Jack Is A Slave Aboard Ship; But Still He Has
Many Opportunities Of Thwarting And Balking His Master.
When there
is danger, or necessity, or when he is well used, no one can work
faster than he; but the instant he feels that he is kept at work
for nothing, no sloth could make less headway.
He must not refuse
his duty, or be in any way disobedient, but all the work that an
officer gets out of him, he may be welcome to. Every man who has
been three months at sea knows how to "work Tom Cox's traverse" -
"three turns round the long-boat, and a pull at the scuttled-butt."
This morning everything went in this way. "Sogering" was the order
of the day. Send a man below to get a block, and he would capsize
everything before finding it, then not bring it up till an officer
had called him twice, and take as much time to put things in order
again. Marline-spikes were not to be found; knives wanted a prodigious
deal of sharpening, and, generally, three or four were waiting round
the grindstone at a time. When a man got to the mast-head, he would
come slowly down again to get something which he had forgotten;
and after the tackles were got up, six men would pull less than
three who pulled "with a will." When the mate was out of sight,
nothing was done. It was all uphill work; and at eight o'clock,
when we went to breakfast, things were nearly where they were
when we began.
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