n8 ALL AFLOAT 



So there is never much time to spare, with 

 watch and watch about, all through the voyage ; 

 especially when all the ills that badly fed flesh 

 is heir to on board a deepwaterman incapacitate 

 some hands, while falls from aloft and various 

 accidents knock out others. 



The skipper, boatswain, cook, steward, Chips, 

 and Sails keep no watches, and hence are 

 called ' the idlers,' a most misleading term, 

 for they work a good deal harder than their 

 counterparts ashore ; though the mates and 

 seamen often work harder still. There are 

 seven watches in a day, reckoned from noon 

 to noon: five of four hours each and two of 

 two hours each. These two, the dog watches, 

 are from four to six and six to eight each after- 

 noon. The crew are divided into port and 

 starboard watches, each under a mate. In 

 Bluenose vessels the port watch was always 

 called by the old name of larboard watch till 

 only the other day. The starboard and lar- 

 board got their names because the starboard 

 was the side on which the steering oar was 

 hung before the rudder was invented, and the 

 larboard was the side where the lading or cargo 

 came in. 



Bluenoses have no use for nippers, as 

 Britishers call apprentices. But if they had, 



