His Wages
Are Usually Double Those Of A Common Sailor, And He Eats And Sleeps
In The Cabin; But He Is Obliged To Be On Deck Nearly All The Time,
And Eats At The Second Table, That Is, Makes A Meal Out Of What The
Captain And Chief Mate Leave.
The steward is the captain's servant, and has charge of the pantry,
from which every one, even the mate himself, is excluded.
These
distinctions usually find him an enemy in the mate, who does not
like to have any one on board who is not entirely under his control;
the crew do not consider him as one of their number, so he is left
to the mercy of the captain.
The cook is the patron of the crew, and those who are in his favor
can get their wet mittens and stockings dried, or light their pipes
at the galley on the night watch. These two worthies, together
with the carpenter and sailmaker, if there be one, stand no watch,
but, being employed all day, are allowed to "sleep in" at night,
unless all hands are called.
The crew are divided into two divisions, as equally as may be, called
the watches. Of these the chief mate commands the larboard, and the
second mate the starboard. They divide the time between them, being
on and off duty, or, as it is called, on deck and below, every other
four hours. If, for instance, the chief mate with the larboard watch
have the first night-watch from eight to twelve; at the end of the
four hours, the starboard watch is called, and the second mate takes
the deck, while the larboard watch and the first mate go below until
four in the morning, when they come on deck again and remain until
eight; having what is called the morning watch. As they will have
been on deck eight hours out of the twelve, while those who had the
middle watch - from twelve to four, will only have been up four hours,
they have what is called a "forenoon watch below," that is, from
eight, A.M., till twelve, M. In a man-of-war, and in some merchantmen,
this alteration of watches is kept up throughout the twenty-four hours;
but our ship, like most merchantmen, had "all hands" from twelve o'clock
till dark, except in bad weather, when we had "watch and watch."
An explanation of the "dog watches" may, perhaps, be of use to one
who has never been at sea. They are to shift the watches each
night, so that the same watch need not be on deck at the same hours.
In order to effect this, the watch from four to eight, P.M.,
is divided into two half, or dog watches, one from four to six,
and the other from six to eight. By this means they divide the
twenty-four hours into seven watches instead of six, and thus
shift the hours every night. 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. In the first place, then, the
discipline of the ship requires every man to be at work upon something
when he is on deck, except at night and on Sundays. Except at these
times, you will never see a man, on board a well-ordered vessel,
standing idle on deck, sitting down, or leaning over the side.
It is the officers' duty to keep every one at work, even if there
is nothing to be done but to scrape the rust from the chain cables.
In no state prison are the convicts more regularly set to work, and
more closely watched. No conversation is allowed among the crew at
their duty, and though they frequently do talk when aloft, or when
near one another, yet they always stop when an officer is nigh.
With regard to the work upon which the men are put, it is a matter
which probably would not be understood by one who has not been at
sea. When I first left port, and found that we were kept regularly
employed for a week or two, I supposed that we were getting the vessel
into sea trim, and that it would soon be over, and we should have
nothing to do but sail the ship; but I found that it continued so
for two years, and at the end of the two years there was as much to
be done as ever.
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