SAILING CRAFT 117 



on ; for, unlike a man, a ship puts on her old 

 suit for fair weather and her new suit for foul. 

 Then, too, is the time for dog-watch yarning, 

 when pipes are lit without any fear of their 

 having to be crammed half-smoked into the 

 nearest pocket because all hands are called. 

 Landsmen generally think that most watches 

 aboard a wind-jammer are passed in yarns and 

 smoking. But this is far from being the case. 

 The mates &nd skipper keep everybody busy 

 with the hundred-and-one things required to 

 keep a vessel shipshape : painting, graining, 

 brightening, overhauling the weak spots in 

 the rigging, working the ' bear ' to clean the 

 deck with fine wet sand, helping whomever is 

 acting as ' Chips ' the carpenter, or the equally 

 busy ' Sails ' ; or ' doing Peggy ' for ' Slush ' 

 the cook, who much prefers wet grub to dry, 

 slumgullion coffee to any kind of tea, ready- 

 made hard bread to ship-baked soft, and any 

 kind of stodge to the toothsome delights of 

 dandyfunk and crackerhash. And all this is 

 extra to the regular routine, with its lamp- 

 lockers, binnacles, timekeeping, incessant 

 look-out, and trick at the wheel. Besides, 

 every man has to look after his own kit, which 

 he has to buy with his own money, and his 

 quarters, for which he alone is responsible. 



