I thought was due to the sea, but it was the heat and the smell of the paint. It got so bad that the room was swimming 'round and 'round. I was painting the engine, and every time it passed me I would try to give it a brush of paint, but my aim got so bad that I would miss it altogether, so I gave it up and started to paint the floor because it seemed more of a fixture than the engine. I knew where it was at least, and so finally got it finished and crawled out on deck where the air soon put me on my feet again and I had not more trouble that way. I was not sea sick at all, but my heavy warm clothing and the hot steam inside the wheel-house with the smell of the paint made me faint and dizzy.
The following morning our real work began with washing down, which takes about an hour and is done between seven and eight, the day
men being called at six thirty. The ship was in a terrible condition, as dirty as a pig pen, and all the running gear frozen stiff with rust, all the ropes rotten, fore and aft peaks in chaos. So we began on the blocks, which weigh about seventy pounds. We had to lift them down, which means knocking the pin out with a sledge, then dragging them along the deck, and swinging the sledge for about an half hour trying to loosen
them up. I suppose this work is not hard for anyone used to a black smith's shop, or to an iron worker, but to one like myself who had never
done any manual labor it was killing. You can bet by the time night came I was so dead tired that I could have slept on anything. The noise of the
engines did not keep me awake any either . The next morning we "turned to" and did the same thing over again. By this time I began to wonder why I came t o sea. I believe that if land showed up I would have swam ashore.
In a few days the weather got warmer. My spirits rose with the thermometer and I began to look on the work in a different light. I figured that I had to do eight hours work every day, and what difference did it make what the work was, so long as it made the hours slip by, and that, as, washing up the alley-ways was better than swinging a hammer, what difference did it make? In other words, I settled down to the job to make the best of it, and I find that everything goes much better with this method. I never hurried to finish anything, as there was sure to be something else to do just as soon as one job was over.
For a couple of days the weather was not up to much. The sea was gray and sullen, with large swells, and when the wind blew hard it would blow the top of them right off, and for awhile kept our deck a little wet. I guess if it had been a smaller boat we would have been under the water most of the time. She had a nice easy roll and she sure could pitch, but I soon caught the trick of being steady on my feet and was OK for the rest of the trip.
They kept me pretty busy all day at one thing or other. The only fault that I found was, that when the day was done I got very little chance to study. By the time I had supper it was dark, and I had to study in my bunk as the crew were playing cards on the table, and you know how quiet a bunch of seamen are when off duty. I wish I had been an "AB" and then I would have had my watch, and it would have been daylight with no
one in the room, or on deck they would have been busy and have let me alone. So, the next trip I don't think I will ship as an "ordinary".
The sea down here is the most beautiful color that I have ever seen, a wonderful light blue, and when there are a few white caps on it, it looks like a painting with cloudless skies.
I tell you, there is some class to this baby, going south for the winter, but "sorry to say that business calls me back to New York in a month or so". And here is another thing I can tell my friends. I am on the bridge most of the time (washing paint) and am getting to know the Captain quite well. He came across me the other morning and said "why hell-o what are you doing down this way". The truth is, he tripped over me and instead of saying "Hell-o" reversed the word, which sounds quite different. "Ordinaries" by the way are never supposed to be on the boat deck.
We have passed a lot of islands, the Bahamas, which are very pretty as we go within a few miles or them. We are now headed for the Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti, and shall be able to see both of them if we don't go through at night.
Another thing I notice down nere are the beautiful stars.
The oir seems so clear, o.nu •...ut.LI, il:! no moon, 11early every star casts its reflection on 1.ne water. Late last night I could nd)t sleep very well.
1 btf ·th ·and I1 d
It being warm I came on decK a ou our 1n e morn1ng, as ooke over
\
to port I saw a star that at first I thought was the moon, it was so big. so,I looked it up and found that it was Jupiter. It cast a long silver gleam right across the ocean. I watched it t•or about an hour, it seemed to hold me spell bound.
It is now warn enough to go around with-out anything on exoept a sport shirt and a pair of pants. My cold is nearly gone and as the heat isevenI thinkI willgetalongrine.
Mo~t ot' ~he crew are from the cold climates and cannot stand
very much warmweather. '!'hey are all down in the cabin sweating their
eyebroVIs off, but"lli am up here on the forecabtle-head, where I do not
hear the thud of the engines, which I must say make a most fearful noise.
I am sitting here with my Corona on my lap feeling like a pirate king. is
I am happy just now, as I have made some easy money. You see, this Sunday
and we are paid over-time for anything we do . A little whi!e ago , the
Bos'n received word that the Captain was coming around, and as there were
a handful of rope ends which looked bad , ~ ne said that he would give me }
an hours over-time if I would lend him Cl. hand. I thought it would be abod. I
an hour's work, but it only took five minutes by my watch (I was watching out for my over-time, rou bet it gets the care that only a mother can give) and so when I had finished I thougqt I would not get Lhe full hour, but he
said
11 hanks,son, that is all, I will put you down for an hour". Being the youngest of the crew--eighteen years old--
! am known as the lad, by the Bos1n or sot:letimes " Son 11
and "Sonny-Jim". A big fellow who used to be on the sailing ship Inver-
clyde, seems to have taken a gr~at shine to me, and when the vtner fellows
tease in a goodna&ured way about something that I happen to do, he will say
I
"thats all right Sorn" and will tell me some Danish name to call them. I
1
are
guess I am the youngest on board as they all about thirty five or forty.
7
Considering that I am only a green-horn and so many ways to be made fun of
they sure do treat me nne,. Altbgather these are a mighty fine bunch of men, clean, and very simple, very much like children.
There are some swell jobs on board;easy,I mean, such as the Wireless operator, the Purser, and of course the mates have the time of their lives, and the Captain does nothing, so that is the job I have set my eye on~
I have done so much scrubbing lately, I suppose I will come back with house-maidh-knee. Anyway I am going to sea wi~h gloves on which Dana said was impossible.
(
Nearing Colon, heat about 120° and working like hell.
I have just finished my wee~~washing, which amounted to a sui~
es~
of undercloth~ a pair of dungrees, a few towels and a pair of heavy socks.
Every thing was . black as tar, as this is the first trip of the ship since
the war and we are getting it into shape. The Navy has had it for the pa$
two years and as they knew that it would be given back to a private Company
"""' by
did not take any care or it in the way of painting, keeping the p~~nt wuich
was already on C!ean. Before it can be repainted it ~as to to be wasn~u. The dirty water runs down your sleeve, and for the first two or three drops ~ha~
trickle cto..n your arm you stop washing and follow it ~lJ. the way down tv your ~oes, but you get aseu to that and miss it if it should happen ~o drip some-
where else. Fram that kind of work you can imagine the conditlon of my underclotnes. This is the system I used for washing colored clo~nes: I got
,.
9
j
a nice wide board (this "system"created quite a ·lot ot' comment and laughter) I laid that on the "floor" (I mean tue deck) and T-tlton wet my things and laid them out flat and proceeded to soap them. I went to the sd.bre room and got a scrubbing bn4eh w~th bristles like wire, and I tell you in about ten minutes when I hung them up to dry they were beautifully white. No not
quite whate, but a brown which is much better for the eyes. Anyway a~1 the fft. ........,.,
men rubbed their knuckles waw and I don't believ'- t.hey go\. vtlem.any cleaner•, I also noticed that &wo or three of t.he men when the~ got through laughing came and sheepishly borrowed my brush.
By the way, about calling t.he deck the "floor";- I had to go int.o the engine room the other day and tell the engineer that we were throu~ with the wat~r on deck, and I went down and saia that we had finiened with the water "upstairs", and he said "upstairs" and I said (just to make him think it was a joke) yes, on the "front porch".
The islands have been very beauti.o~:~.tl in t.ht:. ltt.st few days., Most of them had wonderful beaches of the very whitest sand, very wide too, and way back you could se8 the palm trees waving in the breeze, and see the great rollersbreak on the beach. This water is the most beautiful color that you can imagine, real light blue, not a cloud in the sky, just the
sun shining on everything. While I was looking at oRe of these little
"heavens" , a whole abhool of flying fish rose out of the water and flew
for three or four hundred feet. When they fly they flash their colore in
a thousand different ways. You feel as though you would be contented to sailor
live the rest of your life on o11e of the islands.. One old~lr:"said they reminded him of the south sea islands. I felt as if I w.er.ereading : '~.
; r : a story in the magazine "Adventure".
While standing on deck a night or two ago one of these fish flew right on deck., ·rhey are attracted by the light, and the men say they '~ are excellent eating. They are caught at night, by placing a lantern on de~
10
and they fly towards the light and fall on deck. I picked this one up and tried to eave it to send home, but we are about three days from port and it would have gone bad by the time I got to a Post Office, and even if I ~ght and mailed it the same day, I doubt if it would keep. I hear that along the
West Coast of South America, there beautiful parrots and other birds wbich the natives sell very cheaply.
Just think, I am having July weather down here ~nd always a nice breeze, as we get all the trade winds which sometimes blow for months.
The seaman of today sure have changed from those of twenty
years ago. One of the men in the forecastle, has an electric fan, ~other
ana electric Iron. He washed his Panama hat today and pressed hie nice blue suit. While in the week days they have a hard time keeping clean (their clothes I mean) Sunday they all ~ut on their very best. Nice clean pants
and a whiv~ sport shirt and you can bet they sure do look cool. When I opened
my little brass bound box, they all came around to see what I had, and there was my face powder, and buttons, and thread and all the other little things, which I was surprised to see they did not think were out of place. They said
"You sure have got a nice daddy; he has given you everything that you need. I bet he has been to sea~ When 1said he had, and in a sailing ship, this seemed to please them a whole lot. So, you see, they are not the ordinary bunch of sea dogs" which is the usual conception of anything going to sea. They are all very nice to me an ready to show me anything that I would care to ask, such as splicing, or knots, or anything at all.
,,
PASSING THROUGH THE CANAL
Nov. 25 1919.
I found it very interesting going through the Canal. Just as you enter the Bay of Colon, when coming from the north as we did, the first thing that you see, is, what at first you take to be some low-lying clouds; but as you get closer you find they are large mountains which reach right into the clouds. They are very rugged, and from a distance a dark green.
As we came up the bay I got my first glimpse of Colon which is the entrance of the Canal. Everything is of the very lightest green, even the water, and all the houses are of white stucco with red roofs, which gives the place the lookofatoy~village,suchasyouseeinthedepartmentstores around Christmas. Then, from~omewhere, a litt~e train comes along and that
completestheideaofthetoy'io•r.~ 4 1\
~·~ 11.:4..A-1-' aY~~- ..
~~. Itis We then locked into the white locks, where everything is as white as
6'e
also very1hot, and all the soun~s\if there were any were as if stifled by the
heat.
possible except for the houses which have red roofs. Most if no~ all the
r
negoes along the Ganal talked Spanish, and as their voices are soft it blended A
beautifully wi~h the surroundings (of course they all talked English too). 1
We went through threeJ locks before we got to the lake. ·The water comes into the lock so fa&t that you can feel yourself rising, and there is sure some amount of water needed to !'ill them. The lake is not very.
"'
pretty until you near the ~acif.ic side and then there are hundreds of hills,
with thair\tropical growth, palm troef} and cocoanut, all very dense, which c
from a few hundred feet giVE'Sthe mountians, or small hi11a the look of a
wonderful lawn. From the little I saw of the place, I would very muah like
to spend a few months there and give it all the "once over" ~ Of course I
had to work like the devil going th~ugh, as we were discharging a few boxes
J Balboa, and as there was no one except SS: three the day watch , we had to
do it; although I believe that this is the last time we will have to, as
it is very unusual. ~en the first Mate gave us a hand to swing the boxes
out. We took some"niggers"aboard at Colon just to take us through the
Canal~ but1even so they have very little brains, and you have to tell them 1
what to do. They broke one line on account of holding on too long, and of when
course it went, the second Mate gave the white men hell, and you c~~ bet s~ -t
that 1' was &lad that I had nothing to do with it, because they w uld have all passed the buck to the "ordinary". I was on the other side tending to the other rope which I watched carefully and so nothing broke. By the wa~ these large ropes cost a lot of money, three dollars per feet for rope hawsers, and steel ones even more. We were pulled through the Canal by
"electric mules" ; . electric t ractors working on cogs which give them great pulling power. It took eight hours to go through the Canal.
The Second Mate is the nicest of all the crovra aduhdships• he sonotimes talks as if you (or he) were human. He told me that he was three years chief of police at the Canal, and spend a month or so in the mountains after a murderer. Altogether he is very nice, asks for a match or says that it is hot, or some little remark that shows that he knows you are there.
We stopped at Balboa for Oil, and as it was too late to leav£, we stayed there all night, which gave me a chance to look at P-anama. Balboa
is the place where the Spanish navigator, Balboa first saw the ~acific
1}
•
14 ocean Sept. 25 151,, quite awhile ago, by the way. I got that date fromthe
book I have been reading on the Cal al .
They gave us no leave, but there being na rea~on to stay on
I
board, I ana nearly all the crew went ashore. I took the bus to Panama city, as Balboa is only the coaling station. ' All the houses around there have been built by the Government, and look American.
Panama is a ~al Spanish town, very narrow streets with porches hanging right over the sidewalk~ which are made of colored tile* Most of the hous~e are, or wereo:rrce white, but now very ditty looking. The people (men) look like gegular villains, very dark, with a lot of beard, and long side-burns, and snappy eyes. Nearly everybody wore pure white clothes.
In the middle of the town there is an old Catholic church,
with cocoanut trees growing in the aq~r~ and tern§ growning at the corn~ are
era . The stores . 'kept mostly · by Chinamen, of which there are a great 7
number. There being so many American soldie~ thare, and the building of the Canal, nearly everybody speaks a little English. Ali th~"niggers"come from the Bahamas Islandsf I do not care much for them as they have an English accent, which seems out of place in a negro •
I went into the Metropole Hotel, first class down here, but
about as good as the EbbittHouse in V'ashington. The desk is on one side
ot· the room, and the bar on the other. I saw some officers drinking
e
absinth a kind of green looking water•
•
There is great deal of drinking in Psnama. Bar rooms on
every corner, although I never saw anyone drunk about the streets. Many
houses of ill fame, and lots of ~ women walking about the streets. You
have no trouble with any one if you just say the word "broke". All the
women are very ugly, look 8. cross between · n nigger and a squaw. Of rcourse - I cannot judge a Spanish town by Panama, because there are hundreds of Ameri~ans
there, a regular summer resort.
When leaving Balboa in tne morning, we were called at four forty
five A.M. (all hands). Of course, getting up at this time in the mo~ning
we got an hour's overtime. But it seems to me with the eighteen "niggers"
that we had taken on the n1ght before, to work the cargo, and pain~ down 1\
the West Coast, that it was not necessary to call out every body, even the watch below.
Just outside the harbor of Balboa on our starboard as we left, is one or the most beautiful islands: It is one big mountain, in the shape of a horae-shoe facing south, and right in the middle is a little village,
with colored houses, a nice cute little h~rbor and a beautiful beach. In 11
some places along the edge of the island it is very rocky, and the sea is always sending up spray about a hundred feet high. It is only about two ··~- miles from the mainland and I was surprised because I should think it being that close, it would have been much better to have the.~"inPanama. It might have been a wealthy summer resort. Anyway it was very beautiful.
-lne day out from Balboa, Nov. 27.
~ou see, I am now on the Pacific, and there is sure some
difference~ the Atlantic and this one. There is no swell, even when the
A.
wind is blowing, as there always is on the Atlantic. It reminds me of the Great Lakes, just as smooth as glass. When ~he wind does blow, as it is doing now, it just makes the sea choppy, but does not make the waves run high, as it would on the Atlantic if' the wind had been blowing for ~he same length of time.
As y
15.
Also the water is or a different color, a kind of green. I do not consider it as beautiful. There seem to be more fish and queer things on ~hie side. Yesterday we saw a school o~ porpoises jumping right out of the water>and going around the ship as if it were standing still. They look ~ike they
are &aving a bully t1me. There are also a lot of flying fish. The sailors say there are quite a few sharks, but as we go down the coast, they get leas
ana lees, as ~he water is much cooler.
We are now neaded for Payta, Peru, about nine hundred miles frcm
Panama and ejpect to get there Friday morning; that is, if ~he weather holas. They say, on ~he Pacific, headw1nda, and storms come up very sud~en~ly. All ships going down ~he West Coast with ca,go for •eru have ~o call at Payta
to be fumhgated to prevent the carrying of p!ague. They say plague comes from rats. Fleas from ratfs give the disease to men. The Lumigating is
done with sulphur, by passing !arge pipes into the hold and vhe forecastle, and every place on the ship. This takes aoout two hours. From there we
go back to Talara1distanVabout forty miles, to discharge a cargo or oin plate, and get a deckload of oil in cans, from Talara oil wells.
I find the work heavy, and am very tired by ~he end Ol the day. ~
The Bos'n says, that he has never seen a ship in this~cond1tion. Evet·~thing that you wan~ is ei8her at the bottom o~ a coil of wire rope
15 A
or benind a pile of boxes. The trouble is that t.ue Comapny has taken every nook and corner for cargo and len, nothing for storing ship1ts gear. We have had to replace all the runne~and nearly aLl the ropes .
So you can imagine the work there is. If 1
these things are not don~ the cargo could not te ~~~en out. As I said
before,! have little or no time to study. But1of course~t:tll the time
I am le~~rning something new in the line of my work,which t • c-. ·• ~ makes
things easier as I eo along. I.e this ahi,.lVI.ere in good trim/tho \\"ork would i t .t'\
not be havf' eo heavy~butfas it i~keepe me on the jump a1l the time. 1I
There are only four men, myself and the three ABs who do all this work, 1
when there is enough work for twenty. Most of the officers have been in
the Navy, and there,of course,they have but to say "take down the masts"
and t hey put two hundred men on the job which makes it a cinch. But : :3 )
· . you can't get four men to do fifteen men~ work, in the same time,
although that seems to be the idea. So,! take my cue fromthe other men
and don't break my neck over anythine. The captain complains of the heat,
but don't mind sending a man to paint the bolts on the engine"Toom sky-
light. So r~r I have not minded the heat, though moat of the men suffer 1
a g1od deal even when not working. I just glory in it as long as I am not working.
I keep looking at the log, and reading the thousands of miles that I am from hame and it sometimes scares me. It is very n~rd to realize the distance I am away, until I go ashore and then I sure do feel as 1f I am at the ends of the earth. I sure have one thing to be thankful for~at is that ~ am not on a sailing ship. The men say that the forecastle oh a sailing ship i s nearly always full of water, and that all hand s are some times called out in tne middle of the night vO shorten sail, and by the time you are thbugh it is your watch again, and after that you go to bed
in wet clothes with cnomeans of drying t.hem.•Also it ia watch
16
and watch. That is,four hours on and f our off. 1 ·1 · .• • the food nearly is
always~terrible, being unable to get fre, sh meat, on account of the time
ittak~to gettoport. Allthehardestworkisintheworstweather.
: 'While the training is vet·y good, &lacblx sailing ships are fast going and
out of corwission, the stuff you lea.rn is mostly useless on board eteamert~.
a
But,of course,~ sailing ship is a tender spot in ~he heart or,sailor and
it is very selaom that they will admit anything discreditin~1
,, em, "Turned t.o, "this morning at six t.l1ir.ty which givee us a half
hour to dress and get a sip of coffee, ~.~hen wash down wnich takes fully an hour, afterwhich we breakfast. Then turn to again at nine. We are paint-
ihg the old tub fromone end to t.he other. We have finished all the wash-
i ng and so from now on it will not be so disagreeable. The eighteen"niggers " that we took on at Balboa will help a lot and we will only have ~he hard
parts such as the bow and the quarter, ma"'ts and booms, and the sampson
posts•. I painted 'l.he ball of the mainmast blac.;k:" I tell you it was somt:J
jobf if you are not used to it. You have to sit on a very small block
and to get to it I had to go up some ropes which held the wireless, I held even
on to everything 1 could and hated ~.~o let go anything to take the paint '· ·.. brush, but the Bos ' n was up there with me to hand the7pai~t up when I was seated and he said ttremember that when aloft one hand belongs to 't.he compruy and the other i;ke to you' - so grab ahold of this brush and ·slap it on11 , wnich,vf course,! did, but felt that I would be more likely smearing up the deck by falling off.. ',:· Every time a piece or cargo is taken out I could feel the terrible shaking. I though t the mast would come down. It was
a veJ·y dirty job as the smoke makes the mainmast as black as tar. So you can imagine the condition_! was in arter hugging it. for about an hour.
The Bos'n is a mighty nice old fellow; has a lot of funny
76
sayings, and when I had _, oncEl\go aloft he said 11 now i1' you fall down,
17
~eave your paint up there for the next man, and thy not to fall,ae I want
to paint the decks tomorrow and they are all nice and clean". But you can bet there i s no chance of my falling. I hold on eo tight that my hands ache.
I nearly got i nto t rouble the other day through a black cat.
Being in the hot weather down here, we, of course, all sleep out in hammocks.
Fod the last three night8 I have ~ hardly had any sl eep on account of this
cat that yelled the nightthrougb. So(when I could not stand it any longer
I found a pieee of winch handle, made it fast around its neck and quietly
threw it overboard for a swim. I never heard anything about it until the
next day, when the men began to ask what had become of the cat. I was afraid I
that it was going to get "hot" for me, as found out the the cat had been a mascot. I was not sure whether I had been seen, as you know the saying that
"murder will out". Then the big fellow spoke up and •aid: "f>ou can throw anl kind of oat over-board" so I thought I had at least one supporter, when he spoke again and finished "but you must never throw a ~lack cat over~ if you do you are ~ re to have ~u LUCK~ ~ -m s~ill alive however.
I
So fa~ I have had no trouble with the crew. I am a little
surprised at the type of men we have here. I expected to find the very
lowest of the low, but in spite of their being thrown on the world from the
time they were mere boys, they were a fine lot all things considered. I
Raised with the very dregs of humanity from their earlist days, on the streets, knocking about in various countriea,biffed around as proressional "bums"
(some of them told me that they lived whole winters by not doing a bit of
work, just pan-handling, and cleaning up about three dollars a day out of it)
flat broke in strange lands without a nickle, making their living by every
hook and crook--- and yet there were a lot of things about ~hem you could not
help liking. They are all !ig men, none of them weighing lese than one
hundred and eighty pounds, a lot over that. And I find them with very good
manners, wonderfully clean as to their bodies, very gentle to every kind of
animal , and the very best of f r iends when sober. I would rather have them friends than en~mies1
18
for when they once make up their minds to do anything, nothing uill stop them. They will stand by you to the very last in any kind of trouble. Of course their language is terrible, according to us,
but they don't mean half of what they say, it being just a form of speech .
t.( If
There are a lot of beach.coro.bers in these towns do~>'n here ,
and as soon as the crew strike the town they are waiting for them, looking for their ovrn oountry-men, finding in these the easiest "touch". For there is nothing more welcome to see inaforeign country where you do not speak
the "lingo" than a real human. Thoy do not ask for money but steer them
to the bar for which they are working, get them "stewed to the gills" and
then leave first taking anything of value the man may have. I have met a 1
few of these men, and every ti~e found them moat interesting. Sometimes th~
are college men, civil engineers, and men from every wal~ of life. I have ~ met them where there could be no reason to lie. They ask questionsAwhich
I did not think they knew anything about. I have talked to them for hours
and enjoyed every minute of it. Wruan I leave them I do it with regret and
sorrow; for, after all, they are human derelicta cast upon the lonesone beach, and I always feel that it is some fault in ~he l aunching which accounts for these people being wrecks upon the world. I ) feel sorrqy as they are very miserable.
It is getting late now so I will go below and play cards
for awhile before going to bed. It is peculiar that not once have these m~
played for money. Their recreation usually takes the form of reading or
some,times trying to beat each other at tying knots, at which of course ,,
I am in on as I can pick up all kinds of i~orma.tion which helps through the day. They take the greatest paint to show me ho.w they are made.
Thanksgiving Day.
I am feeling kind of homesick and very blue toaay, I
suppose it is the thinking of the Turkey that I \fould be eating, maybe
i f I w e r e b a c k h o m e , o r t h e b i g j~cy b e e f s t e a k . . . o r t h e t.ltit~ s t h a t I
have not got now. I a.m not working today except for an hour this morning Hhcn \·;c had to give the decka"drink11 , as this hot weatht.r oakes it very
thirsty. But I go~oveir~ for that and you know how that cheers me up.
' I suppose the
tvov. A...
is wearing off, where as before I did not havo
the time to feel home~sick, and then going through the oanal gives you-th~ CWJ·a~r.,v-
a....-
~ passing·the gate where there is no tuttning back. A
The sun is shining as usual, and the old tub is going along at a great clip so ~here is no want of breeze, besides what the steamer
I
is making, it is blowing pretty hard anyhow; the spray is so~g on deck,
butI amontheleasideofahatch,assnugasabuginarug. Therest
of the crew are asleep aft, that is some of them are., 'lhe crthei'are reading I
or telling fish stories, and every now and then the famous fish story.
They not only tell about the things they have heard of, but also the things
they have seen, and I must say they sure run a close race. Whistling for ..
feeling
seal~s and fights with sea "ear-pents", and sharks, they have caught and s
suckel they think they are catching. ·.;. • !'.. • These. tales. 1 • 'J
· i. '1 .: are very interesting even as a work .of the imagination, and I really
believe uhat when they are telling them, they get to thinking they are true,and perhaps about fifty per cent of them are. Up around Norway there are a great number
of seali•C>r\i and they sometimes hang around the fishing boats.,. When they I
see uhe men thro'1 a fish to them they catch it in their mouth, so every day
around dinner time, the men whistle for a little while and this same lion
will appear for his dinner . I am not saying this is true,<. , v , but sea to do
lions are very smabt, for I have seen them trained to balance balls and all 7
sorts of stunts. So this one tale might be true. They do not tell these tales especially for my benifit, ou~ rath~r ~o matcn the other men.
20
20 A. There are a great many sealions down here, most of ~he harbors
are jus~full of ~hem. One was killed by our propeller the other day. .. . ~en coming from shore last night about twelve o'clock, the small boat that we were in, hit something which we took to be a rock, but in looking over the side to see what it was discovered that it was a seal~on that must hav~n been sleeping on the surface. It seemed to have scared us more than the l~bn.
I saw the Southern Cross (a southern constellation) for tne first time in my life, about two night•ago. It is very easy to find, and can be seen aoout ten degrees below the"line"• It is formed of fours stars in an almost perfect cross. I also saw the Magellan Olouds. They consist of three small nebulae, one dark and two bright.
The nights are vel~~!utiful, and I love to stay up on r4.,s~v<#
deck and watch the wake, theA · ~ makes u apparently a path of
living fire whic~h can be seen for about a mile ~.· · 1 • Jo
Along the ship's
it will show iisl@f.
side and -whereAthrere is the slightest dis~bance,
I have seen a great many "blows~ that is !hales. Once or
twice we have come within a mile of them. In looking over the water I would see a stream of spray, or steam, shoot into the air and knew right way th~y
were whales. I have wathced them through the glasses a few times. I saw one jump clean out of the water and land again with a thud which could be heard for miles. I could not realize thetr size until I saw this one out
of the water..
..
' •'
course be much more interesting than it has been for the last week or so. Being out of sight of land, doing nothing but manual labor and very menial work makes me sometimes wonder why I went to sea. But
when we are calling in every day or so and seeing new towns it will ~e very pleasant. Even the going in and out of the harbours will be a lot of fun now tnese"niggers"are aboard, for all I will have to do will be to take care of the winch and order the"niggers"around. They do not act like the"niggers"of the south.. They are very insolent.. The Bos'n has not got the right idea yet, he says "come over and give ile a hand with this rope will yer? and pulls with them. But I stand at the winch and yell at them like a Southerner. "Get a hold of that rope, what do you think you are hired 1'or?to loaf around all day? hustle now!" and I was surprised to see that they sure did step. They also make room for me
when I am coming along. There is one standing up in front of me now with his mouth wide open~ I am sitting on the deck with ~he eoronae on my lap
never
and I suppose he has seen one used that way before. I don't mind that
so much,,as he is a 1lng way off and his stare is from suprise only. They are fea'rfully lazy, they are supposed to be pain1:.ing the booms, but they are just sitting up tnere singing to themselves, not raising their brush until you give them a look and \.hen of course they pai~t~ until you are out of sight. You can hardly blame them for taking their time, they are paid very poorly tor the work they do. Getting thi~ty dollars a month with twelve cents an hour overtime. They do as much work as any New York longshore men and just compare the pay.
There are very few docks on the West Coast, and our whole cargo has to be taken out in barges. That strikes me as very fillh~Y there being such a !rage trade you would think it would pay them to build docks.
.-. .
As we are to call in at about fifteen places, it will of
J•
21
22 I suppose there LB some reason why it is not done~- either the depth of the
water10rthe open harbor where the swells would grind the·ahip ~o piecest ~r some other reason ~nat I do no~ know of. But this loading into barges me,ans double loading. Firat from t.he doo.;k to the batge, then i'rom the bargeto the ship, besiues the time it takes to tow them out. In rough weather it is impossibl:l to come out ~o the ship.
The Bos'n is a mighty nice fellow, and gives me the lighter
jobs when he can, which is very nice of him as they usually make t.he
ordinary do t.he hardes~ work. I have a few knots on my hands but that will though
make iv easier t·or me in ~he hundling of ropes,. 1L.is does not improve their looks. The Bos'n says that if I wash them in crude oil it will
take all the dirt out, so I will try thot the next time. !-
Nov 29 Talara, Peru.
When I sta~d on this trip I had :kkK an idea that I \7ould
be tre.veling am-:mg the pal m trees , cocoanuts , and dat.es and fi;,;s ; that
every thing would be green , wi th t hat benuti ful troryical .::;rovrth, .11th
nouses that had inner courts, and green parrot-a, and maybe a fountain~ that
it would b~ too ho~ ~v work, except for a few hours a day, with men wearing
tall straw nata, and never walking anywhere, always having horses to go on,
~hen at night 1 would be ab1e to hear them playing on their guitars, under
some window. You know the regular "' dventure" bunk. So you can imagine 11
the bump I got when I struck this Godforsaken "berg • We arrived early
in ~he morning, and when I ca.me on deck and looked .toward the land I could see nothing but miles, and miles, of desert, not flat like a regular desert, but hills about seven hundred feet high with narrow trails crossing and winding about t-hose most desolate piles of sand. It looks exactly like ~ relief map, as the winds, and earthquakes have left tne1r mark upon t-hem,
in the way of deep gashes and slices.
As soon as it was light enough, the Pilot came out to take us
in. While going in, four or five, large 1afts with a big square sail I
"catamarans", crossed our bow although we were going at a good clip. They sail wonderfully fast to be so unshaply. They sail right through the breakers, ana when nearly beached they let go their sheet and jump
ashore, then pull it well out of reach of the tide. The logs of which these rafts are made are so light that one the size of our largest tel~- graph pote can easily be lifted by one man, which I suppose accounts for the speed they get o~t of them. We could not tie up to the small dock
as the harbor is so open that it would break up the ship,as the surf is very heavy. So,ve had to moor to bouys on one side and the dock on ~he otner wit-11 about thirty feet between the dock and the side of the ship
into which space vhe barges came along side.
That day there being no~hing doing I swam about a quarter
of a mile to. shore thinking tuat I would be able to get some frui~; hang around for a while and then swim back. I had to swim,as it is a clo~ed port and I could not land on the dock. The town is a native fishing village, built ri~"~ on the beach. When I hat.t rested ror Cl few mJ.nutes
I started out to find the store and the main stree~, which when I did finally locaue 1v1 consis~ed of two houses.0ne was vhe market, an open
work affair abou~Iorty l~sixty feet, and th~other must have been a svore but nad gone outo1' ousinees. As I have said1 I wa11 lookinl!. J. or frui~ I tnought ~he beat place woula or course be the market, so I started to enter, being careful not to step on tne dead dog which was in ~he path, and I
kept out of range of the little burro which was kicking to beat the band,
to the great delight of a crowd of "hombres" sitting on a sort of fence,
and some on the ground.
When half way in the door I beard the moat awful string of
language that you can imagine ~· , " · MY ipanish being very disjointed I did
not think for a minute that I could be the one for who~benifit ~he speech I
was made. :...- · rt was not until caught some of the more f umliar cuss words
that I turned around.
![~ saw a great big fat"squaw11 three times
broader than she was tall, with a ladle of uoilding soup with which
she was making very positive motions, in the direction of the door,
I was so dazed for a minute that I tried to make up my mind what to ro
1
when I was saved that trouble by her making it up for me, in the way ofshort rush, so that 1 had no trouble in understanding her. So I mae a rather hasty retreat. By this time I had collected a crowd of children of about a hundred, who did not give up the chase until I reached the water edge. .. .. ~ One of them/ off ~hisr guard}came with- in the reach of my arm, and I g]"aobcli him hoping that I would be able to
find out why I had received such a cold ( I mi eht say hot) reception. After about a half hour of painful Spanish, I was able to under stand that t he lady in the village had objected to my bathing suit which they told me did not cover my lower limbs sufficently. Of course my suit was just the usual thing in ~he states. So,I received another shock, as I
> 1 oxl~cc ~t. ~ c;~· would not have been 8urprised to see the people down theee wear just a string of beads.
That night I got permission from the Captain of the por-t
to go aahDre. I went to the circus that happened to be in town but it was nothing very unusual about it~ except that of course it was in Spanish, and I felt ~hat the people were foolish when they laughed
at the jokes which were G;reek to me. There were no animals, and the ring was very small, there was a tight rope walker and a lady that walkd around on a ball, and some j~gging which was so poor that I believe I could have done better. This ended my st~y in Talara, Peru, I was not very sorry.
Lima Peru.
I hope I am here long enough to go to the bull fight. But
24
I suppose I will leave before Sunday.
I am very mQ~ stuck on this town. It is the first real
Spanish city that I have seen. Panama having so many Americana in it has become somewhat Americanized, with seventy five per cent of the people speaking English. So this is quite new, having found no one with the least idea of English. ,.r. : It. sl.4re makes you feel miles from home when you have ~ t-errible ~ime trying to get some plain "ham and"~ Having been on the snip for some time now I was crazy for some real cooking, and as soon as I struck the dock made a bee line 40r a"hash jointD I found one that looked as if I ~oula get a real feed under five dollars, so went in. I suppose I was ~he worst customer that
waiter ever had, but finally made him understand th~u 1 wanted roasted chicken, and soup. I enjoyed it very mucn aft.er t.he "chow" wh~ch we •• had been taking to sustain life. Tne food got very bad on board wnen about t.wo weeks out., get.ting bad fish, salt nurse, bean soup, which
WaS nov Up vv mUCh, o...u nov ,.noIAJ:,U v:&.' wuiS • '.1.'ClC.Yf.iggred Up vUe O:Lll
in cenua, Wul.Cil Wl:l.d.e me nearly rainu ~e ..uo;, ......~ . ...... U0.1.lar sign ~n ...,·ont of it. So I gave him a lot of the cigar coupons which they call money down there, and he brought me back a lot of change. I wanted to tip the waiter a quarter and gave him a couple of coins which looked x~ like quarters , and aften1ards found out were worth together about fi ve cent.s . I guess he thought I was some c1en,., elcat e .
There is great class distinction down here. The people are
either very rich or else peons. The rich have large houses in the city
here with beautifully designed doors of bronze All t~ese houses have
at night
inside courtyards. L · · ·.t '·· , Yntil tvrelve tneS"e doora are kept open,
.7
and as I walked along the street I could see the inside, which in every
case was furnished with the very best money could buy. In one of these places there were a few pal~ trees in the entrance. In the middle of this
25
courtyar d a fountain pl ayed, there were the moon was out, and the shadows cast
e palms gave the place an air of mystry.
benches here and there, by the high walls and the
Behind all t ais is what I took to be the living rooms. The place appeared to be decotated i&
red, but it might have been the reflection of the oil lamp which supplied the light. They had a net up at the door to keep out the night insects, a gentle breeze was blowing and I could catch parte of the conversation of the women. Their voices being very musical lent still more beauty
to tho place. I do not kno~ how lung I stared at all this, but I saw
a cop give me a "dirty look", and while I would like to go through the jail s down . here, I am not so anxious • v to spend the night in one, when I have a nice hard bed waiting for me back on board.
So I moved on to t~~e in the rest of the town.
Strange to say, these streets are very narrow with the except- ion of a sort of P"ifth Ave, where everybody walks up end down every
night. On this street the 6onsuls of the various nations hang out. It seems to be the best part of town, but is not as interesting as the older eectiona. It ia like r:. ps.inting where t ho paint has not dried :ret 1 it 9-eems so now.
After "rubbering" everywhere I could around the"ewell lay outs"I walked to the poor .section just to get a line on the town.
The working class l ive in bunches of a few hundred, their hovels being inclosed by four walls of dirty white concrete. Of course, there are openings i n these wail s, but f rom the outside it i s nearly im- possible to see anything or the interior or how they live. It looked very peaceful, and so I thought it wou~d be safe enough to go through Which I did without mishap. when inside Iateppea dntb· a dusty~all·- vtay with litt.lt:: nouses on ooth sides, they were all connected, with
low roofs, just high enough to clear your head if you were inside. One
.
·~·
26
little~uare window for each house, the doors always having a blanket to serve in the place of a wooden door, wood being very expensive down here. At some of the houses the blankets were pulled back and I could see the family as they were sitt~ng at the table talking. The table looked like one of our cneap kitchen tables, and the chairs we would not hav~ had in ~r the kitchen. I was wondering where the~ slept when I noticed a pile of colored rags on ~ne fLoor which must have b~en their beds as there just as
many piles ~ people. When I say floor, I shoula say earth as none of the places have wooden floors. I could not see any place to wash and I don't SuPpose there was any. But that does not worry these people, they look dirt,ail the time. I bet that many layers ot' that fine old Spanish tan would come off if anything snould happen eo they wouLd fail into the bay. But they take good care that_no water ever spoils their complexion. This place smelled like a pig pen so I did not need any cop to tell me to move on.
Lima seems to be a mucu nicer place t.han ~hose we have just 1eft, there being quite a number ot· trees and the hiLla areabout twenty miles back, which gives tne place a chance t.o breathe, and does not look as if it were going to slide into the sea. I have seen a lot of Ar~ officers here. They sure wear bright colors, and gold braid wi~ha great
big sword. If I had the uniform the starter at the Hotel Astor wears, I am sure I could pass as a General, or ~hei might even make me king. The business part of the town is very congested. A few decent looking banks but moat of the buildings arti ve,y ratty looking. Very much like down
..
around Water street in New York.
While coming into the harbor at Callao--that is the seaport
t·or Lima--we ran into a flock of birds, a kind O.L duck. There were so many or them, that you coulu ye11 to anyone near you, bona t.heir wings would make
such a noise t.nat ne wou.Ld be
27
unable to hear you. There must uave been two o1· 1-hree hundred t-housand. There were so many ot· them that when ~.hey rose from ...ne surface ct' 1-he wateritfeltasth~ough~hewholeoceanwerecom1ngup. Theseducks
can t'ly very fast, but we were so near t.hem t.uat. a> me O.i. ...nem could not get underway fast enough, so they rose a li~t.te and t.n~n took a ueep dive, you ooula see t-hem go about t.tlrit.y :t'e~::" unaer g,ud swimming like a l'lstl.
a..
Valpariso, Chili.
A
Well, at last I am in the place I have often dreamed of. I have not been ashore yet, but will go to-night, I am writing this very early in the morning • I want to see as much of the town as possible, and we are only going to be
here t'or a day or so.
I have not been able to write many letters home, as we have only made stope of a day each. We come in early in the morning, and leave at night, eo I do not get much chance to go ashore. The Agents will not take letters if they do not have the proper stamps on them. Even then they are not very obliging. You see, we are just a bunch of sailors and
why should we bother them?
The country all tne way down until now had been very barren,
not eaen a tree to be seen. All copper mines or saltpetre dumps, or oil wells. I am sorry to say that all the Americans Imet were drinking themselves to death. I suppose the desolate country gets on their nerves and they don't care any more what happens. But now the country has changed entirely, farms and trees, and altogether things ~re beginning to look human once more. I
am delighted, as this continual desert gets on my nerves, and I think I
would go crazy if I had to stay in any of these places for a few years. In this southern part of Chili it looks very nice. All the way aown we have
been within eight of land. Very high mountains, the water is deep right
up to tne foot of them. If I ever get a chance I sure will take a
28
29
trip into the interior of South America, I imagine it would be wonderfully
interesting.
It is very funny to hear one of the sailors try to talk to these people down here in broken English, while they ought to be trying
to talk to them in broken Spanish. He does not seem to realize that they gannot understand a word he says, but seems to think that they just don't want to. I enjoy it very much. I had a very funny time twice. Being out
in the sun all day of course I am very tanned and w~~ I don't shave for
a day or eo I get very dark. Whi on one of these beaches I was mistaken by an American, for a Spaniard. He could not speak Spanish and so I dragged him along for about fifteen minutes. It sure was fun.
You would be surprised to see the very little time that I get to myself. I •turn toR at six tbrity and quit at five, but after I have had supper and washed myself and clothes, it is nine and you can bet that
it is very seldom that I am not ready for bed.
We have one more port to call at before we tu~n our head for
the States again.
Valparieo is the largest place we have been to yet. It is also
A
the largest on the West Coast I suppose. Like aany other cities it is built on about seven hills, the business district being in ~he middle, and lowest spot, I might say on the ground floor, as the streets are in "tiers", so steep that it is impossible to get a street car to the next terrace. So they have a separate line for the other section, connecting the two, with a sort of cable car, looking very much like the care used to take people to n the top of the "shoot the shoots" at amusement parke. The wind was blowing so hard when I started to go back to tne ship, that the boatmen, charged twenty pesos (four Dollars) to take me out. I knen ror the same money I could stop at a hotel for the night, and as, I want to see more of the tfon; having only been there one night, I decided to do eo. I had a small room
in ~he "Ingles" Hotel for a dollar and a half. The bed felt great after the pads I had been sleeping on. It was so soft, that I unable to go to sleep for some time. The weather was warm, and I kept my window open, being on the second floor, I could h~ar evet·ything very plainly, ~here was not much traffic, but the police have a system of whistling to the other man on beat to see if he is awake. It is very shrill whistle With a rolling sound, whi~ they blew every ten minutes or eo. I would not have minded so much if 1
had just heard the men in the neighborhood, but I could hear every whistle in Valpariso, it seemed to me. I wanted to sleep late, but, being accusto~ ed to getting up early, I awoke a~ the unsual time, about five. As the resturante would not be open, I would have had to sit in the park, or wna~~ about until nine. So, I stayed in bed, trying to get as much pleasure as I could out of it. From my window I could see the "mule trains" and hear the tinkle of the belle, and the shouts of the drivers. The little "burros" seemed entirely out of porportion to the load. The drivers were riding ~ small horses very much like our western poney~ but did not have a leather saddle. Their stirrups are separate and of leather, with a box tow. Their
~.
saddle is made o~ ~olded blankets, and secured by a cirsingle. The men ri~well, but~ do not see how the horses can stand the heat with eo many blankets.
By eight o'clock I was dressed, so I left the Hotel to get my l'trtrt ·view of ValpaKso by day. The Hotel opened on the square which
A
is flanked by the "Principal Correo" (Post Office) and the City Hall and "Palace de Justice" with the Hotel and the sea on the other. A body of mounted police passed me, they looked like t ne German guard, with large
pointed, up turned mustaches, long swords, and sitting like wooden things in ~he saddle. When a rfttrrant opened I had breakfast. By that time
,
....
things were begining to wake up. The typical business day was begun. Street cars crowded, automobiles ~illing ~he streets, and the usual wave of people hurrying to work.
~
Deciding to ~k through the whole town, I started westward•. This took me ~hrough the poorer section, and tne steepest, keeping on one street, so that I would get ~o the top of the hill where I would get a
view of the surrounding country. The road gradually narrowed, from paved street and sidewalk, to nothing but a very narrow walk, paved at on time, but now in a very dilapidated condition; until it was nothing more than
an earth trail winding up the hill. Along this st,eet are many houses, some patched with tift cane, and many colored boards. But no matter how poor the house, there would always be ~lower boxes, filled with beautiful flowers of every discription. Th~t whole street was an avenue of song; fnm every house door or balcony hung birds, some very br~lliant and singing wonderfully. The hil\was very high, the path led around, and up and down, so by the time I got to the top I was pretty tired. From this point I could get a beautiful pan6rama of ~he city, and ~he harbor. From ~here I came down, and along ~he sea-front to the other s~de of the city. The houses av -nis end were v~;,y 1'iue -uu we,e owned, of course, by the very
rich. The p!t~.Ce looked prosperous in evot·~ way, vne poor were very llappy and cvntented, from wlla~ ~ cv~1d see. It nad a vo.y wide-awake air, and
much from the old Spanish sytle of easy-going with their
r
Germane are favored, everything being made in B~lin, and it
had departed "siesta".
is noticable
street cars are German. Many or the Spaniards spoke German, German papers
A
being sold on ~he street. Many Germans with their arrogant manner, thick necks, and I must not leave out their mustache.
I
Valpariso is a terrible place for sudden winds, which always do some sort of damage when blowing from the north. All along the water front there are many wrecks, some long since gone to pleces, other-quite recent.
The next morning we left, heading south for Talcahuano our last point south. ~ ~ _
It is the Chilian Naval Base, with a fairly decent harbo~. It was much cooler than Valpariso, and I could"'easily stand a sweater during the day, although this was their midsummer.
I bought some beautiful fruit,--cherries, mangos, pineapples, raisins, and many others,--all of the fuLt class.
It was very refreshing to look every where and see nothing but trees, and grass, after the ~eeks of desolate waste. I went aahore for a few hours, too short a time to see anything.
That night we left, I remember so well the order, which sound- ed more pleasant to me than anything I had heard for moths: "Heave up
your anchor! go ahead Mr. Dow". I felt the engines turn over, and watched the lights of the village fade. I was headed once more for the best place on earth---The little old u.s.A.---
in the d[~BR or the Police and Army. All the steam cars and
~~-
7/PfA'
h,./'{. f..
Arrived there th~x7 .a ' 6 being ~ust three ~undred miles.
11 AIN 1 T IT A GRAND AND GLORIOUS FEELING".
Back Page
