fellow; but his first lieutenant, a very competent
critic, used to say that what he did not know of seamanship would fill
a large book.

At first thought it seems somewhat singular that the six lieutenants
of the ship presented no such aggregate of idiosyncrasies as did the
four warrant officers. It was not by any means because we did not know
them well, and mingle among them with comparative frequency.
Midshipmen, we travelled from one side to the other; here at home,
there guests, but to both admitted freely. But, come to think of it
more widely, the distinction I here note must have had a foundation in
conditions. My acquaintance with Marryat, who lived the naval life as
no other sea author has, is now somewhat remote, but was once intimate
as well as extensive; and recollection deceives me if the same remark
does not apply to his characters. He has a full gallery of captains
and lieutenants, each differing from the other; but his greatest
successes in portrayal, those that take hold of the memory, are his
warrant officers--boatswains, gunners, and carpenters. The British
navy did not give sailmakers this promotion. By-products though they
are, rather than leading characters, Boatswain Chucks, whom Marryat
takes off the stage midway, as though too much to sustain to the end,
Carpenter Muddle, and Gunner Tallboys, with his aspirations towards
navigating, sketched but briefly and in bold outline as they are,
survive most of their superiors in clear individuality and amusing
eccentricity. Peter Simple, and even Jack Easy himself, whose traits
are more personal than nautical, are less vivid to memory. Cooper
also, who caricatures rather than reproduces life, seeks here his
fittest subjects--Boltrope and Trysail--warrant masters, superior in
grade indeed to the others, but closely identified with them on board
ship, and essentially of the same class. Such coincidence betokens a
more pronounced individuality in the subject-matter. There have been
particular eccentric commissioned officers, of whom quaint stories
have descended; but in early days, originality was the class-mark of
those of whom I am speaking, as many an anecdote witnesses. I fancy
few will have seen this, which I picked up in my miscellaneous
nautical readings. A boatswain, who had been with Cook in his voyages,
chanced upon one of those fervent Methodist meetings common in the
eighteenth century. The preacher, in illustration of the abundance of
the Divin