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Now
,
as
the
business
of
standing
mast-heads
,
ashore
or
afloat
,
is
a
very
ancient
and
interesting
one
,
let
us
in
some
measure
expatiate
here
.
I
take
it
,
that
the
earliest
standers
of
mast-heads
were
the
old
Egyptians
;
because
,
in
all
my
researches
,
I
find
none
prior
to
them
.
For
though
their
progenitors
,
the
builders
of
Babel
,
must
doubtless
,
by
their
tower
,
have
intended
to
rear
the
loftiest
mast-head
in
all
Asia
,
or
Africa
either
;
yet
(
ere
the
final
truck
was
put
to
it
)
as
that
great
stone
mast
of
theirs
may
be
said
to
have
gone
by
the
board
,
in
the
dread
gale
of
God
's
wrath
;
therefore
,
we
can
not
give
these
Babel
builders
priority
over
the
Egyptians
.
And
that
the
Egyptians
were
a
nation
of
mast-head
standers
,
is
an
assertion
based
upon
the
general
belief
among
archaeologists
,
that
the
first
pyramids
were
founded
for
astronomical
purposes
:
a
theory
singularly
supported
by
the
peculiar
stairlike
formation
of
all
four
sides
of
those
edifices
;
whereby
,
with
prodigious
long
upliftings
of
their
legs
,
those
old
astronomers
were
wont
to
mount
to
the
apex
,
and
sing
out
for
new
stars
;
even
as
the
look-outs
of
a
modern
ship
sing
out
for
a
sail
,
or
a
whale
just
bearing
in
sight
.
In
Saint
Stylites
,
the
famous
Christian
hermit
of
old
times
,
who
built
him
a
lofty
stone
pillar
in
the
desert
and
spent
the
whole
latter
portion
of
his
life
on
its
summit
,
hoisting
his
food
from
the
ground
with
a
tackle
;
in
him
we
have
a
remarkable
instance
of
a
dauntless
stander-of-mast-heads
;
who
was
not
to
be
driven
from
his
place
by
fogs
or
frosts
,
rain
,
hail
,
or
sleet
;
but
valiantly
facing
everything
out
to
the
last
,
literally
died
at
his
post
.
Of
modern
standers-of-mast-heads
we
have
but
a
lifeless
set
;
mere
stone
,
iron
,
and
bronze
men
;
who
,
though
well
capable
of
facing
out
a
stiff
gale
,
are
still
entirely
incompetent
to
the
business
of
singing
out
upon
discovering
any
strange
sight
.
There
is
Napoleon
;
who
,
upon
the
top
of
the
column
of
Vendome
stands
with
arms
folded
,
some
one
hundred
and
fifty
feet
in
the
air
;
careless
,
now
,
who
rules
the
decks
below
,
whether
Louis
Philippe
,
Louis
Blanc
,
or
Louis
the
Devil
.
Great
Washington
,
too
,
stands
high
aloft
on
his
towering
main-mast
in
Baltimore
,
and
like
one
of
Hercules
'
pillars
,
his
column
marks
that
point
of
human
grandeur
beyond
which
few
mortals
will
go
.
Admiral
Nelson
,
also
,
on
a
capstan
of
gun-metal
,
stands
his
mast-head
in
Trafalgar
Square
;
and
even
when
most
obscured
by
that
London
smoke
,
token
is
yet
given
that
a
hidden
hero
is
there
;
for
where
there
is
smoke
,
must
be
fire
.
But
neither
great
Washington
,
nor
Napoleon
,
nor
Nelson
,
will
answer
a
single
hail
from
below
,
however
madly
invoked
to
befriend
by
their
counsels
the
distracted
decks
upon
which
they
gaze
;
however
it
may
be
surmised
,
that
their
spirits
penetrate
through
the
thick
haze
of
the
future
,
and
descry
what
shoals
and
what
rocks
must
be
shunned
.
It
may
seem
unwarrantable
to
couple
in
any
respect
the
mast-head
standers
of
the
land
with
those
of
the
sea
;
but
that
in
truth
it
is
not
so
,
is
plainly
evinced
by
an
item
for
which
Obed
Macy
,
the
sole
historian
of
Nantucket
,
stands
accountable
.
The
worthy
Obed
tells
us
,
that
in
the
early
times
of
the
whale
fishery
,
ere
ships
were
regularly
launched
in
pursuit
of
the
game
,
the
people
of
that
island
erected
lofty
spars
along
the
seacoast
,
to
which
the
look-outs
ascended
by
means
of
nailed
cleats
,
something
as
fowls
go
upstairs
in
a
hen-house
.
A
few
years
ago
this
same
plan
was
adopted
by
the
Bay
whalemen
of
New
Zealand
,
who
,
upon
descrying
the
game
,
gave
notice
to
the
ready-manned
boats
nigh
the
beach
.
But
this
custom
has
now
become
obsolete
;
turn
we
then
to
the
one
proper
mast-head
,
that
of
a
whale-ship
at
sea
.
The
three
mast-heads
are
kept
manned
from
sun-rise
to
sun-set
;
the
seamen
taking
their
regular
turns
(
as
at
the
helm
)
,
and
relieving
each
other
every
two
hours
.
In
the
serene
weather
of
the
tropics
it
is
exceedingly
pleasant
the
mast-head
:
nay
,
to
a
dreamy
meditative
man
it
is
delightful
.
There
you
stand
,
a
hundred
feet
above
the
silent
decks
,
striding
along
the
deep
,
as
if
the
masts
were
gigantic
stilts
,
while
beneath
you
and
between
your
legs
,
as
it
were
,
swim
the
hugest
monsters
of
the
sea
,
even
as
ships
once
sailed
between
the
boots
of
the
famous
Colossus
at
old
Rhodes
.
There
you
stand
,
lost
in
the
infinite
series
of
the
sea
,
with
nothing
ruffled
but
the
waves
.
The
tranced
ship
indolently
rolls
;
the
drowsy
trade
winds
blow
;
everything
resolves
you
into
languor
.
For
the
most
part
,
in
this
tropic
whaling
life
,
a
sublime
uneventfulness
invests
you
;
you
hear
no
news
;
read
no
gazettes
;
extras
with
startling
accounts
of
commonplaces
never
delude
you
into
unnecessary
excitements
;
you
hear
of
no
domestic
afflictions
;
bankrupt
securities
;
fall
of
stocks
;
are
never
troubled
with
the
thought
of
what
you
shall
have
for
dinner
--
for
all
your
meals
for
three
years
and
more
are
snugly
stowed
in
casks
,
and
your
bill
of
fare
is
immutable
.
In
one
of
those
southern
whalesmen
,
on
a
long
three
or
four
years
'
voyage
,
as
often
happens
,
the
sum
of
the
various
hours
you
spend
at
the
mast-head
would
amount
to
several
entire
months
.
And
it
is
much
to
be
deplored
that
the
place
to
which
you
devote
so
considerable
a
portion
of
the
whole
term
of
your
natural
life
,
should
be
so
sadly
destitute
of
anything
approaching
to
a
cosy
inhabitiveness
,
or
adapted
to
breed
a
comfortable
localness
of
feeling
,
such
as
pertains
to
a
bed
,
a
hammock
,
a
hearse
,
a
sentry
box
,
a
pulpit
,
a
coach
,
or
any
other
of
those
small
and
snug
contrivances
in
which
men
temporarily
isolate
themselves
.
Your
most
usual
point
of
perch
is
the
head
of
the
t
'
gallant-mast
,
where
you
stand
upon
two
thin
parallel
sticks
(
almost
peculiar
to
whalemen
)
called
the
t
'
gallant
crosstrees
.
Here
,
tossed
about
by
the
sea
,
the
beginner
feels
about
as
cosy
as
he
would
standing
on
a
bull
's
horns
.
To
be
sure
,
in
cold
weather
you
may
carry
your
house
aloft
with
you
,
in
the
shape
of
a
watch-coat
;
but
properly
speaking
the
thickest
watch-coat
is
no
more
of
a
house
than
the
unclad
body
;
for
as
the
soul
is
glued
inside
of
its
fleshy
tabernacle
,
and
can
not
freely
move
about
in
it
,
nor
even
move
out
of
it
,
without
running
great
risk
of
perishing
(
like
an
ignorant
pilgrim
crossing
the
snowy
Alps
in
winter
)
;
so
a
watch-coat
is
not
so
much
of
a
house
as
it
is
a
mere
envelope
,
or
additional
skin
encasing
you
.
You
can
not
put
a
shelf
or
chest
of
drawers
in
your
body
,
and
no
more
can
you
make
a
convenience
closet
of
your
watch-coat
.
Concerning
all
this
,
it
is
much
to
be
deplored
that
the
mast-heads
of
a
southern
whale
ship
are
unprovided
with
those
enviable
little
tents
or
pulpits
,
called
crow
's
-
nests
,
in
which
the
look-outs
of
a
Greenland
whaler
are
protected
from
the
inclement
weather
of
the
frozen
seas
.
In
the
fireside
narrative
of
Captain
Sleet
,
entitled
"
A
Voyage
among
the
Icebergs
,
in
quest
of
the
Greenland
Whale
,
and
incidentally
for
the
re-discovery
of
the
Lost
Icelandic
Colonies
of
Old
Greenland
;
"
in
this
admirable
volume
,
all
standers
of
mast-heads
are
furnished
with
a
charmingly
circumstantial
account
of
the
then
recently
invented
crow
's
-
nest
of
the
Glacier
,
which
was
the
name
of
Captain
Sleet
's
good
craft
.
He
called
it
the
Sleet
's
crow
's
-
nest
,
in
honor
of
himself
;
he
being
the
original
inventor
and
patentee
,
and
free
from
all
ridiculous
false
delicacy
,
and
holding
that
if
we
call
our
own
children
after
our
own
names
(
we
fathers
being
the
original
inventors
and
patentees
)
,
so
likewise
should
we
denominate
after
ourselves
any
other
apparatus
we
may
beret
.
In
shape
,
the
Sleet
's
crow
's
-
nest
is
something
like
a
large
tierce
or
pipe
;
it
is
open
above
,
however
,
where
it
is
furnished
with
a
movable
sidescreen
to
keep
to
windward
of
your
head
in
a
hard
gale
.
Being
fixed
on
the
summit
of
the
mast
,
you
ascend
into
it
through
a
little
trap-hatch
in
the
bottom
.
On
the
after
side
,
or
side
next
the
stern
of
the
ship
,
is
a
comfortable
seat
,
with
a
locker
underneath
for
umbrellas
,
comforters
,
and
coats
.
In
front
is
a
leather
rack
,
in
which
to
keep
your
speaking
trumpet
,
pipe
,
telescope
,
and
other
nautical
conveniences
.
When
Captain
Sleet
in
person
stood
his
mast-head
in
this
crow
's
-
nest
of
his
,
he
tells
us
that
he
always
had
a
rifle
with
him
(
also
fixed
in
the
rack
)
,
together
with
a
powder
flask
and
shot
,
for
the
purpose
of
popping
off
the
stray
narwhales
,
or
vagrant
sea
unicorns
infesting
those
waters
;
for
you
can
not
successfully
shoot
at
them
from
the
deck
owing
to
the
resistance
of
the
water
,
but
to
shoot
down
upon
them
is
a
very
different
thing
.
Now
,
it
was
plainly
a
labor
of
love
for
Captain
Sleet
to
describe
,
as
he
does
,
all
the
little
detailed
conveniences
of
his
crow
's
-
nest
;
but
though
he
so
enlarges
upon
many
of
these
,
and
though
he
treats
us
to
a
very
scientific
account
of
his
experiments
in
this
crow
's
-
nest
,
with
a
small
compass
he
kept
there
for
the
purpose
of
counteracting
the
errors
resulting
from
what
is
called
the
"
local
attraction
"
of
all
binnacle
magnets
;
an
error
ascribable
to
the
horizontal
vicinity
of
the
iron
in
the
ship
's
planks
,
and
in
the
Glacier
's
case
,
perhaps
,
to
there
having
been
so
many
broken-down
blacksmiths
among
her
crew
;
I
say
,
that
though
the
Captain
is
very
discreet
and
scientific
here
,
yet
,
for
all
his
learned
"
binnacle
deviations
,
"
"
azimuth
compass
observations
,
"
and
"
approximate
errors
,
"
he
knows
very
well
,
Captain
Sleet
,
that
he
was
not
so
much
immersed
in
those
profound
magnetic
meditations
,
as
to
fail
being
attracted
occasionally
towards
that
well
replenished
little
case-bottle
,
so
nicely
tucked
in
on
one
side
of
his
crow
's
nest
,
within
easy
reach
of
his
hand
.
Though
,
upon
the
whole
,
I
greatly
admire
and
even
love
the
brave
,
the
honest
,
and
learned
Captain
;
yet
I
take
it
very
ill
of
him
that
he
should
so
utterly
ignore
that
case-bottle
,
seeing
what
a
faithful
friend
and
comforter
it
must
have
been
,
while
with
mittened
fingers
and
hooded
head
he
was
studying
the
mathematics
aloft
there
in
that
bird
's
nest
within
three
or
four
perches
of
the
pole
.
