He also goes into great detail about how the hides were "droughed" (carried on the head) to the rowboats from the various ports to the ship, transported to port where they were again off-loaded to be stored until a certain tonnage was achieved. His descriptions as well of how a sailing vessel was laid out, the masts, the work of furling and unfurling sails in all kinds of weather (such as rounding Cape Horn in the Antarctic winter), keeping watch, and how sailors ate were exacting and well-written. He does not shy away from his first days with sea-sickness, to the quarters where he and his shipmates lived and slept on hammocks, to the times of watches and what was expected, to the perils they encountered bringing hides from one port of California to the other where they were stored prior to shipment. And it sailed out of Boston in 1834, before the railroads were built.ĭana was college-educated and kept a detailed diary on which he based this book. The ship to which he signed sailed cattle hides from California to Boston. I've heard that term and never really understood what it meant until now. Young Richard Dana find that his life has left him with no choice but to enlist in the Merchant Marines. A very, very good book with such detail about ships and sailing and masts and jibs and what-not.
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