fe on board the same.

At sea there is more to employ the sailors, and less temptation to
violations of the law. Whereas, in port, unless some particular service
engages them, they lead the laziest of lives, beset by all the
allurements of the shore, though perhaps that shore they may never
touch.

Unless you happen to belong to one of the numerous boats, which, in a
man-of-war in harbour, are continually plying to and from the land, you
are mostly thrown upon your own resources to while away the time. Whole
days frequently pass without your being individually called upon to
lift a finger; for though, in the merchant-service, they make a point
of keeping the men always busy about something or other, yet, to employ
five hundred sailors when there is nothing definite to be done wholly
surpasses the ingenuity of any First Lieutenant in the Navy.

As mention has just been made of the numerous boats employed in
harbour, something more may as well be put down concerning them. Our
frigate carried a very large boat--as big as a small sloop--called a
_launch_, which was generally used for getting off wood, water, and
other bulky articles. Besides this, she carried four boats of an
arithmetical progression in point of size--the largest being known as
the first cutter, the next largest the second cutter, then the third
and fourth cutters. She also carried a Commodore's Barge, a Captain's
Gig, and a "dingy," a small yawl, with a crew of apprentice boys. All
these boats, except the "dingy," had their regular crews, who were
subordinate to their cockswains--_petty officers_, receiving pay in
addition to their seaman's wages.

The _launch_ was manned by the old Tritons of the fore-castle, who were
no ways particular about their dress, while the other
boats--commissioned for genteeler duties--were rowed by young follows,
mostly, who had a dandy eye to their personal appearance. Above all,
the officers see to it that the Commodore's Barge and the Captain's Gig
are manned by gentlemanly youths, who may do credit to their country,
and form agreeable objects for the eyes of the Commodore or Captain to
repose upon as he tranquilly sits in the stern, when pulled ashore by
his barge-men or gig-men, as the case may be. Some sailors are very
fond of belonging to the boats, and deem it a great honour to be a
_Commodore's barge-man_; but others, perceiving no particular
distinction in that office, do not court it so much.

On the second day