_able seamen_ or _ordinary seamen_, and
receive their wages as such; but in addition to this, they are
liberally recompensed for their professional services. Herein their
rate of pay is fixed for every sailor manipulated--so much per quarter,
which is charged to the sailor, and credited to his barber on the books
of the Purser.

It has been seen that while a man-of-war barber is shaving his
customers at so much per chin, his wages as a seaman are still running
on, which makes him a sort of _sleeping partner_ of a sailor; nor are
the sailor wages he receives altogether to be reckoned as earnings.
Considering the circumstances, however, not much objection can be made
to the barbers on this score. But there were instances of men in the
Neversink receiving government money in part pay for work done for
private individuals. Among these were several accomplished tailors, who
nearly the whole cruise sat cross-legged on the half deck, making
coats, pantaloons, and vests for the quarter-deck officers. Some of
these men, though knowing little or nothing about sailor duties, and
seldom or never performing them, stood upon the ship's books as
ordinary seamen, entitled to ten dollars a month. Why was this?
Previous to shipping they had divulged the fact of their being tailors.
True, the officers who employed them upon their wardrobes paid them for
their work, but some of them in such a way as to elicit much grumbling
from the tailors. At any rate, these makers and menders of clothes did
not receive from some of these officers an amount equal to what they
could have fairly earned ashore by doing the same work. It was a
considerable saving to the officers to have their clothes made on board.

The men belonging to the carpenter's gang furnished another case in
point. There were some six or eight allotted to this department. All
the cruise they were hard at work. At what? Mostly making chests of
drawers, canes, little ships and schooners, swifts, and other
elaborated trifles, chiefly for the Captain. What did the Captain pay
them for their trouble? Nothing. But the United States government paid
them; two of them (the mates) at nineteen dollars a month, and the rest
receiving the pay of able seamen, twelve dollars.

To return.

The regular days upon which the barbers shall exercise their vocation
are set down on the ship's calendar, and known as _shaving days_. On
board of the Neversink these days are Wednesdays and Saturdays; when,