no one could lie between blankets.

Now, in order to explain the means adopted by the Captain to insure us
the race, it needs to be said of the Neversink, that, for some years
after being launched, she was accounted one of the slowest vessels in
the American Navy. But it chanced upon a time, that, being on a cruise
in the Mediterranean, she happened to sail out of Port Mahon in what
was then supposed to be very bad trim for the sea. Her bows were
rooting in the water, and her stern kicking up its heels in the air.
But, wonderful to tell, it was soon discovered that in this comical
posture she sailed like a shooting-star; she outstripped every vessel
on the station. Thenceforward all her Captains, on all cruises,
_trimmed her by the head;_ and the Neversink gained the name of a
clipper.

To return. All hands being called, they were now made use of by Captain
Claret as make-weights, to trim the ship, scientifically, to her most
approved bearings. Some were sent forward on the spar-deck, with
twenty-four-pound shot in their hands, and were judiciously scattered
about here and there, with strict orders not to budge an inch from
their stations, for fear of marring the Captain's plans. Others were
distributed along the gun and berth-decks, with similar orders; and, to
crown all, several carronade guns were unshipped from their carriages,
and swung in their breechings from the beams of the main-deck, so as to
impart a sort of vibratory briskness and oscillating buoyancy to the
frigate.

And thus we five hundred make-weights stood out that whole night, some
of us exposed to a drenching rain, in order that the Neversink might
not be beaten. But the comfort and consolation of all make-weights is
as dust in the balance in the estimation of the rulers of our
man-of-war world.

The long, anxious night at last came to an end, and, with the first
peep of day, the look-out on the jib-boom was hailed; but nothing was
in sight. At last it was broad day; yet still not a bow was to be seen
in our rear, nor a stern in our van.

"Where are they?" cried the Captain.

"Out of sight, astern, to be sure, sir," said the officer of the deck.

"Out of sight, _ahead_, to be sure, sir," muttered Jack Chase, in the
top.

Precisely thus stood the question: whether we beat them, or whether
they beat us, no mortal can tell to this hour, since we never saw them
again; but for one, White-Jacket will lay his two hands on the bow
chasers of the N