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We were not quite so particular about uniform as we are now. 'Then I think the service was all the better for it. Nowadays, in your crack ships, a mate has to go down in the hold or spirit-room, and after whipping up fifty empty casks, and breaking out twenty full ones, he is expected to come on quarter-deck as clean as if he was just come out of a bandbox.
Spoker, the situation of man," said the Captain, smiling, and shaking his head. "I am much more engaged in considering the position of the ship," said Mr. Spoker. "Spoken like a good officer," replied the Captain, laying his hand on the lieutenant's shoulder. On deck they found the men had broken into the spirit-room, and were fast getting drunk.
Such had been the vigilance of Philip, who had requested Captain Barentz to stand over the spirit-room hatch, with pistols, until the smoke on the main-deck rendered the precaution unnecessary, that not a single person was intoxicated, and to this might be ascribed the order and regularity which had prevailed during this trying scene.
A cask of beef was got up; but the men, breaking into the spirit-room, insisted on having some rum.
"Yes," replied I, delighted at the idea; "I'm sure they will, if you do tell the truth when you appear again." "Then, that is what I'll do. The first lieutenant said that I might be in the spirit-room. Where shall I go to?"
It was astonishing how collected the ship's company became by the judicious conduct of the captain, who now continued to command. When the men had gone down to their stations, he directed the two junior lieutenants to go and examine where the fire was, and to be careful not to lift the hatches if they discovered that it was in the spirit-room.
But although for a time the men obeyed the orders of Philip, they were soon seen talking earnestly with the one-eyed pilot, and after a consultation of a quarter of an hour, they all left the deck, with the exception of the two at the helm. Their reasons for so doing were soon apparent several returned with cans full of liquor, which they had obtained by forcing the hatches of the spirit-room.
We had it safe on board, when the mate of the hold, not slinging it properly, it fell into the spirit-room with a run and was stove to pieces. Never was such a scene; my first lieutenant and several men on deck fainted; and the men in the hold were brought up lifeless: it was some time before they were recovered.
In a part called the after cockpit, where, after breakfast, the surgeon examines the sick, a large piece of iron called a loggerhead, well heated, is put into a bucket of tar in order to fumigate it after the sick have left it. On this occasion the tar caught fire. It soon reached the spirit-room hatches, which were underneath, and the powder magazine bulkhead.
She was secured to the larboard side of the ship; and the hands were piped `clear lighter. Some of our men were in the lighter slinging the casks, others at the yard tackle and stay-falls hoisting in, some in the spirit-room stowing away. I was in the waist, bearing the casks over, down the hatchway; none of us thinking that we should never mix our grog out of that liquor."
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