Watch On the Wheel'' off the pin rails by the on-coming seas , and two , to awaken the old man from his snoozing on the old black horsehair settee in the chart house. The captain and the mate appear. The mate directs the police to clear up washed out lines by pointing with the fi nger, then makes his way to the old man. Like a manager coming out to the pitcher's mound , both men stand in silence . They hedge, the mate looking to the captain to make the first move. They cast eyes aloft. They track the sea and they exchange words that I strain to hear while trying to keep the ship' s head up. Concentrating on them I lose my attention. The binnacle fl ickers and the lubber line once again drifts. The old man makes his decision and orders , " At the change of the watch we wi ll take in the lower topgallants and put two men on the helm." I strike eight bel ls and the lookout on the focs le head answers fai nti y. 3 So goes the watch on the wheel at 5 1 degrees south , 147 degrees west. The mate goes aft to read the taffrail log , 58 mi les , 12 knots on the 8 to 12 watch .
Act Two. Windjammer Navigation I am standing my watch at the wheel on the liverpool island forward of the chart house. We are now in the trades. The old man appears on the scene , sextant in hand. He is goi ng to get an afternoon sight to cross with his twelve o' clock high latitude line . It' s a beautifu l day ; whi te clouds in the sky like pillow cases, cream puffs , marshmallows on parade. The captain is in a collarless white shirt , panama hat, suspenders , baggy pants and sli ppers. He is about to pull the sun down with hi s sex t~nt and swi ng it on the hori zon . Eyeballmg the situation , the o ld man adjusts the sunshades on his vernier sextant and takes ai m. Suddenl y " old sol" disappears behind a cloud. " Satan!" Now he lifts the shades. Half way down again " old sol" pops out from a cream puff a ~ d burns the old man' s eyes out. Agam more cho ice words to which onl y the helm is privy . I do not know whether he got his sight or not. T he old man JUSt. went steaming off into the chart house m disgust. I never rea ll y appreciated what actuall y was going on until I myself became a navigator in the navy some years later. Down below in the o ld man' s quarters are three chronometers which the captain winds and compares each day . Meticulous, al most re ligious, attendance to these instru ments is mandatory for we have 3. There is a bell on the wheelbox-time is made there and repeated by the bell on the focs le head. See , The Ship's Bell by Karl Wede fo r a picture o f Passat's wheel box bell .
SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1987
" f t' s a beautiful day; white clouds in the sky .. ." The author aboard Passat in 1939.
neither radio nor any other acc urate means of gaug ing time on our voyage half way aro und the world. Jn the navy I was taught the C M inus W system for celestial navigation . Us ing this method the navigator clicks a stopwatch after establishing a sight on the hori zo n. Then, when reading the chronometer he subtracts the watch time spent to get the true chronometer time . Cape Hom windjammer skippers were a little more clever. On Passat, Captam Lindvall used to blow a whistle when he met his horizon. Below , the mate of the watch would take the reading from the face of the chronometer thus elim inating the need for C Minus W . Now, it is said that in one windjammer where the old man took his wife to sea , he dev ised another approach . This captain had the old lady positioned over the chronometer down below in his quarters ready for the moment he got his angle down. When the time came , he stomped on the deck ho llering , " Now , Mama! " It is said that the vessel was Falls of Clyde. Another Erikson skipper got his sun line and then walked back to the chart house which held the chronometers . He counted off in Swedi sh, en, tva , tre , fyra , fem , sex , sju, ... until face to face with the chronometer, then subtracted the number of steps he took.
Act Three: An Artie Sight The curtain rises as her gaffs lift and pull. The year is 1936. I am at the helm in the schooner Effie M . Morrissey somewhere off the east coast of Greenland . As a young sailor standing watch at the wheel, I must bear witness, like it or not, to the captain ' s every action . It had been a tro ubled day, rain squalls fo llowed by clearing, shifting winds. Just about everything on the Beaufort scale hit us. The old man, Captain Bob Bartlett, has not had a good sight all day . Now more rain squalls are approaching. T ime is running short. Captain Bob, cl ad in oilskins and wearing a big sou 'wester is about to ascend the after companionway on the little Morrissey, sextant in hand . He is determined to get that afternoon line. In schooner style you have the wheel fac ing the after companionway hatch . When not staring into the binnacle yo u are looking ri ght down the old man' s throat as he asce nds the 70 degree ladder no more than six feet away. The captai n is preoccupied. He doesn' t notice that the overhead hatch is not " slud " to the open position. The blinding brim fr~ m hi s sou'wester is not abo ut to tell hi m that. On he comes gall oping up the ladder, hoping to catch that sun before the
next ra in squall. Admittedl y the old man's speed is hampered by the pitching and yawing of the vessel, vision impaired , onl y one hand free , the other clasped to the sextant. Head to the hatchcover, bang! Down he goes, hitting the cabin fl oorboards like a sack of potatoes. I hear the tinkle of glass fro m the sextant lense shades and I know the instrument is totalled . I wo nder about the old man. Captain Bob rises to his feet. He flies up the ladder, swearing loud and clear, shoves the hatch back , grabs a wooden toggle,4 and beats the hell out of the hatch cover uttering a constant stream of profanity. He throws the toggle down and disappears into his after quarters. All is silent. A short time later a very reserved and quiet captain reappears with another sextant in hand . With nary a word he goes to the weather rail and proceeds to shoot the sun . Tom Well s, front row center seat , was the sole witness to all of these acts. I was on watch on the wheel. J,
Mr . Wells, Advisor to the Society, has told the story of his sailing in Passat in SH 18 , and in the Effi e M . Morrissey in SH23. Passat flourishes as a museum ship in Travemunde, Germany today, Morrissey sails as Ernestina out of New Bedford, and Mr. Wells practices marine art in Seattle. 4 . A toggle is a piece of oak similar to a baseball bat. It lies on the after house, nex t to the hatch cover. The too l is used in conjunction with a manil a bra ided strap wh ich is tossed over the peak of the gaff when the sai I is down. The togg le is shoved between the two beckets of the strap , then turned like a tourniquet to draw the booms together.
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