70 BOATSWAIN'S MATE. 



One of the boatswain's mates, who 

 had recently been promoted to that 

 office, was a man of arrogant deport- 

 ment, and too fond of exercising his 

 authority over men his equals in every- 

 thing but rank. Upon one occasion he 

 called one of the men on the forecastle a 

 lazy lubber, and other opprobrious epi- 

 thets, and threatened to start him ; where- 

 upon the man, not being able to keep his 

 temper, struck him with his fist, and 

 knocked him down. 



Now, to strike your superior officer is 

 death by the articles of war, which the 

 captain took care to have read every 

 Sunday on the quarterdeck. Upon this 

 affair being reported, the man was imme- 

 diately put in irons ; and the next day 

 at noon all hands were piped for punish- 

 ment, and the offender was brought to the 

 gangway by the master-at-arms. He was 

 ordered to strip, which he did without a 

 word, and was seized up ; when the cap- 



