They Drink
Their Tea Out Of Tin Pots, Holding Little Less Than A Quart Each.
These particulars are not looked upon as hardships, and, indeed,
may be considered matters of choice.
Sailors, in our merchantmen,
furnish their own eating utensils, as they do many of the instruments
which they use in the ship's work, such as knives, palms and needles,
marline-spikes, rubbers, etc. And considering their mode of life
in other respects, the little time they would have for laying and
clearing away a table with its apparatus, and the room it would take
up in a forecastle, as well as the simple character of their meals,
consisting generally of only one piece of meat, - it is certainly
a convenient method, and, as the kid and pans are usually kept
perfectly clean, a neat and simple one. I had supposed these
things to be generally known, until I heard, a few months ago,
a lawyer of repute, who has had a good deal to do with marine
cases, ask a sailor upon the stand whether the crew had "got up
from table" when a certain thing happened.
- - - - - - - -
and on the score of sleep, I fully believe that the lives of
merchant seamen are shortened by the want of it. I do not refer
to those occasions when it is necessarily broken in upon; but,
for months, during fine weather, in many merchantmen, all hands
are kept, throughout the day, and, then, there are eight hours on
deck for one watch each night.
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