40 SAILORS 



courage and confidence to reacli tlie truck, but not to 

 rival the feats of either the Dutch or the English mid- 

 shipman. 



In the fore and afternoon — that is, when it was my 

 watch upon deck — I would employ myself in learning 

 to knot and splice, under the tuition of the captain of 

 the forecastle — a fine specimen of a British sailor ; and 

 frequently learn from the boatswain, who took pleasure 

 in instructing me, the names and use of the different 

 ropes, the marks on the lead line, and every part of 

 practical seamanship. Indeed, with the crew generally 

 I was an especial favourite, who, with but one or 

 two exceptions, Avere quiet and orderly men, of sober 

 and obedient habits, and, with every characteristic of 

 British sailors, united a respect for, and attachment to, 

 their officers. 



The first-lieutenant, who, under the captain, is the 

 principal agent for creating and maintaining a proper 

 discipline in the ship, was a man somewhere about thirty 

 years of age, not tall, but very stout, of a fine open 

 countenance, and with lungs that did not require a speak- 

 ing-trumpet to make his voice heard either aloft or on 

 board any strange ship we had occasion to hail. He was 

 every inch a sailor ; and, from the straightforward, officer- 

 like, and impartial manner in which he carried on the 

 duties in all the various departments of the ship, had 

 obtained among the men the soubriquet of " Honest 

 Joe," though that was not his baptismal name ; and to his 

 thorough knowledge of the service, as well as to his 

 proper way of treating men who were their country's 

 boast, may be attributed the infrequency of corporal 



