Digital Grainger

An Online Edition of The Sugar-Cane (1764)

81

  • Like clouds dim rising in the distant sky.1 [500]
  • Glad Eurus whistles; laugh the sportive crew;
  • Each sail is set to catch the favouring gale,
  • While on the yard-arm2 the harpooner sits,
  • Strikes the boneta,3 or the shark insnares.
  • The little nautilus4 with purple pride [505]
  • Expands his sails, and dances o’er the waves:
  • Small winged fishes5 on the shrouds alight;
  • And beauteous dolphins6 gently played around.

VER. 504. The boneta] This fish, which is equal in size to the largest salmon, is only to be found in the warm latitudes. It is not a delicate food, but those who have lived for any length of time on salt meats at sea, do not dislike it. Sir Hans Sloane, in his voyage to Jamaica, describes the method of striking them.

VER. 504. Or the shark] This voracious fish needs no description; I have seen them from 15 to 20 foot long. Some naturalists call it Canis Carharias. They have been known to follow a slave-ship from Guinea to the West Indies.7 They swim with incredible celerity, and are found in some of the warmer seas of Europe, as well as between the tropics.

VER. 505. nautilus8] This fish the seamen call a Portugese man of war. It makes a most beautiful appearance on the water.

VER. 507. winged fishes] This extraordinary species of fish is only found in the warm latitudes. Being pursued in the water by a fish of prey called Albacores,9 they betake themselves in shoals to flight, and in the air are often snapt up by the Garayio,10 a sea fowl. They sometimes fall on the shrouds or decks of ships. They are well tasted, and commonly sold at Barbadoes.11

VER. 508. Dolphins] This is a most beautiful fish, when first taken out of the sea; but its beauty vanishes, almost as soon as it is dead.

  1. The “Errata” list at the end of The Sugar-Cane indicates that “sky” should read “air.” ↩︎

  2. Either end of the yard of a square-rigged ship. The yard is a spar slung across a mast to support and extend a square sail. ↩︎

  3. Atlantic Bonito (Sarda sarda). Fish related to the tuna and mackerel whose range extends from Norway to South Africa in the eastern Atlantic (including the Mediterranean and the Black Sea) and from Nova Scotia to the northern Gulf of Mexico in the western Atlantic. ↩︎

  4. The nautilus is the Portuguese man-of-war or man o’ war (Physalia physalis), a highly toxic relative of the jellyfish. It is called the man-of-war for its resemblance to an eighteenth-century warship under full sail. Also, the “Errata” list for The Sugar-Cane indicates that lines 505 and 506 should read instead, “The fring’d urtica spreads her purple form/To catch the gale, and dances o’er the waves:”. ↩︎

  5. Flying fish, which are small fish of the Exocoetidae family that glide above the water to escape predators. The strongest fish can “fly” nearly 200 meters in one glide. ↩︎

  6. The dolphin fish, dorado, or mahi-mahi (Coryphaena hippurus), which is widespread in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, as well as in the Mediterranean. ↩︎

  7. Sharks (clade Selachimorpha) were notorious for following slave ships across the Atlantic, since slavers threw those individuals who died during the voyage overboard. Slavers also used sharks to terrorize their captives and subdue rebellious behavior. For example, one captain facing the prospect of suicides among his captives decided to lower a woman into the water, where she was bitten in half (Rediker 40). ↩︎

  8. The “Errata” list at the end of The Sugar-Cane indicates that “nautilus” should read “urtica.” ↩︎

  9. Albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga), which is found in tropical and temperate waters of all the oceans, including the Mediterranean. Now a threatened species due to overfishing. ↩︎

  10. Perhaps the tropic bird (any seabird of the family Phaethontidae) or the frigate bird (any seabird of the family Fregatidae), both of which prey on flying fish. ↩︎

  11. One of the Lesser Antilles; colonized by the English in 1627. Gained independence in 1966. ↩︎