ROLLING. 
235 
Chap. XIV.—B. P.] 
The first lieutenant, poor fellow, looking at the 
matter from a technical point of view, thought it a 
thousand pities that the harbour had so filled up that 
the ship could not enter, and thus deprive him of the 
opportunity of painting and polishing—so dear to the 
hearts of all true first lieutenants : it was quite clear 
to him that, if the present state of the wind and sea 
was the normal condition of the weather in this road¬ 
stead, any attempt of the sort would be worse 
than useless, and the ship in a very short space of 
time would he in a deplorable condition. As to the 
sails, they must soon rot from the prevailing damp, 
and the rigging soon chafe through from the constant 
heavy rolling; while the boats, following the ex¬ 
ample of the cutter last night;—here a tremendous 
roll sent the contents of the orator’s plate right into 
the middle of the paymaster’s waistcoat, and changed 
his melancholy croak into a burst of laughter, in 
which the paymaster joined as heartily as any one. 
But I must not allow this rude interruption of the ship 
to prevent the due narration of the story of the cutter, 
nor what afterwards befell my own gig. 
The bay or roadstead of Greytown is shaped some¬ 
what like a boomerang, and the ships lie at anchor as 
close as they can with safety to the harbour’s mouth, 
which is situated as nearly as possible in the elbow of 
the bay. Into this funnel, as it were, the north-east 
trade-wind blows with considerable force, bringing 
with it a sea much heavier than would seem to be 
warranted by the force of the wind; but the secret 
lies in this, that the current from the river is at log- 
