Feb. 21, 1788  Home  Logbook Remarks GM  Feb. 23, 1788

Bounty Logbook Remarks, Feb. 22, 1788

Thursday, Feb. 21, 1788

1:00 pm Fine Pleasant Weather and a steady Breeze.

4:00 pm Saw a Sail in the ESE her lower yards to be seen from the Deck. She had no Top Gallant masts up which with her reefing Topsails at Sun Down, which I saw her do, concluded she was not an English Man.

Friday, Feb. 22, 1788

6:00 am Shifted Steering Sails to the Starboard Side.

7:00 am No Sail in sight.

8:00 am Employed cleaning below & over hauling and setting the Rigging in good order

12:00 pm Very fine Pleasant Weather. Under all Sails. Saw a few Bonitos.

Remarks at Noon: Thermometer in Air 81°

Remarks

Having now passed the limits of the Southern Tropic, I shall just put the observations I have had an opportunity of making into one Point of View.

Through the Northern Tropic which we have passed with the Sun in a high Southern inclination, the Thermometer at noon in the shade varied from 76 to 86 however the heat was rather agreeable than otherwise; but however fine the Weather was, yet such a prodigious haze covered the horizon we could see any of it but a very small distance. At Sun down it wears away and the night become generally clear, but gathers again with the Sun rising. In the Southern Tropic the Sky has been generally clear and very free of haze, and the air considerably hotter to our feelings. The Thermometer varied in the shade at noon from 81 to 83 degrees and the highest we have ever had it was 85° near the Line. The morning Sun has been very powerful and productive of faintness among those exposed to it; but this I prevented as much as possible by making the People work under the Cover of Awnings. A thick haze is certainly a pleasant attendant in a Tropical Region, the Suns Rays have not so powerful an effect, and the Air is more cool and refreshing.

In any part of the Tropics when meeting with Calms and Rain, the Air becomes Sultry and unpleasant, and by long continuace very liable to create sickness. Nothing can prevent this but cleaning, drying and airing of Cloaths and Bedding, giving all the Air possible Fore and Aft the Ship, and keeping the People in constant exercise. One thing I have adopted and which I am convinced has been of an essential service, is once a day towards the evening from an hour to a half hour employed the People to put Water into One Pump and others to pump it out at the other. In heavy Rains when the Ship became heated below I found this to have a most valuable effect, and I believe the Pumps to be the best Ventilators that can be put into a Ship. After the Rain when the moistness created by it was dryed up, I generally Washed with Vinegar, which has a most refreshing effect, but in fine Weather nothing is necessary but exercise and cleanliness.

As most ships on advancing towards and near the line, so we [?] and the Sea becomes animated with numerous light spots occasioned by innumerable Marine Animals near the Surface that emit a Strong Sparkling light. There are a Variety of them, but the kind I now picked up were about 2 inches long and 1½ Inch in Circumference resembling very much a piece of vegetating coral through the pores of which the light was emitted in distinct particles, that with the refractive medium of the water had a most powerful effect. They appeared totally inanimated, and their bulk consisted so much of aqueous matter, that in water very little remains as substance. Besides these were numberless kinds of blubbers and great quantities of fish, but we caught but few. The Schools of Fish appeared at times like dangerous shoals, and [I] am convinced that most of those which down in these regions of which we can find no real existence, has been owing to the Relators having seen those imaginary dangers by night. The Currents we have met with have been by no means regular & have I ever found them so in the middle of the Oceans, near the Continents they are found fairly regular and constant, from the Channel to the Southward as far as Madeira there is invariably a Current setting to the SSE. The Line of no variation I presume to lie in 20°00′So and 31°15′West. I have now crossed the Line in this ocean at three different times of the Year, February, June, and September, between the Longitude 27°20′West. In September the Winds, from the Latitude 12°N became Westerly and then varied between the SWBS & SEBS with little Rain and no calms. In June pleasant SE'ly breezes and fine Weather and now in February with light Southerly winds, calms & Rain, but we always found the SE winds after crossing the Line. I now passed about 31 leagues to the Westward of Trinidada, and saw here Tropical Gannets which are always a sign of land being near. They are nearly the same as the Northern gannett and in the South Sea are called White Boobies.

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