Robert Louis Stephenson

19 years ago

Christmas at Sea by Robert Louis Stevenson

The sheets were frozen hard, and they cut the naked hand;

The decks were like a slide, where a seaman scarce could stand,

The wind was a nor'-wester, blowing squally off the sea;

And cliffs and spouting breakers were the only things a-lee.

They heard the surf a-roaring before the break of day;

But 'twas only with the peep of light we saw how ill we lay.

We tumbled every hand on deck instanter, with a shout,

And we gave her the maintops'l, and stood by to go about.

All day we tack'd and tack'd between the South Head and the North;

All day we haul'd the frozen sheets, and got no further forth;

All day as cold as charity, in bitter pain and dread,

For very life and nature we tack'd from head to head.

We gave the South a wider berth, for there the tide-race roar'd;

But every tack we made we brought the North Head close aboard;

So's we saw the cliffs and houses, and the breakers running high,

And the coastguard in his garden with his glass against his eye.

The frost was on the village roofs as white as ocean foam;

The good red fires were burning bright in every 'longshore home;

The windows sparkled clear, and the chimneys volley'd out;

And I vow we sniff'd the victuals as the vessel went about.

The bells upon the church were rung with a mighty jovial cheer;

For it's just that I should tell you how (of all days of the year)

This day of our adversity was blessed Christmas morn,

And the house above the coastguard's was the house where I was born.

O well I saw the pleasant room, the pleasant faces there,

My mother's silver spectacles, my father's silver hair;

And well I saw the firelight, like a flight of homely elves

Go dancing round the china-plates that stand upon the shelves!

And well I knew the talk they had, the talk that was of me,

Of the shadow on the household and the son that went to sea;

An O the wicked fool I seem'd, in every kind of way,

To be here and hauling frozen ropes on blessed Christmas Day.

They lit the high sea-light, and the dark began to fall.

'All hands to loose topgallant sails!' I heard the captain call.

'By the Lord, she'll never stand it,' our first mate Jackson cried.

. . . 'It's the one way or the other, Mr. Jackson,' he replied.

She stagger'd to her bearings, but the sails were new and good,

And the ship smelt up to windward just as though she understood.

As the winter's day was ending, in the entry of the night,

We clear'd the weary headland, and pass'd below the light.

And they heaved a mighty breath, every soul on board but me,

As they saw her nose again pointing handsome out to sea;

But all that I could think of, in the darkness and the cold,

Was just that I was leaving home and my folks were growing old.

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Comments (6)

mwoods
19 years ago
Very nice. You know,I've never run across this one before. It's like discovering a beautiful piece of colored glass on a beach.
calliope
19 years ago
I spent Christmas at sea when I was a little girl. The seas were horrendous, just like in this poem, and steely grey and we were tossed about like ping-pong balls. We were just about to cross the international date line, and the whole world for two weeks was the aroma of diesel fuel, salty air, paint and onions from the galley and the only noise was the huge pistons powering the screw and the groans of the ship as it smacked the waves head-on. Santa found us anyway. I got a little tin battery powered washing machine.
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mwoods
19 years ago
Suzy,where were you going?
Janis_G
19 years ago
Suzy is there no end to your adventures?
I declare, you are a most interesting woman.
Don't leave us hanging here.
calliope
19 years ago
I can't remember if it were the USS General Mann or the Breckenridge. I've traveled on both of those and on the Maurice Rose in the Atlantic twice. It was high adventure for a young girl and it was there I found out I had guts of steel and shoulda been a sailor. I saw seasoned seamen puking overboard. The furniture in the lounges slid around so badly, the crew roped them down. It was a hoot!And I loved every minute of it. The decks were off limits to passengers sometimes for days on end. We lost our Engines on Christmas eve and floated for hours. It was when I met my first Chinese person, a tall beautiful woman with skin like fine porcelain, and also passed the time playing checkers with a group of Korean Officers who were returning home from a military study trip in America. Our mess steward had a very boring day because I was usually the only person at his table who even kept the food down past the first course, so I got to eat everyone's steaks. rofl. He then built ice cream sundaes for me shaped like an island with parsely for palm trees. We docked in Yokohama, dog, cat, and stationwagon in tow and it was a miracle we got offloaded before the holiday, as we were told a few hours later and we would not be able to disembark for two days.

I saw my first Russian "fishing trawlers", and it was in the cold war era and they followed us for sevearal days. We were told we were on the Northern Route, and we did travel through/near the Aleutian Islands off Alaska.
Josh
19 years ago
What an interesting tale, Suzy, and I can well imagine you loving it.

RLS knew whereof he wrote...his father and uncles built almost all of the lighthouses around the rocky shores of Scotland. I read a book about it sometime back...they also invented some new type of light fixture which allowed the signal to be seen much further out to sea. I love to read of such perilous doings but I prefer armchair travels. josh