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Very often, the regimental orderly, stationed at our Commodore's cabin-door, would touch his hat to the First Lieutenant, and with a mysterious air hand him a note. I always thought these notes must contain most important matters of state; until one day, seeing a slip of wet, torn paper in a scupper-hole, I read the following: "Sir, you will give the people pickles to-day with their fresh meat.
Many were undoubtedly hurt, but as there was a good deal of disgrace attached to sleeping on after being called, there was rarely open revolt or complaint made. Another method of dealing with hands who could not keep their eyes open when on watch was to reeve a rope through the scupper-hole, attach one end to the person, and the other to a coal basket, which was thrown overboard.
Even the water which fell on the deck under foot, and washed away the filth and soil of the ship, though as dirty as the kennel is in towns during rain, was carefully watched and collected at every scupper-hole, nay, often with strife and contention, and caught in dishes, pots, cans, and jars, of which some drank hearty draughts, mud and all, without waiting for its settlement or cleansing.
He must have thought this fine sport, just as captains of fire engines love to point the tube of their hose; for he kept me running after him with full buckets of water, and sometimes chased a little chip all over the deck, with a continued flood, till at last he sent it flying out of a scupper-hole into the sea; when if he had only given me permission, I could have picked it up in a trice, and dropped it overboard without saying one word, and without wasting so much water.
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