26 



PORTER'S JOURNAL. 



always having the men near their quarters, where, on the 

 slightest alarm, they may be ready for action. Should cir- 

 cumstances make it necessary for us to pipe up the ham- 

 mocks, on seeing a strange sail at night, they can be lashed 

 up much sooner and with less confusion on a roomy gun- 

 deck, than from a dark and crowded birth-deck. But if it 

 should happen (which cannot be the case with a good look- 

 out) that a vessel is close on board before she is disco- 

 vered, and there should not be time to get the hammocks on 

 deck, it is an easy matter to cut away the lanyards, and 

 throw the hammocks below, or on one side, clear of the 

 guns. It must be understood that none are permitted to 

 sleep on the gun-deck, but those who are quartered at the 

 guns there. They are compelled to sling the hammocks op- 

 posite their guns, and are accountable for the safety of every 

 article belonging to them. Ships that adopt this regulation, 

 with other proper precautions, have always healthy crews ; 

 and this circumstance alone, which contributes so much to 

 their comfort, and in time of action must render them more 

 efficient, should overcome the trifling, ill-founded apprehen- 

 sion of not having the hammocks stowed in time for action. 

 Fifteen minutes are sufficient at any time to make every 

 preparation for action ; and on discovering a vessel at night, 

 there can be no circumstance which should render it neces- 

 sary to run along side of her without taking that much time 

 to prepare for battle. In order to have the hammocks in a 

 greater state of readiness for stowing away, orders were 

 given that every man, on turning out to take his watch, should 

 lash his hammock up in readiness to take on deck. 



The sick are never permitted to remain on the gun-deck 

 at night, but are brought up by their messmates every morn- 

 ing, and their hammocks are slung in some cool, agreeable 

 part of the gun-deck, where they will not be disturbed by 

 persons at work or running against them. 



What can be more dreadful than for three hundred men to 

 be confined with their hammocks, being only eighteen in- 

 ches apart, on the birth-deck of a small frigate, a space of 

 seventy feet long, thirty-five feet wide, and five feet high, 

 in a hot climate, where the only apertures by which they 

 can receive air are two hatchways of about six feet square ? 

 A call to their watch must be a relief from their sufferings ; 

 and although it exposes them to all the ills attending the 



