, but especially by the
younger apprentices. He claimed the right indeed to chastise a wayward
youth with the rope's end, and when very bad offences occurred, a
double punishment was inflicted by keeping the little delinquent on
deck in the cold at night, until his superior thought fit to pardon
him. On the other hand, I have seen a mate soundly thrashed by this
same person for striking a young boy during the process of a voyage.
Such were the peculiar ethics of this class of seamen that, while they
conceived it to be their duty to uphold the dignity of discipline when
they were in supreme control of the little colony of apprentices during
the time the vessel was laid up in port, they would not brook undue
physical interference with their co-apprentices on the part of the
chief officer when in active commission. Sometimes the stay in port
would last three months. The master and mate were in attendance every
day, and in order that their berths might be retained, the sailors came
aboard on fine days, repaired sails, running gear, standing rigging,
scraped and tarred the holds out, scraped masts, painted yards,
scrubbed bottom, tarred and blackleaded it, and, in fact, when the time
came to fit out for the spring voyage to the Baltic, the little vessels
looked as trim and as neat as it was possible to make them, and there
was little left to do except bend sails and take stores aboard.

[Illustration: A NORTHUMBERLAND HARBOUR.]

Nor were the apprentices allowed to be idle. Each day they had to wash
decks when the tide was up, and although it may seem a very small
matter to refer to, it is worthy of note that the drawing of water by
the youngest boy was the occasion of much interest to the onlookers,
who always congregated in large numbers on the quays when anything of
this sort was being done. The bucket which supplied the water was
stropped with rope so that it did not injure the side of the vessel;
great care was observed that no harm came to the planking, no matter
how old the craft might be. The boy was expected to draw with such
rapidity that the person who was throwing the water along the deck
should not have to wait. It was considered quite an art to throw the
water properly, and also to supply it, and it taxed both the strength
and the deftness of the youngster; many a wigging he would get in the
process of training even in this small matter.

The two youngest boys took week and week about in keeping the
forecastl