Chapter 10 – Continuing to the Orient | A Maine Sea Captain's Journals From the Clipper Ship Era

8th Paper (8a.)

His voice sounds deep and _____ and he gesticulates to a great rate. What wonderful adventures he has to relate, He will be a great Voyager when he gets home.
Drawing the Figure of the ship for my draft. I have put a copy of it in these soundings.
Franklin was about 5 feet 10” height of a honey’d complexion and fine looking. He is eight feet high on our bow, and is represented as going up the street of Philadelphia after his arrival from Boston with just a shilling left and eating a loaf of bread. Thus, he passed the house of his future wife, and she said “see what a green looking countryman.”

This was his head and she little dreamed he was to be her husband. He was the greatest scholar and philosopher of his age and had fifteen brothers and sisters.

Saturday, July 24th 1869
Lat. 17.55’ North. Long. 148.00’ East.
A ____ time. We are having very light winds and hot sultry weather. It is impossible to sleep or eat. Every little while, we have a rain shower that kills all the wind. There are lots of marine birds in sight all the time. And today fish are jumping all about. They are called Albacore and about as large as a big Cod. The birds are mostly called Man O’ War birds. They are about as big as our ducks and are white. They have one solitary feather in their tail and it is very large and long, and much larger than the bird. Sailors call them Shoreline Spike birds from their resemblance to that instrument.

Our cats thrive well and have eaten some rats, and we have caught some in our trap. The pigs that we put in San Francisco are wonders. They have learned to chew gum, spit. They play like kittens etc.
Pilgarlic cut out a large flag the other day, with a horse in it, it is finished now, and he feels quite proud about it. He has made three baskets and done some drawing. But he worries about the winds so that he can’t do much. He has got some shells in a drawer, and when he gets tired, he pulls them out and looks at them. He is a queer “Genus Homo”, not much account, but will count one. So, let the _____ be.
“Sweethearts and wives, absent friends; God Bless them.” – Sat. night.