As The Dog Watches Come During Twilight,
After The Day's Work Is Done, And Before The Night Watch Is Set, They
Are The Watches In Which Everybody Is On Deck.
The captain is up,
walking on the weather side of the quarter-deck, the chief mate is
on the
Lee side, and the second mate about the weather gangway.
The steward has finished his work in the cabin, and has come up to
smoke his pipe with the cook in the galley. The crew are sitting on
the windlass or lying on the forecastle, smoking, singing, or telling
long yarns. At eight o'clock, eight bells are struck, the log is hove,
the watch set, the wheel relieved, the galley shut up, and the other
watch goes below.
The morning commences with the watch on deck's "turning-to" at
day-break and washing down, scrubbing, and swabbing the decks.
This, together with filling the "scuttled butt" with fresh water,
and coiling up the rigging, usually occupies the time until seven
bells, (half after seven,) when all hands get breakfast. At eight,
the day's work begins, and lasts until sun-down, with the exception
of an hour for dinner.
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.
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