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.
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