36 COCK-PIT. 



avoid their not very pleasing jests I as- 

 cended the poop ladder ; and the captain 

 seeing me, gave the first-lieutenant instruc- 

 tions that my earliest duty should be to at- 

 tend and assist the signal officer, who was 

 then present arranging the different party- 

 coloured pieces of bunting, and immediately 

 commenced his tuition ; and I had the 

 good fortune soon to ingratiate myself with 

 one whom I afterwards found to be a 

 thorough - bred gentleman, and a most 

 excellent officer.* 



The cockpit of a man-of-war may be 

 justly termed the school of our naval 

 heroes, where the peculiarities of mind 

 and temper are sure to be developed. 

 The characters and dispositions of its dif- 

 ferent inmates, their amusements and their 

 feuds, have been so graphically described 

 by Captain Marry at and other nautical 

 novelists, that I can only testify to the 

 general truth of their delineations. It was 



* Lieutenant Samuel Greenway. 



