Fragments of voyages and travels, including anecdotes of a naval life

by Basil Hall

The officers and midshipmen are generally divided into three watches—First, Second, and Third. As the senior lieutenant does not keep watch, the officer next in rank takes the First, the junior lieutenant the Second, and the master the Third watch, in ships where there are not more than three lieutenants. Under each of these chiefs there is placed a squad of midshipmen; the principal one of whom is mate of the watch, the next in seniority is stationed on the forecastle, and after him comes the poop mid. The youngsters remain on the lee-side of the quarter-deck, along with the mate of the watch. For it must be observed, that no one but the captain, the lieutenants, the master, surgeon, purser, and marine officer, is ever allowed, upon any occasion whatsoever, to walk on the weather side. This custom has become so much a matter of course, that I hardly remember asking myself before, what may have been the origin of the regulation? The chief purpose, no doubt, is to draw a strong line of distinction between the different ranks; although, independently of this, the weather side is certainly the most convenient to walk upon when the ship is pressed with sail: it is also the best sheltered from wind and rain; and the view both low and aloft is more commanding than it is from to leeward.

Every person, also, not excepting the captain, when he comes on the quarter-deck, touches his hat; and as this salutation is supposed to be paid to this privileged spot itself, all those who at the moment have the honour to be upon it are bound to acknowledge the compliment. Thus, even when a midshipman comes up, and takes off his hat, all the officers who are walking the deck, the Admiral included, if he happens to be of the number, touch their hats likewise.

So completely does this form grow into a habit, that in the darkest night, and when there may not be a single person near the hatchway, it is invariably attended to, with the same precision. Indeed, when an officer of the Navy happens to be on board a merchant ship, or a packet, he finds it difficult to avoid carrying his hand to his hat every time he comes on deck. I, for one, at least, can never get over the feeling, that it is rude to neglect this ceremony, and have often, when on board passage vessels, wondered to see gentlemen so deficient in good breeding, as to come gaping up the hatchway, as if their hats were nailed to their heads, and their hands sewed into their breeches-pockets!

Of course, each person in the watch has a specific duty to attend to, as I shall endeavour to describe presently; but, first, it may be well to mention the ingenious arrangement of the hours by which the periods of watching are equally distributed to all.

In speaking of the three watches, it will perhaps avoid confusion, and rather simplify the description, to call them, for a moment, not First, Second, and Third, as they are named on board ship, but to designate them by the letters A, B, and C.

Let us begin, then, by supposing that A’s watch commences at 8 o’clock in the evening; the officer and his party remain on deck till midnight, four hours being one period. This is called the First watch. B is next roused up, and keeps the Middle watch, which lasts from midnight till 4 o’clock. C now comes up, and stays on deck till 8, which is the Morning watch. A then returns to the deck, where he walks till noon, when he is relieved by B, who stays up till 4. If C were now to keep the watch from 4 to 8, of course A would again have to keep the First watch on the second night, as he did at first starting; and all the others, in like manner, would have to keep, over again, exactly the same watches, every night and day. In order to break this uniform recurrence of intervals, an ingenious device has been hit upon to produce a constant and equitable rotation. When or where this plan was invented, I do not know, but I believe it exists in the ships of all nations.

The period from 4 o’clock in the afternoon till 8 in the evening, instead of constituting one watch, is divided into two watches, of a couple of hours each. These, I don’t know why, are called the Dog watches. The first, which lasts from 4 to 6 o’clock, belongs, on the second day, according to the order described above, to C, who is, of course, relieved at 6 o’clock by A. This alteration, it will be observed, gives the First watch (from 8 to midnight) to B, on the second night; the Middle (from midnight to 4) to C; and the Morning watch (from 4 to 8) to A; the Forenoon watch (from 8 to noon) to B; and the Afternoon (from noon to 4) to C. The first Dog watch (from 4 to 6) will now be kept by A, the second Dog watch (from 6 to 8) by B, and so on, round and round. By this mechanism, it will easily be perceived, the officers, on each succeeding day, have a watch to keep, always one stage earlier than that which they kept on the day before. Thus, if A have the Morning watch one night, he will have the Middle watch on the night following, and the First watch on the night after that again. The distribution of time which this produces is very unequal, when the short period of twenty-four hours only is considered; but the arrangement rights itself in the course of a few days. On the first day, A has ten hours’ watch to keep out of the twenty-four, B eight, and C only six. But on the next day, A has only six hours, while B has ten, and C eight; while, on the third day, A has eight, B six, and C ten hours’ watching; and so on, round and round, from year’s end to year’s end.

This variety, to a person in health and spirits, is often quite delightful. Each watch has its peculiar advantages; and I need hardly add, that each likewise furnishes an ample store of materials for complaining, to those discontented spirits whose chief delight is to coddle up grievances, as if, forsooth, the principal object of life was to keep ourselves unhappy, and to help to make others so!

The First watch (8 o’clock to midnight) which comes after the labour of the day is done, and when every thing is hushed and still, carries with it this great recommendation, that, although the hour of going to bed is deferred, the night’s rest is not afterwards broken in upon. The prospect of ‘turning in’ at midnight, and being allowed to sleep till seven in the morning, helps greatly to keep us alive and merry during the First watch, and prevents the excitement of the past day from ebbing too fast. On the other hand, your thorough-bred growlers are apt to say, it is a grievous task to keep the First watch, after having gone through all the toil of the day, and, in particular, after having kept the Afternoon watch (noon to 4 o’clock,) which, in hot climates, is always a severe trial upon the strength. Generally speaking, however, I think the First watch is the least unpopular; for, I suppose, no mortal, whatever he might think, was ever found so Quixotic as to profess openly that he really liked keeping watch. Such a paradox would be famously ridiculed on board ship!

The Middle watch is almost universally held to be a great bore; and certainly it is a plague of the first order, to be shaken out of a warm bed at midnight, when three hours of sound sleep have sealed up our eyelids all the faster, and steeped our senses in forgetfulness, and in repose, generally much needed. It is a bitter break, too, to have four good hours sliced out of the very middle of the night’s rest, especially when this tiresome interval is to be passed in the cold and rain, or, which is often still more trying, in the sultry calm of a smooth, tropical sea, when the sleepy sails, as wet with dew as if they had been dipped overboard, flap idly against the masts and rigging, but so very gently as barely to make the reef points patter-patter along the canvass, with notes so monotonous, that the bare recollection of their sound almost sets me to sleep, now.