Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/134

 The mean temperature between decks was about 40°. In severe weather hot coffee was served out to the crew. We had watch and watch, but it was mostly, "All hands reef topsails," "Shorten sail," "Make sail," or "Work  ship," the whole twenty-four hours. The commodore seemed to be on deck all the time, and how he managed  to sleep was a mystery.

January 30. The sun rose in great brilliancy this morning, and all was quiet save a brisk breeze blowing  from the eastward. All sail was set, making for a bay bearing sou’west. By noon we had reached its extreme limits. A barrier of ice one hundred and fifty feet high prevented our further progress south. Thirty or forty miles inland, behind the barrier, mountains could be  seen from two to three thousand feet high; also smoke  as from a volcano. Rocks were also seen several feet out of the water, with seals basking on them. This bay was named for our signal quartermaster, Piner’s Bay. It is situated in latitude 66° south, longitude 140° east. The wind had been freshening and there was too much at this time to tack, so we luffed the ship up into  the wind and wore her short round on her heel. At noon the wind had increased to a gale, and by one  o’clock we were reduced to storm sails, with our to’- gallant yards on deck. This, like the last gale, was an old-fashioned blinding snow-storm, and the sea we  experienced short and disagreeable, but nothing to be  compared with the first gale. The snow had the same steely or cutting quality as in the first gale, and seemed  as if armed with icicles or needles.

January 31. No moderation of the weather. At one