ers and through the ports, or leaked in, a little at a
time, through the seams. In bad weather the lower gun-decks (or all
decks below the spar-deck) were more or less awash, from seas that had
washed down the hatchways. The upper-deck seams let in the rain, and
when once the lower-decks were wet it was very difficult to dry them. It
was impossible to close the gun-deck ports so as to make them
watertight, for the water would find cracks to come in at, even though
the edges of the lids were caulked with oakum, and the orifices further
barred by deadlights or wooden shutters. Many of the sailors, as we have
seen, were without a change of clothes, and with no proper
sleeping-place, save the wet deck and the wet jackets that they worked
in. It often happened that the gun-ports would be closed for several
weeks together, during which time the gun-decks became filthy and musty,
while the sailors contracted all manner of cramps and catarrhs. In
addition to the wet, and the discomfort of such a life, there was also
the work, often extremely laborious, incidental to heavy weather at sea.
What with the ceaseless handling of sails and ropes, in frost and snow
and soaking sea-water; and the continual pumping out of the leaks the
rotten seams admitted, the sailor had little leisure in which to sleep,
or to dry himself. When he left the deck he had only the dark, wet
berth-deck to retire to, a place of bleakness and misery, where he might
share a sopping blanket, if he had one, with the corpse of a drowned rat
and the flotsam from the different messes. There was no getting dry nor
warm, though the berth-deck might be extremely close and stuffy from
lack of ventilation. The cook-room, or galley fire would not be lighted,
and there would be no comforting food or drink, nothing but raw meat and
biscuit, and a sup of sour beer. It was not more unpleasant perhaps than
life at sea is to-day, but it was certainly more dangerous.[27] When at
last the storm abated and the sea went down, the ports were opened and
the decks cleaned. The sailors held a general washing-day, scrubbing the
mouldy clothes that had been soaked so long, and hanging them to dry
about the rigging. Wind-sails or canvas ventilators were rigged, to
admit air to the lowest recesses of the hold. The decks were scrubbed
down with a mixture of vinegar and sand, and then sluiced with salt
water, scraped with metal scrapers, and dried with swabs and small
portable firepots. Vineg