Sunday, 8th October.
Latitude 15 degrees South        Longitude 14 degrees West
88 days at sea-

How many Sundays more Pilgarlic? “Well, Bucket-can’t say One more to the Equator.  Then four or five to Boston, if we have ordinary luck.”  Then you’ll have us in Boston about the 18th of November.  “Yes I hope so.  Please God.”
“And calm and peaceful in my sleep,
Rocked in the cradle of the deep.”
The man that wrote that never made the passage from Cape Good Hope to St. Helena, if he had, he would have sung it out “the other side of his mouth”.  If we haven’t some of the tallest rolling ever seen, no matter.  “Rolling down to St. Helena”  is an old sailors adage,  The prevailing sea is  from the West, and rolls along with a majesty that …
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…And we have had an extra close this time the ship being sugar loaded makes for rolling more.  Things have to be well lashed to stand it.  Sleep!- it is out of the question, but it is over now- I _____.  St. Helena is a long way astern.  We passed 300 miles to Westward of it, thinking to get better winds.  In fact it is considerable out of the currents to America, but ships often sight it to make some of their longitude.  It is one of the land marks that divide the distance from East India home.  We saw one solitary vessel just at night, last week.  Deck Bucket been busy pouring over accounts, making balance sheets, for a dollar out of the way be disgraceful.
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… Take some Sulphur.  While he was mixing it up, I thought of the time he was a little fellow with his brother and sister.  There was an open fireplace in the sitting room and his mother ____ to let the children ______ by the fire, Put on their night gowns (his was a __ one made of yellow flannel and they called it John’s ____jerry.  Ah! How well he remembers it.)  Then gave them a dose of Sulphur, if they were unwell and they would get all aglow and scamper off upstairs to bed in the cold unfinished chambers or attics.  The cottage was sold a long way ago.  The toiling mother hopeful  mother has no children near her now.  They are all in Scotland, some in  Heaven, and John, the oldest.     Come Pilgarlic- enough of this.  Dreaming again.  How much money have you remitted _____ ______ _____ ____ voyage?  How much will you make?  Hush!  Bucket, it is Sunday….
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…all we dared to ask for.  The Trades are stormy and fresh.  The Sun sends his high rays on a thousand light waves that dance and foam around us in our noble ship moves on bound for our native land with steady speed that is grand.
The dear little canary sings away as though his little heart would split.  How is shall miss him when he is gone.  Mt plants still flourish and everything is doing well.  I have been packing up  my shells and corals and jars and things ______  ______ they take lots of room.. How I am going to get all my _______ home, I don’t know.  I thought last week I would make the runaways at Ilo-ilo tell me what kind of trip they had so I said to the oldest as he was at the wheel, “Sailor, how old are you?”  “__6 Sir.”  “Where do you belong?”  “The…
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________?  No Sir, my name is __ Keaton.  What are you sailing round the world under an alias for?  I don’t know Sir!  What ship was you in before you joined this one in Hong Kong?  I was Second Mate of a Siamese Steamer!  What did you leave it for to go before the mast?  I was sick and went to the hospital.  Why didn’t you go in your own country ships?  Because Sir, No boarding house would take me in without money, which I hadn’t got.  But the American ship Master took me in.  How long was you in his house?  Two days Sir, and you let him take twenty dollars, your ________ money for two day’s pay and the chance to get on this ship.  Yes Sir!  I couldn’t help myself.  So that’s the way land sharks got ….
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…was in his home over two days _____ only one, besides getting the money they had with them.  He got twenty dollars advance apiece = $160.00.  But why some will ask need you employ this shipping master to ship your crew.  Because the American Consul has a hand in it.  He won’t allow only such men shipped as he has security for, and Northall(?), the shipping master is the security, and probably gives the Consul half the fees.
But today my story, “Sailors or ______ or, what’s your name, who was the first to propose your running away from the ship?  You or Steve?  Steve Sir.  I never thought of it till an hour before we ______.  What was your object in running away?  Well Sir, I did not care about …..
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…running away?  He said the boys were inspiring him Sir!  Did you or Steve steal all those clothes out of the forecastle?  Steve Sir.  I never knew that anything was stolen.  I thought they were all Steve’s clothes.  Did you take any water? No Sir.  Did you take much bread?  Only what was in the bread bags, about two pounds.  What time did you start?  About two in the morning Sir.  How far did you go? We paddled to the North with a fair tide ‘till about 8 o’clock, then we went into a lagoon to try and get some water, but the shore was too sh_____ to get the boat up to where there was open water, so we had to start out again.  Where you not afraid of being caught?  Yes Sir!  How long did you keep on them?  Two days Sir!  What did you live on then?  A little bread dipped in salt water.  We were almost famished then.  What did you do then?  We went on shore at a ….
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…And went up to the Captain of the port.  What did you tell him?  That we was deserters from a ship.  Then What?  Then he sent some men with me to get Steve.  When we got to the beach, they was gone.  We went along the ______ about three miles and found them.  Steve was crying with a lot of natives round him.  He said they had tied his hands behind him and plundered the boat.  What did you do then?  We went back to the town and stayed there.  What did they ___ you on?  We lived with the priest and we got the same as he got.  Who was it you told the story to of being the only survivors of an English ship that had foundered, and you was the Captain?  I never told anyone that Sir!  Yes, you did. Well Sir!  I told that to the Captain of the Port.  It was the priest I told the true story to…____ _____I….

…could trust him.  Well, then it was the priest who wrote that you told him about the shipwreck.  How was you sent back to Ilo-ilo?  Under a guard with spears.  Was you ever in the British Army?  No Sir.  What made you tell me you was a deserter from the British Army?  I thought the British Consul would interfere and get me ______.  That would be jumping from the frying pan into the fire, for you would be punished then a s a deserter by court martial.  Yes Sir, but anything was better than going back on that ship with those men.  What was you going to do with my boat if you had ________?  Oh, we would have given her up.  But what good would that do me after the ship was gone?  What did I ever do to you, that you should steal my boat?  I know it Sir, and I felt so bad about it that when……
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…hands _________ behind my back, I tried to jump overboard (which was true).  And now you know the charges and expenses against you are heavy?  Yes Sir, but we must meet them as ______ as our wages go.
Whoever reads this will see that I am hard up for paper and I have been robbing everything to splice it as ____ as any.
Today I have to chronicle the death of our faithful old cat, Nancy.  For nearly three years she has been the taker of rats on board, and I very much doubt if…
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…Sam ________, my Boston boy has got into disgrace two days ago.  I saw somebody on the poop and could not make out who it was, whether it was some broken nosed Paddy, or who, I couldn’t tell.  But finally it proved to be him.  He had been fighting with Steve, and his face was a mass of black and blue.  He did not like to tell anything about it, but finally he said that Steve could fight better than he could.  A pretty sight he would be to go home to his mother!, after 18 months absence, and suppose the Captain or Officers had done it!  What _____ they would have deen! It would cost one hundred dollars to do that to one of those.  Still, they will do it…..
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A year ago I was in Batavia.  It seems only yesterday, but a year has been spent in the Orient and what has done for us, what for the loved ones at home?
It is a lovely month, the decaying leaves are so rich in coloring, but we shall not see them.  They will be turned into icicles when we get there.  Never mind, we shall need the change.  These torpid ______ of ours want some cold blood circulating through them.  How merrily the sleigh bells will jingle!  The dark pines will have leaves enough for us, but we will hug the pine ______ and give up most of outdoor comforts to be inside ours, won’t we Pilgarlic?
(Sketch of rolling ships on the ocean here)

 

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15th October.  95 days at Sea.
Latitude- 7 degrees South.  Longitude- 27 degrees West.

Here we are in the heart of the ________ zone again- with the thermometer at 82 degrees in the shade- getting our lives well-cooked again.  We are well into the Western hemisphere too.  That is one comfort, and please God, we will be in cooler weather very soon, for don’t you see?  It is the 15th of October!  The wind comes down from the NW and whistles round our New England homes and whirls the dust up in the roads.  The farms are getting ready with their crops and thinking of winter.  We are near the Equator, which we shall _____ in a few days, and that is another land mark.  The last week has been hard for old D.B.  Four days and nights of steady, constant tooth ache.  Ugh!  What would he have given for a Dentist!  But as usual today is the Sabbath, he has crawled out of….
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…of the time to ________ ______ or later, when the Great Pain must come.  And he must lay down on his lonely couch and breathe out the last breath.  No one to care for him or smooth his hard pillow- ‘tis all right.
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and so if ______ can’t have the _______ God sends us these beautiful creatures to take their places.  Yet I hope we shall see the _______ birds in their time and reason.
I feel so full of the idea of getting home, I can’t do anything.  I can’t make a basket.  I have had one on the bench this long time and have promised it long ago.  Still, I can’t seem to finish it.  It is a busy time with the sailors now.  A great change has come over our ship.  She is tarred, scrubbed, and painted, ‘till she shines and glistens like a new dollar.  I have had everything out of my room- of course, and looked at it and smelt of I,t and not a speck of dirt remains.  The ship cleaning and painting beats home a ….
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…little space.

Mow we are cursing the track of outward bound ships and we have had to keep our lights burning and good eyes on the water nights, for many a good ship has gone down here never to be heard of again.  I suppose they have got our letters at home now that we sent from “Anjer”.  And the children be given to think of their Papa and  tell little flaxen haired darlings about “Uncle John”.  Bless them all.  Perhaps in a few weeks more _____   _______, we shall be there.  We can’t get there _______ Birthday ______ I think I know somebody that would get a present that day.

 

When I was in Hong Kong, I found a Hallowell boy who was once before the mast with me, about 3 or 4 years ago.  Now he was Mate of the ship Otago of Rockland,  Captain Thorndike bound to San Francisco.  He sent me a bundle of papers, and I stowed them away overhead in my room.  One day when the ship was rolling heavily, they fell down.  When I went to pick them up, I noticed they had Gazette in fancy type.  I thought it was some story paper, the Evening Gazette or something of that sort.  When I detected Hallowell in one of the columns, thinks I to myself.  Hallowell is getting very notorious, and opened it.  It was a quarter sheet entirely new to me.  I looked again and it was full of Hallowell advertisements, and sure enough it was a Hallowell paper.  Can this be the old Hallowell Gazette? ….
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This page is a pen and ink drawing by Captain Drew

 

 

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Isle Fernando ___________- as seen from the deck of the Franklin, being 12 miles West.

…the Methodist(?) evening meetings the minutes. Mr. Bone(?) used to call out, Oh Wicked Hallowell! What would he say now?
Saturday, October 21st.  101 days out.  North Atlantic, 50 miles North of the Equator.  Hurrah! Hail!  Old Pond! Now we can see Boston on the old chart.  We crossed the line last night, 100 days out, just the time I gave her.  Now 29 days more.  It is the 56th time I have crossed the line, and never saw it yet.  Things look natural round here.  The old stars begin to come in sight, Cassiopeia, Ursa Major, and other old friends bid us welcome.  But not a sail have we seen!  What does it mean?  Is it War? Is it Peace?  As Capt. Holt said, “when he ______ a passing vessel.  Echo our wars where!  We must wait.  Thursday we saw the Island of Fernando De ________.  It is 3 degrees 50 minutes South and is a ______ settlement belonging to Brazil.  It has a remarkable Peak! And once seen is never forgotten, it looks like a _____________ chimney.  I have seen it a great many times..  Now along our lee- bore lay the West India Islands and we begin to think of home in earnest….
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…_________ cockroaches, what a noise they make, when they found they were to be driven away from their old haunts.  The sailors have been turned out from the forecastle to have it cleaned, painted, and varnished.  And now like Alexander who wept because there were no more worlds to conquer, D.B weeps because there are no more places to clean out.  He has got another attack of liver, and it is excruciating.  However there is no help for it.  I am reading lives of celebrated travelers now.  Nice English work in three volumes given me by Mr. Pearson at Batavia.  I shall finish nearly all my books.  D.B. has written an abstract journal of the  voyage through the Eastern seas to send to London at the request of the Captain of HBM ship Nassau(?)  And is now amusing himself with Drawing a _________ chart of the whole voyage.  But he can’t make any baskets!  I don’t know why, it’s no use to try.
“We are all happy and free as a crew could be…
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Sunday October 22 – 102 days out.
Latitude 2 degrees North.

Our Trade winds are now getting light, and we shall soon be in the de___tiable ground between the SE and NE where we beat so hard to get south on the passage out last year.  If we get the same wind this time, hard we will go it.  We have had a long spell of fine weather now. _____ ______ since putting out our Studding sails both sides.  It seems an age to us “homeward bounds”  How the sun comes out!The thermometer is at 81 degrees in the shade and we are all rigged up in white cloths again.  What is there so nice and cool as clean white sheets?  Soon it will be cold enough though and we will….
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Oct. 25th – 105 days out.
Latitude 6 degrees North.

Our SE Trades still hang on, but are getting very light and rather tedious.  The weather is clear and beautiful, but sluggish.  No vigor in it.  I am now reading lectures on Geology.  How much there is to learn!  Like mine, I am amusing myself, drawing of course the Franklin and Fearless are drawn and _________ to death.  Last night, one of those incidents occurred on board, which are so harrowing to the Capt.  Of course, Deck Bucket can’t _____ is _____ his _____.  It can’t be written here.  But sleep has been from his eyelids for many a night.  The following piece of paper will tell where we were a year ago.
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Program of note save by Captain Drew.

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…and with flowers and tea, and all so pretty.  But I have described it in an early part of this chronicle.  Such pleasures come to us like Angels Visits.  It is hard sometimes to think we are shut up, imprisoned on our “floating graves” for Ever.  But it is all right, no doubt.
There was about 8,000 ______ put on board here in Ilo-ilo for me to get on shore somewhere without paying the duties.  I thought of it so much that I already a smuggler, and it worried me a good deal to think of _______ up at the Custom House, and perjure myself by swearing that I had entered all the merchandise.  Until at last I thought, why should I do _____ _______ Mr. baker’s ship into danger for such a paltry thing, and I made up  my mind.  I would do no such thing!
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…and it seemed as though I was released from prison.  I felt so free.
Sunday 29th  October – 109 days out.  Latitude 10 degrees North.  We are now in the NE Trades and going along at a rate of 150 miles a day.  We had a few days of doldrums, with wind flying all round, and torrents of rain, which made us ____ all our Studding sails.  And a great time everybody had washing and scrubbing.  Chin, in all his glory with his washboard. He never is so happy as when he them a going.  Everybody has read many an “Explanation of them Doldrums”, how the SE Tradewinds….
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I saw the North star last Thursday so nice on seven degrees North.  You can hardly ever see it nearer the Equator on account of its small altitude and the clarity of the atmosphere.  It seems like an old friend and now three weeks from today, we ought to be in Boston, Please God.
We saw an immense stick ________  body floating, back sticking up endways, like the mast of a ship.  If we has struck on it- would have made a hole in the bottom of the ship, and we went within two rods of it.  It’s funny that we don’t see any ships.  What does that mean? _______ ______ have we seen now for a long time, and we are ______ their most frequented track of all the ….
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