Quotation from: Elsinore

Written by: Jack London


It IS cold, although the deck thermometer stood at thirty-three to-
day at noon. I had Wada weigh the clothing I wear on deck. Omitting
oilskins and boots, it came to eighteen pounds. And yet I am not any
too warm in all this gear when the wind is blowing. How sailors,
after having once experienced the Horn, can ever sign on again for a
voyage around is beyond me. It but serves to show how stupid they
must be.


I feel sorry for Henry, the training-ship boy. He is more my own
kind, and some day he will make a henchman of the afterguard and a
mate like Mr. Pike. In the meantime, along with Buckwheat, the other
boy who berths in the 'midship-house with him, he suffers the same
hardship as the men. He is very fair-skinned, and I noticed this
afternoon, when he was pulling on a brace, that the sleeves of his
oil-skins, assisted by the salt water, have chafed his wrists till
they are raw and bleeding and breaking out in sea-boils. Mr.
Mellaire tells me that in another week there will be a plague of
these boils with all hands for'ard.

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Old Dominion University CS Dept
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Created: 2007-2-22T12:35:29Z
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Part of a series of experiments in web preservation under the direction of Michael L. Nelson, Ph.D.