"Round the Horn before the mast" by Basil Lubbock is a maritime memoir written in the early 20th century. It follows a gentleman volunteer who ships before the mast on the four‑masted barque Royalshire to experience deep‑water life on a grain passage from San Francisco around Cape Horn toward Europe. The narrative dwells on the gritty work, seamanship, and shipboard culture of the great windjammers, painting vivid portraits of officers, crew, and ports. It promises realism, humor, and danger rather than romance. The opening of this narrative finds the narrator in San Francisco after the Klondike, choosing the Royalshire, signing on, and pairing up with fellow recruit Don Henderson. He outfits like a common seaman and plunges into hard labor: unloading Japanese coal, scouring stringers and bilges, chipping and painting, wrestling wire moorings, and enduring rough fare—relieved by cricket matches and the Seamen’s Institute. The ship shifts to Oakland Creek and Port Costa to line the holds and load barley, while a suspicious Swedish sailmaker appears, a classic South Sea whaler is spotted, and the crew bends sail aloft in a stiff wind. There are swims in the Sacramento, a sandy-shore breakfast on a boat errand, and a grim episode when an apprentice from another ship drowns and the Royalshire’s “nipper” is nearly lost. After finishing cargo and returning to the bay, a mixed crew drifts aboard, the narrator briefly serves as steward, and the harbor erupts in celebration for return…
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