In Search of an Unknown Race — page 21: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

VAN. 13 duties as a vessel’s officer were to be taken up, Van hurried on deck. The morning was cold and gray, with a fierce north- west wind shrieking through the rigging. Muffled in their pilot coats the Rattler’s commander and his young officer moved about the decks, directing the men, who were taking off the sail covers and casting the stops from the stiff canvas. Most of the new crew had the collars of their ragged coats turned up and their shabby caps pulled well down, to protect their ears and faces from the biting cold; so Van could not form a very good idea what manner of men they might be, with one exception. This was an almost gigantic negro with heavy, good- natured features, whose strength, as Van quickly per- ceived, was something almost incredible. He answered to the name of ‘*Tom,” and when Van noticed him unaided lift the end of the kedge anchor forward to clear a line, he resolved if possible to have ¢ha¢ man in his watch. Though a novice as far as holding office was con- cerned, Van was no greenhorn as to his duties. Six short voyages in the school ship had thoroughly posted him in the practical details of seamanship, and with Captain Peterson to give him points, he speedily began to gain confidence. He soon saw, too, that despite his youth, the crew recognized the fact that he was a first- rate sailor, and by no means backward in pulling and hauling with the rest when occasion required. By nightfall Cape Cod was being left astern. The decks were cleared up, everything made fast, and the — crew mustered aft for choice of watches, Van took EOmicdoo CS ((0) im