This was accompanied by one of those ugly seaways so
common in the North Atlantic, and the vessel rolled and tumbled in a
manner sufficiently trying, without the addition of the manifold
discomforts inseparably attendant on a first start. These, too, were, as
may well be supposed, not a little aggravated by the hurried manner in
which the transhipment of stores from the Agrippina and Bahama had
perforce been conducted. Everything, in fact, was in the wildest
confusion. The ship herself was dirty and unsettled, and her decks below
lumbered in all directions with all manner of incongruous articles. No
one was berthed or messed, nothing arranged or secured. Spare
shot-boxes, sea-chests, and heavy articles of baggage or cabin furniture
were fetching away to the destruction of crockery and other brittle
ware, and the no small danger of limbs. While to crown all, the upper
works of the vessel which had been caulked in the damp atmosphere of an
English winter, had opened out under the hot sun of the Azores through
every seam, and the eternal clank, clank of the pumps, which it was
fondly hoped had been heard for the last time when the poor, worn-out
little Sumter had been laid up, played throughout the long night a
dismal accompaniment to the creaking of the labouring vessel, and the
wild howling of an Atlantic gale.
So passed the Alabama's first night at sea. The next day the gale still
continued, and hindered not a little the energetic exertions of the
First Lieutenant, who, whilst Captain Semmes endeavoured, by snatching a
few hours' sleep, to quiet his worn-out nerves, took his turn in the
endeavour to bring something of order out of the apparently hopeless
chaos, and gradually reduce the vessel to the trim and orderly condition
proper to a well-commanded man-of-war.
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