LIFE ON THE MEDITERRANEAN 



TO HIS MOTHER 



" July 25, 1833. 



" I am very pleasantly situated on board, associated 

 with a fine set of young men and having better accom- 

 modations than is usual with schoolmasters in the navy. 

 I have not yet experienced any of the inconveniences of 

 a sea life, our board being similar to what it was on 

 land, as we are not yet entirely out of the reach of 

 markets or of fresh provisions. We do not draw our 

 rations in ship's provisions, but instead take their value 

 in money ($15 for two per month), and with that lay in 

 our own store. If you were here, you would see me 

 writing on a mahogany table, which the captain gave us 

 a few days since for our mess, in a very comfortable room 

 in the hinder part of the ship. At least it is pleasant 

 now and will be when in port ; but at sea we shall prob- 

 ably live nearly all the time by candle-light. However, 

 on the whole we think our room quite comfortable, 

 especially as we shall be near land more than half the 

 time. Two carriages with guns on each side of the room, 

 extending just out of the port-holes, are part of our furni- 

 ture. We now number eleven: six passed midshipmen, 

 three assistant surgeons, captain's clerk, and myself. 

 Four or five midshipmen will go out with us as pas- 

 sengers to France, making in all seventeen or eighteen in 

 the mess. The officers on the ship are generally quite 

 agreeable men, and, as I heard one person say (much to 

 his discredit), ridiculously temperate. I every day see 

 the grog served out to the sailors at morning, noon, and 

 night; still I understand that about a hundred do not 

 receive their portion. I once in a while hear of a case of 

 mania a potu, or madness from drinking, among the crew, 

 which shows that we have the most desperate characters 

 as well as the most temperate on board. 



"It is quite a novel sight to see five or six hundred 

 sailors swinging in their hammocks on one of the decks, 

 stowed so closely as almost to touch one another. Their 

 hammocks are merely a piece of cloth suspended by cords 

 attached to the ends; and of course its sides close up 

 around them when lying in it. I believe in my former 

 letter I stated that a cot was given me a much more 

 agreeable receptacle for myself at night than the loose 

 hammock. 



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