e of
other lads and some fifty or sixty men were mustered, who had just come
up the side from the _Viper_ tender; she having been on a cruise to
collect such stray hands as could be found; and a curious lot they were
to look at.

Among them were long-shore fellows in swallow-tails and round hats,
fishermen in jerseys and fur-skin caps, smugglers in big boots and
flushing coats; and not a few whose whitey-brown faces, and
close-cropped hair, made it no difficult matter to guess that their last
residence was within the walls of a gaol. There were seamen also,
pressed most of them, just come in from a long voyage, many months or
perhaps years having passed since they left their native land; that they
did not look especially amiable was not to be wondered at, since they
had been prevented from going, as they had intended, to visit their
friends, or maybe, in the case of the careless ones, from enjoying a
long-expected spree on shore. They were all now waiting to be inspected
by the first lieutenant, before their names were entered on the ship's
books.

The rest of the crew were going about their various duties. Most of
them were old hands, who had served a year or more on board the gallant
frigate. During that time she had fought two fierce actions, which,
though she had come off victorious, had greatly thinned her ship's
company, and the captain was therefore anxious to make up the complement
as fast as possible by every means in his power.

The seamen took but little notice of the new hands, though some of them
had been much of the same description themselves, but were not very fond
of acknowledging this, or of talking of their previous histories; they
had, however, got worked into shape by degrees: and the newcomers, even
those with the "long togs," by the time they had gone through the same
process would not be distinguished from the older hands, except, maybe,
when they came to splice an eye, or turn in a grummet, when their clumsy
work would show what they were; few of them either were likely ever to
be the outermost on the yard-arms when sail had suddenly to be shortened
on a dark night, while it was blowing great guns and small arms.

The frigate lay at Spithead. She had been waiting for these hands to
put to sea. Lighters were alongside, and whips were never-ceasingly
hoisting in casks of rum, with bales and cases of all sorts, which it
seemed impossible could ever be stowed away. From the first lieutena