eason to know that some of the more
enterprising came to sudden grief.

These freaks of sailor life are recorded, not with a view of holding
him up as a drunken, ill-behaved, lawless creature, but merely as
incidents that seemed necessary adjuncts of his calling, and for the
purpose of showing the mischief that may be caused by supplying him
with drink or putting temptation in his way. For even in these days he
is deplorably susceptible to influences that are injurious to him. He
is very weak, very reckless, and also very human; but I am inclined to
demur at the notion that in the good old times he was pre-eminently so.
There is one characteristic of the whole class that should never be
overlooked, and that is their devotion to one another.

VIII

GRUB

In the extreme end of the forecastle, above what is called the
forehook, was a locker to keep the beef, duff (pudding) and sugar kids,
bread barge and other small stores, such as tea, sugar, coffee, etc. If
these were not carefully covered over, and there was any rain, or if
sea-water came aboard, they soon were destroyed, and the apprentice
whose work it was to look after them was held to blame by the men who
meted out punishment to him in one way or another, but they themselves
suffered the penalty of his fault, for they were reduced to short
rations until the following week's allowance was distributed. It was
customary for the captain to weigh or serve out the stores, and many a
mean trick was adopted at the expense of the poor sailor by the use of
false scales, weights, or measures. I have seen instances of this most
wretched and meanest of all thieving more than once. One incompetent
conniver at inexpiable wrong thought by cheating his men out of a
portion of their meagre allowance he would make the insufficiency of
stores put aboard by the owner spin out till the voyage ended. The
water was served out just as exactingly as anything else, and as soon
as the day's allowance was handed over to each man, the bung was put in
the cask with canvas nailed over it, and the dipper, which is a long,
narrow copper or tin pot, with a lanyard attached to it, was bent on to
the signal halyards and run up to the masthead, so that no one could
sneak any more water than their whack during the close time. In spite
of gross imposition, which, if committed amongst any other class of
workmen would have provoked the spirit of murder, these jovial,
light-hearted fellows were