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The Making of a Sailor or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger
In the 1875, Fred Harlow was a teenager eager to follow the example of his three brothers and go to sea. After one trip on a coasting schooner to appease his parents, he signed aboard the Yankee square-rigger, Akbar, bound for Australia and Java. He kept a journal of his trip which, fifty years later, he turned into a book, The Making of a Sailor or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger.
The book manages to capture the exuberance of a young man on a great adventure, tempered only slightly by the perspective of the intervening years. Harlow appears to have wanted to capture the life that was clearly slipping away when he finally sat down to write the book in the 1920s.
Not only does he include descriptions of the ship and the crew but also which shanty was sung for which job, including both the lyrics and music. His account is sprinkled with idiosyncratic details. On describing hauling the topsail halyards, he notes, “ The patent-sheave block of the topsail halyards kept up a lively accompaniment to “Handsome Charlie’s” cry, as the yard was being mastheaded. There is, indeed, a merry tone to the click of the ball-bearing rollers in the sheave; a feeling that the big blocks above are doing their utmost to help poor Jack lighten his work and once can almost her them say: “Go it, old. I’m with you!” “
The crew is a motley lot; from Old Kruse, the Russian-Finn who is convinced that the ship is jinxed and will never make all the way to Melbourne, even as they sail into Melbourne harbor, to Alanzo, the Ordinary Seaman, who never quite recovers from sea-sickness, to Big Hans, a hot-headed German who almost comes to blows with the Mate on more than one occasion, to the Dubliner O’Rourke. The Chief Mate, Mr. Burress, almost had as much problem with the Captain as he does with he crew.
After many of the crew, including Old Kruse, sign off in Australia, new sailors are hired, including one man named Brooks, who had been shanghaied by a boarding house keeper and is hoisted aboard, paralytic drunk. He turns out to be a man of some education who sailed as both mate and master before alcohol got the best of him. When sober Brooks turns out to be a fine sailor and a skilled shanty man.
Harlow’s descriptions of the storms at sea, of fighting to reef or strike the sails, and the endless pumping to keep the ship afloat without being swept overboard in the process, are vivid and harrowing. His view of the Australian harbor dance halls and the exotic shores of Java are also wonderful. The Making of Sailor captures a glimpse of the hardships and joys of the deep-sea sailor in age of the windjammer. Highly recommended.
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3 Responses to “The Making of a Sailor or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger”
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Ahoy,
Enjoyed and read Pease Harlow’s Making of a Sailor years ago.
I just recently discovered what he meant to be his volume 2 of the work, but it was not published until after his death.
Found “Chanteying Aboard American Ships” during a trip to Mystic this year. A delightful suprise and the introduction detailing the facinating life of Mr Harlow was excellent, as well as all the lyrics, music and descriptions of who, what, when and where certain chanteys were sung during his billets were excellent.
Dean,
Thanks for the heads up. That is a great find. I’ll have to track it down. Much appreciated.
[...] was about the age of these sailors when he ran off to sea, which he would later write about in The Making of a Sailor or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger. The times may have changed, but teenagers sailing the oceans have [...]