Before I End My Explanations, It May Be Well To Define A Day's Work,
And To Correct A Mistake Prevalent Among Landsmen About A Sailor's
Life.
Nothing is more common than to hear people say - "Are not sailors
very idle at sea?
- What can they find to do?" This is a very natural
mistake, and being very frequently made, it is one which every sailor
feels interested in having corrected. In the first place, then, the
discipline of the ship requires every man to be at work upon something
when he is on deck, except at night and on Sundays. Except at these
times, you will never see a man, on board a well-ordered vessel,
standing idle on deck, sitting down, or leaning over the side.
It is the officers' duty to keep every one at work, even if there
is nothing to be done but to scrape the rust from the chain cables.
In no state prison are the convicts more regularly set to work, and
more closely watched. No conversation is allowed among the crew at
their duty, and though they frequently do talk when aloft, or when
near one another, yet they always stop when an officer is nigh.
With regard to the work upon which the men are put, it is a matter
which probably would not be understood by one who has not been at
sea. When I first left port, and found that we were kept regularly
employed for a week or two, I supposed that we were getting the vessel
into sea trim, and that it would soon be over, and we should have
nothing to do but sail the ship; but I found that it continued so
for two years, and at the end of the two years there was as much to
be done as ever. As has often been said, a ship is like a lady's
watch, always out of repair. When first leaving port, studding-sail
gear is to be rove, all the running rigging to be examined, that
which is unfit for use to be got down, and new rigging rove in its
place: then the standing rigging is to be overhauled, replaced,
and repaired, in a thousand different ways; and wherever any of
the numberless ropes or the yards are chafing or wearing upon it,
there "chafing gear," as it is called, must be put on. This chafing
gear consists of worming, parcelling, roundings, battens, and service
of all kinds - both rope-yarns, spun-yarn, marline and seizing-stuffs.
Taking off, putting on, and mending the chafing gear alone, upon a
vessel, would find constant employment for two or three men, during
working hours, for a whole voyage.
The next point to be considered is, that all the "small stuffs" which
are used on board a ship - such as spun-yarn, marline, seizing-stuff,
etc. - are made on board. The owners of a vessel buy up incredible
quantities of "old junk," which the sailors unlay, after drawing out
the yarns, knot them together, and roll them up in balls.
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