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Updated: June 27, 2025
A quarter-of-an-hour later, both watches were mustered, all decently dressed, like "Sally in our Alley," in their Sunday best, according to their respective stations; the first and second divisions on the upper deck and forecastle, under the first lieutenant and Mr Jellaby; the third and fourth divisions on the main deck, with Mr Gilham and Mr Bitpin at the head of the men; and the fifth and sixth on the lower deck, in charge of "Gunnery Jack," in lieu of one of the regular lieutenants, and the second mate, the fat Plumper, bursting out of his buttons as usual, who was at the head of the after-guard, among whom I recognised the ex-gravedigger, "Downy."
It is to be supposed that the devil now reigns triumphant in Mintonville, while Gilham smooths down his clerical coat-tails from the horizontal to the proper perpendicular and wonders if he has not, like the proverbial parrot, talked too damned much.
"Rather a change from yesterday, ain't it, youngster?" observed Mr Gilham, who was officer of the watch, addressing me kindly, noticing the expression of astonishment on my face as I glanced up aloft and then over the side. "Things look a little more ship-shape than they were then." "Yes, sir," I replied. "But what a fearful gale it was!" "Pooh, nonsense, Vernon!" cried he, with a laugh.
"I'm afraid not, sir," replied Mr Gilham, sorrowfully, as he grasped the after falls and sprang into the cutter. "One of the foretopmen, who witnessed the accident, says that he appeared to cannon off something below, bounding out from the ship's side before striking the water, when he sank like a stone." "I'm afraid, then, there's no hope of picking him up," said the captain.
But, Mr Gilham, thought in this instance that "discretion was the better part of valour," for he gave poor "Joe" the slip by incontinently bolting up the hatchway, leaving his comrade to encounter alone the chaplain, who the next moment, in full canonicals, surplice and hood and cassock and all, confronted him. He was a slim, sandy-coloured gentleman, I noticed, with hair of the tint of tow.
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