This Ancient
Custom Is Now Seldom Allowed, Unless There Are Passengers On Board,
In Which Case There Is Always A Good Deal Of Sport.
It had been obvious to all hands for some time that the second mate,
whose name was F - - -, was
An idle, careless fellow, and not much of
a sailor, and that the captain was exceedingly dissatisfied with him.
The power of the captain in these cases was well known, and we all
anticipated a difficulty. F - - - (called Mr. by virtue of his office)
was but half a sailor, having always been short voyages and remained at
home a long time between them. His father was a man of some property,
and intended to have given his son a liberal education; but he, being
idle and worthless, was sent off to sea, and succeeded no better there;
for, unlike many scamps, he had none of the qualities of a sailor -
he was "not of the stuff that they make sailor of." He was one of that
class of officers who are disliked by their captain and despised by the
crew. He used to hold long yarns with the crew, and talk about the
captain, and play with the boys, and relax discipline in every way.
This kind of conduct always makes the captain suspicious, and is never
pleasant, in the end, to the men; they preferring to have an officer
active, vigilant, and distant as may be, with kindness. Among other bad
practices, he frequently slept on his watch, and having been discovered
asleep by the captain, he was told that he would be turned off duty if
he did it again. To prevent it in every way possible, the hen-coops
were ordered to be knocked up, for the captain never sat down on deck
himself, and never permitted an officer to do so.
The second night after crossing the equator, we had the watch from
eight till twelve, and it was "my helm" for the last two hours.
There had been light squalls through the night, and the captain
told Mr. F - - -, who commanded our watch, to keep a bright look-out.
Soon after I came to the helm, I found that he was quite drowsy,
and at last he stretched himself on the companion and went fast asleep.
Soon afterwards, the captain came very quietly on deck, and stood
by me for some time looking at the compass. The officer at length
became aware of the captain's presence, but pretending not to know it,
began humming and whistling to himself, to show that he was not asleep,
and went forward, without looking behind him, and ordered the main
royal to be loosed. On turning round to come aft, he pretended
surprise at seeing the master on deck. This would not do.
The captain was too "wide awake" for him, and beginning upon him
at once, gave him a grand blow-up, in true nautical style - "You're
a lazy, good-for-nothing rascal; you're neither man, boy, soger,
nor sailor!
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