THE GUARD-SHIP OF OLD. 4^ 



was assembled Human invention could not scheme work for the whole, while skulking, 

 impracticable in other vessels of the Royal Navy, was deemed highly meritorious there. 

 A great body of men were thus very often assembled together, who resolved themselves 

 into hostile classes, separated as any two castes of the Hindoos. A clever writer in 

 Blackwood's Magazine, more than fifty years ago, describes them first as " sea-goers," 

 i.e., sailors separated from their vessels by illness, or temporary causes, or ordered to other 

 vessels, who looked on the guard-ship as a floating hotel, and, having what they were 



TRAIXIXG-SHIP. 



pleased to call ships of their own, were the aristocrats of the occasion, who would do no 

 more work than they were obliged. The second, and by far the most numerous class, 

 were termed "waisters," and were the simple, the unfortunate, or the utterly abandoned, 

 a body held on board in the utmost contempt, and most of whom, in regard to clothing, 

 were wretched in the extreme. The " waister " had to do everything on board that was 

 menial swabbing, sweeping, and drudging generally. At night, in defiance of his hard 

 and unceasing labour, he too often became a bandit, prowling about seeking what he 

 might devour or appropriate. What a contrast to the clean orderly training-ships of 

 to-day ! Some little information on this subject, but imperfectly understood by the public, 

 may perhaps be permitted here. 



