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CHAPTER lY. 



BAD WEATHER. 



Nautical routine in its essential details is much the 

 same in all ships, whether naval, merchant, or whaling 

 vessels. But while in the ordinary merchantman there 

 are decidedly " no more cats than can catch mice," 

 hardly, indeed, sufficient for all the mousing that should 

 be done, in men-of-war and whaleships the number of 

 hands carried, being far more than are wanted for 

 everyday work, must needs be kept at unnecessary 

 duties in order that they may not grow lazy and dis- 

 contented. 



For instance, in the Cachalot we carried a crew of 

 thirty-seven all told, of which twenty-four were men 

 before the mast, or common seamen, our tonnage being 

 under 400 tons. Many a splendid clipper-ship carrying 

 an enormous spread of canvas on four masts, and not 

 overloaded with 2500 tons of cargo on board, carries 

 twenty-eight or thirty all told, or even less than that. 

 As far as we were concerned, the result of this was that 

 our landsmen got so thoroughly drilled, that within a 

 week of leaving port they hardly knew themselves for 

 the clumsy clodhoppers they at first appeared to be. 



We had now been eight days out, and in, our 



