t on the upper deck
alone; but in line-of-battle ships the numbers are so great that
similar ranges, each consisting of a division, are likewise formed on
the opposite sides of the main-deck. The marines, under arms, and in
full uniform, fall in at the after-part of the quarter-deck; while the
ship's boys, under the master-at-arms, with his ratan in hand, muster
on the forecastle.

In some ships the men are sized, as it is called, the tallest being
placed at the after-end, and so on down to the most diminutive, who is
fixed at the extremity. But this arrangement, being more of a
military than of a naval cast, is rarely adopted now-a-days. It will
seldom happen, indeed, that the biggest and burliest fellows in a
ship's company are the leading men. They may chance, indeed, to be
poulterers, cook's mates, or fit only to make sweepers of; personages
who after a three years' station barely know the stem from the stern,
and could no more steer the ship than they could take a lunar
distance. Officers, however, on first joining a ship, are very apt to
be guilty of some injustice towards the people by judging of them too
hastily from appearance alone. We are insensibly so much prepossessed
in favour of a fine, tall, good-looking sailor-lad, and prejudiced
against a grizzled, crooked, little wretch, that if both happen to be
brought before us for the same offence, we almost instinctively commit
the injustice of condemning the ugly fellow, and acquitting the
smart-looking one, before a tithe of the evidence has reached our
ears.

Leaving these speculative questions, however, for the present, let us
return to the divisions, which are arranged along the deck, not, as
formerly, by sizes, but, in the proper way, by the watch-bill. The
forecastle-men, of course, come first, as they stand so in the lists
by which they are mustered at night by the mate of the watch; then the
foretop men, and so on to the gunners, after-guard, and waisters.
Each division is under charge of a lieutenant, who, as well as the
midshipmen of his division, appears in full uniform. The people are
first mustered by the young gentlemen, and then carefully inspected by
the officer of the division, who sees that every man is dressed
according to order, and that he is otherwise in proper trim. It is
also usual in hot climates for the surgeon and his assistants to pass
along the lines, to ascertain, partly by the men's looks, and partly
by an examination of their l