always ready if it was fine weather to spend
the dog watches in providing amusement for each other, and at the close
of each entertainment they never overlooked what was inherently
believed the patriotic duty of combining a display of loyalty to their
sovereign with a proportionate degree of disloyalty to the captain and
owner who were responsible for supplying them with food that even a
Russian serf might have felt justified in complaining about. So a
doggerel verse was composed and sung fervently to a modified form of
the National Anthem by way of intimating their grievance forcefully to
the notice of their commander. Relevancy did not come within the
compass of their thoughts; what they desired was to sing something that
would strike home, so the anthem was chosen as the most fitting
benediction of all. Here are the words:

God save our gracious Queen!
Long may she reign over us!
Pea-soup and pork amongst all hands of us,
Not enough for one of us,
God save our Queen!

After this had been repeated several times over, it usually happened
that one of the songsters who claimed to be gifted with more
perspicuity than his comrades would remind them that he had seen the
old squirrel wriggle under the lash of the song. And so their wretched
days of starvation were often made shorter by a more or less harmless
attack on the poor skipper, who might only be the instrument of a
parsimonious managing owner. But that was not the only method adopted
of showing their dissatisfaction. The seaman who had the most flippant
tongue and legal mind was chosen (or, as frequently happened, he
selected himself) to introduce a deputation of the whole forecastle. I
always look back on these episodes as amongst the most comical of my
sailor life. The spokesman would pick up the unpopular food, and with
the air of an oriental dignitary march at the head of his shipmates
right up to the captain, plant the wooden kid down on the deck at his
feet, and ask if that "was the sort of grub for men to do a hard day's
work on; besides, it was beef or pork, not bones or fat pork we signed
for." If the captain happened to be a conceited, combative person, he
would at once reply that he fed them according to what he thought they
were worth. Then there were heated altercations, which sometimes ended
in blood being spilt, or some of the crew being put in irons and logged
for having instigated rebellion on the high seas. "I'll teach you to