propensity. The
inconvenience of being branded for life should have been felt by men
prone to desertion; but the descriptive lists which accompany every
crew were crowded with such remarks as, "Goddess of Liberty, r. f.
a."--right forearm--the which, if a man ran away, helped the police of
the port to identify him. My memory does not retain the various
emblems thus perpetuated in men's skins; they were largely patriotic
and extremely conventional, each practised tattooer having doubtless
his own particular style. Many midshipmen of my time acquired these
embellishments. I wonder if they have not since been sorry.

IV

THE NAVAL ACADEMY IN ITS INTERIOR WORKINGS

PRACTICE CRUISES

1855-60

In the preceding pages my effort has been to reconstitute for the
reader the navy, in body and in spirit, as it was when I entered in
1856 and had been during the period immediately preceding. There was
no marked change up to 1861, when the War of Secession began. The
atmosphere and environment which I at first encountered upon my
entrance to the Naval Academy, in 1856, had nothing strange, or even
unfamiliar, to a boy who had devoured Cooper and Marryat--not as mere
tales of adventure, but with some real appreciation and understanding
of conditions as by them depicted. I had studied, as well as been
absorbed by them. Cooper is much more of an idealist and romancer than
is Marryat, who belongs essentially to the realistic school. Some of
the Englishman's presentations may be exaggerated, though not beyond
probability--elaborated would perhaps be a juster word--and in one
passage he expressly abjures all willingness to present a caricature
of the seaman he had known. Cooper, on the other hand, while his sea
scenes are well worked up, has given us personalities which, tested by
Marryat's, are made out of the whole cloth; creations, if you will,
but not resemblances. Marryat entered the navy earlier than his rival,
and followed the sea longer; his experience was in every way wider.
Even in my time could be seen justifications of his portrayal; but
who ever saw the like of Tom Coffin, Trysail, or Boltrope?

The interested curiosity concerning all things naval which possessed
me, and held me enthralled by the mere sight of an occasional
square-rigged vessel, such as at rare intervals passed our home on the
Hudson, fifty miles from the sea, led me also to pore over a copy of
the _Academy Regulations_ which the then superintend