- description
- # The After-guard
## Overview
This section, titled "The After-guard," is part of a larger work, likely a book or manuscript, focusing on the divisions of a man-of-war's crew. It describes the duties and characteristics of the sailors assigned to the after-guard.
## Context
This section is contained within [CHAPTER III. A GLANCE AT THE PRINCIPAL DIVISIONS, INTO WHICH A MAN-OF-WAR’S CREW IS DIVIDED.](arke:01KG8AJPBDD8KW998HV70PRFQT), which is itself part of the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection, extracted from the file [white_jacket.txt](arke:01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY). It follows the section on "Sheet-Anchor-men" and precedes the section on "The Waisters."
## Contents
The "After-guard" is described as a group stationed on the Quarterdeck, responsible for tasks related to the main-sail and spanker, and assisting with ropes at the stern of the vessel. The text notes that their duties are considered light, requiring little seamanship, and thus they are often composed of landsmen. These individuals are characterized as slender, genteel young men, selected partly for their appearance. They are depicted as spending their time reading, discussing personal affairs, and are sometimes referred to as "sea-dandies" or "silk-sock-gentry" due to their tidy appearance and aversion to manual labor like tarring.
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- description_title
- The After-guard
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- 2026-01-30T20:48:16.646Z
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- text
- Then, there is the _After-guard_, stationed on the Quarterdeck; who,
under the Quarter-Masters and Quarter-Gunners, attend to the main-sail
and spanker, and help haul the main-brace, and other ropes in the stern
of the vessel.
The duties assigned to the After-Guard’s-Men being comparatively light
and easy, and but little seamanship being expected from them, they are
composed chiefly of landsmen; the least robust, least hardy, and least
sailor-like of the crew; and being stationed on the Quarter-deck, they
are generally selected with some eye to their personal appearance.
Hence, they are mostly slender young fellows, of a genteel figure and
gentlemanly address; not weighing much on a rope, but weighing
considerably in the estimation of all foreign ladies who may chance to
visit the ship. They lounge away the most part of their time, in
reading novels and romances; talking over their lover affairs ashore;
and comparing notes concerning the melancholy and sentimental career
which drove them—poor young gentlemen—into the hard-hearted navy.
Indeed, many of them show tokens of having moved in very respectable
society. They always maintain a tidy exterior; and express an
abhorrence of the tar-bucket, into which they are seldom or never
called to dip their digits. And pluming themselves upon the cut of
their trowsers, and the glossiness of their tarpaulins, from the rest
of the ship’s company, they acquire the name of “_sea-dandies_” and
“_silk-sock-gentry_.”
- title
- The After-guard