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- in which they box up subjects intended to illustrate the winter
lectures of a professor of surgery. Just so we laid; heel and point,
face to back, dove-tailed into each other at every ham and knee. The
wet of our jackets, thus densely packed, would soon begin to distill.
But it was like pouring hot water on you to keep you from freezing. It
was like being “packed” between the soaked sheets in a Water-cure
Establishment.
Such a posture could not be preserved for any considerable period
without shifting side for side. Three or four times during the four
hours I would be startled from a wet doze by the hoarse cry of a fellow
who did the duty of a corporal at the after-end of my file. “_Sleepers
ahoy! stand by to slew round!_” and, with a double shuffle, we all
rolled in concert, and found ourselves facing the taffrail instead of
the bowsprit. But, however you turned, your nose was sure to stick to
one or other of the steaming backs on your two flanks. There was some
little relief in the change of odour consequent upon this.
But what is the reason that, after battling out eight stormy hours on
deck at, night, men-of-war’s-men are not allowed the poor boon of a dry
four hours’ nap during the day following? What is the reason? The
Commodore, Captain, and first Lieutenant, Chaplain, Purser, and scores
of others, have _all night in_, just as if they were staying at a hotel
on shore. And the junior Lieutenants not only have their cots to go to
at any time: but as only one of them is required to head the watch, and
there are so many of them among whom to divide that duty, they are only
on deck four hours to twelve hours below. In some eases the proportion
is still greater. Whereas, with _the people_ it is four hours in and
four hours off continually.
What is the reason, then, that the common seamen should fare so hard in
this matter? It would seem but a simple thing to let them get down
their hammocks during the day for a nap. But no; such a proceeding
would mar the uniformity of daily events in a man-of-war. It seems
indispensable to the picturesque effect of the spar-deck, that the
hammocks should invariably remain stowed in the nettings between
sunrise and sundown. But the chief reason is this—a reason which has
sanctioned many an abuse in this world—_precedents are against it;_
such a thing as sailors sleeping in their hammocks in the daytime,
after being eight hours exposed to a night-storm, was hardly ever heard
of in the navy. Though, to the immortal honour of some captains be it
said, the fact is upon navy record, that off Cape Horn, they _have_
vouchsafed the morning hammocks to their crew. Heaven bless such
tender-hearted officers; and may they and their descendants—ashore or
afloat—have sweet and pleasant slumbers while they live, and an
undreaming siesta when they die.
It is concerning such things as the subject of this chapter that
special enactments of Congress are demanded. Health and comfort—so far
as duly attainable under the circumstances—should be legally guaranteed
to the man-of-war’s-men; and not left to the discretion or caprice of
their commanders.
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