By Seeing It Allowed To Their Officers, They Will Not Be
Convinced That It Is Taken From Them For Their Good; And By
Receiving Nothing In Its Place, They Will Not Believe That
It Is Done In Kindness.
On the contrary, many of them look
upon the change as a new instrument of tyranny.
Not that
they prefer rum. I never knew a sailor, in my life, who would
not prefer a pot of hot coffee or chocolate, in a cold night,
to all the rum afloat. They all say that rum only warms them for
a time; yet, if they can get nothing better, they will miss what
they have lost. The momentary warmth and glow from drinking it;
the break and change which is made in a long, dreary watch by
the mere calling all hands aft and serving of it out; and the
simply having some event to look forward to, and to talk about;
give it an importance and a use which no one can appreciate who
has not stood his watch before the mast. On my passage round Cape
Horn before, the vessel that I was in was not under temperance
articles, and grog was served out every middle and morning watch,
and after every reefing of topsails; and though I had never drank
rum before, and never intend to again, I took my allowance then
at the capstan, as the rest did, merely for the momentary warmth
it gave the system, and the change in our feelings and aspect of
our duties on the watch.
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