American Notes | Page 7

made the passage (as everybody on board has found out
already; it's impossible to say how) thirteen times without a single
accident! There is another passenger very much wrapped-up, who has
been frowned down by the rest, and morally trampled upon and crushed,
for presuming to inquire with a timid interest how long it is since the
poor President went down. He is standing close to the lazy gentleman,
and says with a faint smile that he believes She is a very strong Ship; to
which the lazy gentleman, looking first in his questioner's eye and then
very hard in the wind's, answers unexpectedly and ominously, that She
need be. Upon this the lazy gentleman instantly falls very low in the
popular estimation, and the passengers, with looks of defiance, whisper
to each other that he is an ass, and an impostor, and clearly don't know
anything at all about it.
But we are made fast alongside the packet, whose huge red funnel is
smoking bravely, giving rich promise of serious intentions.
Packing-cases, portmanteaus, carpet-bags, and boxes, are already
passed from hand to hand, and hauled on board with breathless rapidity.
The officers, smartly dressed, are at the gangway handing the
passengers up the side, and hurrying the men. In five minutes' time, the
little steamer is utterly deserted, and the packet is beset and over-run by
its late freight, who instantly pervade the whole ship, and are to be met
with by the dozen in every nook and corner: swarming down below
with their own baggage, and stumbling over other people's; disposing
themselves comfortably in wrong cabins, and creating a most horrible
confusion by having to turn out again; madly bent upon opening locked
doors, and on forcing a passage into all kinds of out-of-the-way places
where there is no thoroughfare; sending wild stewards, with elfin hair,
to and fro upon the breezy decks on unintelligible errands, impossible
of execution: and in short, creating the most extraordinary and
bewildering tumult. In the midst of all this, the lazy gentleman, who

seems to have no luggage of any kind - not so much as a friend, even -
lounges up and down the hurricane deck, coolly puffing a cigar; and, as
this unconcerned demeanour again exalts him in the opinion of those
who have leisure to observe his proceedings, every time he looks up at
the masts, or down at the decks, or over the side, they look there too, as
wondering whether he sees anything wrong anywhere, and hoping that,
in case he should, he will have the goodness to mention it.
What have we here? The captain's boat! and yonder the captain himself.
Now, by all our hopes and wishes, the very man he ought to be! A
well-made, tight-built, dapper little fellow; with a ruddy face, which is
a letter of invitation to shake him by both hands at once; and with a
clear, blue honest eye, that it does one good to see one's sparkling
image in. 'Ring the bell!' 'Ding, ding, ding!' the very bell is in a hurry.
'Now for the shore - who's for the shore?' - 'These gentlemen, I am
sorry to say.' They are away, and never said, Good b'ye. Ah now they
wave it from the little boat. 'Good b'ye! Good b'ye!' Three cheers from
them; three more from us; three more from them: and they are gone.
To and fro, to and fro, to and fro again a hundred times! This waiting
for the latest mail-bags is worse than all. If we could have gone off in
the midst of that last burst, we should have started triumphantly: but to
lie here, two hours and more in the damp fog, neither staying at home
nor going abroad, is letting one gradually down into the very depths of
dulness and low spirits. A speck in the mist, at last! That's something. It
is the boat we wait for! That's more to the purpose. The captain appears
on the paddle-box with his speaking trumpet; the officers take their
stations; all hands are on the alert; the flagging hopes of the passengers
revive; the cooks pause in their savoury work, and look out with faces
full of interest. The boat comes alongside; the bags are dragged in
anyhow, and flung down for the moment anywhere. Three cheers more:
and as the first one rings upon our ears, the vessel throbs like a strong
giant that has just received the breath of life; the two great wheels turn
fiercely round for the first time; and the noble ship, with wind and tide
astern, breaks proudly through the lashed and roaming water.

CHAPTER II
- THE PASSAGE OUT

WE all dined together that day; and a rather formidable party we were:
no fewer than eighty-six