to
bed for the night, or at least such hours of it as the tide and wind may
allow for sleep.

Fronting the seat the binnacle hangs with its tender thrilling compass
inside, well protected by thick plate glass, and the lamp, which is
always ready to be lighted up should darkness need it; for experience has
showed me only too plainly that it will not do to postpone any
preparation for night, or wind, or hunger, or shoal water, but that you
should be always quite prepared for them all.

Above the binnacle is the chart; that is to say, a rectangular piece cut
out from the larger sheet, and containing all that will be sailed in a
day. The other parts, too, of the chart ought to be kept where they are
accessible for ready reference.

Rain or the dashing of a wave or two soon softens the paper of the chart,
and on one occasion it was so nearly melted away in this manner in a
rough sea that I had to learn its lines and figures quickly off by heart,
and trust to memory for the rest of the day.

To prevent another time such an awkward state of things, I made a frame
with a glass front and movable back, and this allowed each portion of the
chart to be placed inside, and to be well protected, an excellent
arrangement when your hands are as wet as all other things around, and
the ordinary chart would be soaked in five minutes.

The chart frame is also detachable from its place, as it is sometimes
necessary to hold it near a lamp at night so as to read the soundings.
To aid still further to decipher the chart at night and in dull
afternoons, there is a small mounted lens in a leather loop alongside,
which has often to be used. The compass {22} itself is so placed that
you can see it well while either sitting or standing up, or when lying at
full length on the deck, with the back against a pillow propped by the
mizen mast, the blight sun or moon overhead, and a turn or two of the
mainsheet cast about your body to keep the sleepy steersman from rolling
over into the water, as shown next page.

[Picture: Watch on Deck]

This somewhat effeminate but decidedly comfortable attitude in which to
keep one's watch on deck, was not invented until farther on in the
cruise; and it seems odd that I should so long have continued to sit
upright for hours together (wriggling only a little at the constraint)
for many a fine day before adopting for a change so obvious a posture,
and thus effectually postponing any sen