he gangway, taking care, meanwhile, to reel about
very industriously, so that there shall be no doubt about their being
seriously intoxicated, and altogether _non compos_ for the time. And
though but few of them have cause to feign intoxication, yet some
individuals may be suspected of enacting a studied part upon these
occasions. Indeed--judging by certain symptoms--even when really
inebriated, some of the sailors must have previously determined upon
their conduct; just as some persons who, before taking the exhilarating
gas, secretly make up their minds to perform certain mad feats while
under its influence, which feats consequently come to pass precisely as
if the actors were not accountable for them.

For several days, while the other quarter-watches were given liberty,
the Neversink presented a sad scene. She was more like a madhouse than
a frigate; the gun-deck resounded with frantic fights, shouts, and
songs. All visitors from shore were kept at a cable's length.

These scenes, however, are nothing to those which have repeatedly been
enacted in American men-of-war upon other stations. But the custom of
introducing women on board, in harbour, is now pretty much
discontinued, both in the English and American Navy, unless a ship,
commanded by some dissolute Captain, happens to lie in some far away,
outlandish port, in the Pacific or Indian Ocean.

The British line-of-battle ship, Royal George, which in 1782 sunk at
her anchors at Spithead, carried down three hundred English women among
the one thousand souls that were drowned on that memorable morning.

When, at last, after all the mad tumult and contention of "Liberty,"
the reaction came, our frigate presented a very different scene. The
men looked jaded and wan, lethargic and lazy; and many an old mariner,
with hand upon abdomen, called upon the Flag-staff to witness that
there were more _hot coppers_ in the Neversink than those in the ship's
galley.

Such are the lamentable effects of suddenly and completely releasing
"_the people_" of a man-of-war from arbitrary discipline. It shows
that, to such, "liberty," at first, must be administered in small and
moderate quantities, increasing with the patient's capacity to make
good use of it.

Of course while we lay in Rio, our officers frequently went ashore for
pleasure, and, as a general thing, conducted themselves with propriety.
But it is a sad thing to say, that, as for Lieutenant Mad Jack, he
enjoyed himsel