186 THE CRUISE OF TEE " CACHALOT" 



to rebel when fed with delicacies. But in justice to 

 the sailor, it ought to be remembered that the daintiest 

 food may be rendered disgusting by bad cookery, such 

 as is the rule on board merchant ships. " God sends 

 meat, but the devil sends cooks " is a proverb which 

 originated on board ship, and no one who has ever 

 served any time in a ship's forecastle would deny that 

 it is abundantly justified. Besides which, even good 

 food well cooked of one kind only, served many times 

 in succession, becomes very trying, only the plainest 

 foods, such as bread, rice, potatoes, etc., retaining their 

 command of the appetite continually. 



I remember once, when upon the Coromandel coast 

 in a big Greenock ship, we found fowls very cheap. At 

 Bimliapatam the captain bought two or three hundred, 

 which, as we had no coops, were turned loose on deck. 

 We had also at the same time prowling about the decks 

 three goats, twenty pigs, and two big dogs. 



Consequently the state of the ship was filthy, nor 

 could all our efforts keep her clean. This farmyard 

 condition of things was permitted to continue for about 

 a week, when the officers got so tired of it, and the 

 captain so annoyed at the frequent loss of fowls by their 

 flying overboard, that the edict went forth to feed the 

 foremast hands on poultry till further orders. Great 

 was our delight at the news. Fowl for dinner represented 

 to our imagination almost the apex of high living, only 

 indulged in by such pampered children of fortune as 

 the officers of ships or well-to-do people ashore. 



When dinner-time arrived, we boys made haste to 

 the galley with watering mouths, joyfully anticipating 

 that rare delight of the sailor — a good "feed." The 

 cook uncovered his coppers, plunged his tormentors 



