We know what risks all landsmen run,
From noblemen to tailors:
Then, Bill, let us thank Providence
That you and I are sailors.'"

Tastes differ as to which of the three night watches is preferable.
Perhaps some one who has tried will reply they are all alike
detestable, and, if he be Irish, will add that the only decent watch
on deck is the watch below--an "all night in." But I also have tried;
and while prepared to admit that perhaps the pleasantest moment of any
particular watch is that in which your successor touches his cap and
says, "I'll relieve you," I still maintain there are abundant and
large compensations. Particularly for a midshipman, for he had no
responsibilities. The lieutenant of the watch had always before him
the possibilities of a mischance; and one very good officer said to me
he did not believe any lieutenant in the navy felt perfectly
comfortable in charge of the deck in a heavy gale. Freedom from
anxiety, however, is a matter of temperament; not by any means
necessarily of courage, although it adds to courage the invaluable
quality of not wasting nerve force on difficulties of the imagination.
A weather-brace may go unexpectedly; a topsail-sheet part; an awkward
wave come on board. Very true; but what is the use of worrying,
unless you are constitutionally disposed to worry. If you are
constitutionally so disposed, I admit there is not much use in
talking. Illustrative of this, the following story has come down of
two British admirals, both men of proved merit and gallantry. "When
Howe was in command of the Channel Fleet, after a dark and boisterous
night, in which the ships had been in some danger of running foul of
each other, Lord Gardner, then the third in command, the next day went
on board the _Queen Charlotte_ and inquired of Lord Howe how he had
slept, for that he himself had not been able to get any rest from
anxiety of mind. Lord Howe said he had slept perfectly well, for, as
he had taken every possible precaution he could before dark, he laid
himself down with a conscious feeling that everything had been done
which it was in his power to do for the safety of the ships and of the
lives intrusted to his care, and this conviction set his mind at
ease." The apprehensiveness with which Gardner was afflicted "is
further exemplified by an anecdote told by Admiral Sir James Whitshed,
who commanded the _Alligator_, next him in the line. Such was his
anxiety, even in ordinar