50 THE SEA. 



hour; call the watch, watch below, clean the upper deck; watch on deck, clean wood and 

 brass- work; put the upper decks to rights. Eight a.m. hands to quarters; clean guns and 

 arms ; division for inspection ; prayers ; make sail, reef topsails, furl top-sails, top-gallant sails, 

 royals ; reef courses, down top-gallant and royal yards. This continued till eight bells, twelve 

 o'clock, dinner one hour. t All hands again ; cutlass, rifle, and big-gun drill till four o'clock ; 

 clear up decks, coil up ropes ; ' and then our day's work is done." Then they would make 

 little trips to sea, many of them to experience the woes of sea-sickness for the first time. 



But the boys on the clean and well-kept training-brig were better off in all respects than 

 poor Dana. When first ordered aloft, he tells us, "I had not got my ' sea-legs' on, was 

 dreadfully sea-sick, with hardly strength to hold on to anything, and it was ' pitch-dark ' * * * 

 How I got along I cannot now remember. I ' laid out ' on the yards, and held on with all 

 my strength. I could not have been of much service ; for I remember having been 

 sick several times before I left the top-sail yard. Soon all was snug aloft, and we 

 were again allowed to go below. This I did not consider much of a favour; for the 

 confusion of everything below, and that inexpressibly sickening smell, caused by the 

 shaking up of bilge-water in the hold, made the steerage but an indifferent refuge to 

 the cold, wet decks. I had often read of the nautical experiences of others, but I felt 

 as though there could be none worse than mine; for, in addition to every other evil, I 

 could not but remember that this was only the first night of a two years' voyage. 

 "When we were all on deck, we were not much better off, for we were continually ordered 

 about by the officer, who said that it was good for us to be in motion. Yet anything 

 was better than the horrible state of things below. I remember very well going to the 

 hatchway and putting my head down, when I was oppressed by nausea, and felt like being 

 relieved immediately. We can fully recommend the example of Dana, who, acting on the 

 advice of the black cook on board, munched away at a good half-pound of salt beef and hard 

 biscuit, which, washed down with cold water, soon, he says, made a man of him. 



Some little explanation of the mode of dividing time on board ship may be here found 

 useful. A " watch " is a term both for a division of the crew and of their time : a full 

 watch is four hours. At the expiration of each four hours, commencing from twelve o'clock 

 noon, the men below are called in these or similar terms "All the starboard (or port) watch 

 ahoy ! Eight bells ! " The watch from four p.m. to eight p.m. is divided, on a well-regulated 

 ship, into two " dog-watches ; " the object of this is to make an uneven number of periods 

 seven, instead of six, so that the men change the order of their watches daily. Other- 

 wise, it will be seen that a man, who, on leaving port, stood in a particular watch from 

 twelve noon to four p.m. would stand in the same watch throughout the voyage ; and he 

 who had two night-watches at first would always have them. The periods of the "dog- 

 watches " are usually devoted to smoking and recreation for those off duty. 



As the terms involved must occur frequently in this work, it is necessary also to explain 

 for some readers the division of time itself by " bells." The limit is " eight bells," which 

 are struck at twelve, four, and eight o'clock a.m. or p.m. The ship's bell is sounded each 

 half -hour. Half -past any of the above hours is " one bell " struck sharply by itself. At the 

 hour, two strokes are made sharply following each other. Expressing the strokes by signs, 

 half-past twelve would be I (representing one stroke) ; one o'clock would be II (two strokes 



