t work all day long cleaning
brass-work, etc. At dinner hour I would be on the quarter-deck with my
bowl of grog, an extra half pint of water being introduced, and I then
received a spoon with holes in it with which to sup the grog. With my
cap under my arm, I would be ordered to drink Her Majesty's health. It
was a tedious job sipping that infernal stuff out of the bowl with the
spoon. It would run out as fast as I dipped it up. Sometimes there
would be ten or twelve men undergoing the same punishment. In the
evening I would have to stand one hour on the quarter-deck, toeing one
of the seams. Poor Jimmy got into a scrape, so I had him drinking Her
Majesty's health with me. This was also the case with a half-breed
American Indian from Massachusetts, and a greenhorn from England, and a
very troublesome quartette we proved to be. That night all four of us
deserted. The first lieutenant had his gig condemned and got a new one
to replace it. While we were doing the seam-toeing act he came on deck
and ordered us to get into the new gig and pull around the ship, so that
he could see how it set in the water. A conversation between us while
rowing made it plain that all were anxious to run away. We went on the
gun deck and had a quiet talk. Everything was arranged for going ashore.
The boat could not be hoisted up, as there were no spare davits for it.
That just suited us.

At bedtime we got into our hammocks with our clothes on, and about three
o'clock we got our bags containing all our clothing and took them on
the gun deck. Matt, the half-breed, got into the boat from the gun ports
and hauled it around to the bow port. The bags were then handed down.
Jimmy had gone back for something and we were waiting for him. At last
he came and handed me a pocket-book. All of us got into the boat, and
away we went. No one had seen us leaving. There were three decks in that
frigate, the spar, the gun, and the lower or berth deck. The crew swung
their hammocks on the latter. What few officers and men there were on
duty at night would be on the spar deck, so there was no one on the gun
deck to bother us, and all below were asleep. Had there been a full
crew, arrangements would have been different and our plan frustrated.
When we got into the city, Matt and the greenhorn went ashore. Jimmy and
I concluded to take a trip up the bay. By seven o'clock we were quite a
distance from the city. The boat was run ashore and our bags were taken
out. T