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

by Basil Hall

These are but a few of the tricks played off upon those who will not relieve the deck in proper time. I remember an incorrigible snooser, who had been called three or four times, but still gave no symptoms of any intention of ‘shewing a leg,’ the only allowable test of sincerity in the process called ‘turning out.’ About five o’clock, on a fine tropical morning, when the ship was cruising off the Mono Passage, in the West Indies; and just before the day began to dawn, it was resolved, in a full conclave of the middies of his own watch, assembled on the lee side of the quarter-deck, that an example should forthwith be made of the sleeper.

A detachment, consisting of four stout hands, were sent to the hammock of the culprit. Two of them held the youth firmly down, while the others wrapped the bedclothes round him, and then lashed him up—that is, strapped him tightly in by means of the lashing—a long cord with which the hammocks are secured when brought upon deck in the day-time. No part of the unfortunate wight was left exposed except his face. When he was fairly tied in, the lanyards of his hammock were cast off, and the bundle, half midshipman half bedding, was dragged along, like a log of wood, to the square of the hatchway.

Meanwhile the confederates on deck had thrown the end of the signal haulyards down the cock-pit wind-sail, a wide canvass-pipe, by which, in hot climates, air is sent to the lower parts of the ship. These signal haulyards, I must explain, are led through small sheeve-holes in the truck, a little turban-shaped, wooden cap, fitted on the royal mast-head. The ordinary purpose of the signal haulyards, as their name points out, is to display the flags necessary in communicating with other ships; but, upon this occasion, they were fastened to one of the grummets of the unhappy sleepy-headed reefer’s hammock.

When all was secure, the word ‘haul up!’ was given from below, upon which the party on deck hoisted away. The sleeper awakened vanished from the cock-pit, only to make his appearance, in a few seconds, at the mouth of the wind-sail, half way between the quarter-deck and the mizen-stay. Of course, the boys watched their opportunity, when the officer of the watch had gone forward on the gangway, to see how the head-yards were trimmed; but long before he came aft again, their victim was lowered down, and the signal haulyards unbent. What to do with the wretch next was a great puzzle; till one of them said, “Oh! let us stick him up on his end, between two of the guns on the weather side of the deck, and perhaps the officer of the watch may take him for an Egyptian mummy, and have him sent to the British Museum as a present to the king.” This advice was instantly followed; and the enraged, mortified, and helpless youngster, being placed so that the first rays of the sun should fall on his countenance, there was no mistaking his identity.

I need scarcely mention, that the lieutenants and other commissioned officers cannot be ‘served up’ in this way, which is almost a pity, for they are sometimes as abominably lazy as the most pudding-pated midshipman of their watch. It too often happens that, instead of being the first, they are the very last persons to relieve the deck. There is hardly any thing more annoying than being detained on deck half an hour, and sometimes more, for want of our relief, after the watch we have kept is ended. This extra, and most tedious period, often looks longer than double the same length of time passed in our own proper turn of duty; and the dislocation of temper it produces is very difficult of repair. Many a time and oft, when I have been kept waiting for the officer who was to relieve me, long, long beyond the proper time, I have inwardly sworn deeply, that, if ever I came to the command of a ship, I would reform this intolerable abuse; and I flatter myself I made good my promise. I gave positive orders, and took measures to have them duly obeyed, that the usual mustering of the watch whose turn it was to come on deck, should take place, not, as it generally does, at the half hour, but exactly at ten minutes after the bell struck, which announced the close of the preceding watch. And I directed—and carefully enforced my directions—that this ceremony of mustering the fresh watch should take place under the superintendence of the officer whose turn of duty it now became. Thus, the deck was always relieved considerably within a quarter of an hour after the former watch was ended.

In addition to this, I made it an invariable rule, the instant it struck eight in the evening, to begin mustering the people of the First watch, of course under the superintendence of the lieutenant of that watch: so that the men who were to be called up at midnight might tumble into their beds at once, and have their full period of four hours’ rest before being ‘turned out’ to keep the Middle watch. I take the liberty of recommending these plans to my brother-officers afloat, as, I can assure them, they answer exceedingly well in practice.

The officers and midshipmen are divided into three watches, as I have described above; but the crew, in most ships, are divided into only two watches. By taking a good deal of care, however, in arranging the people properly, the seamen and marines, almost in every case, may likewise be put at three watches, instead of what is termed ‘watch and watch,’ which is simply, turn about.

The illustrious voyager Captain Cook was, I believe, the first who introduced this admirable practice, as may be seen in his Essay on the Method of preserving the health of the crew of the Resolution, printed in the Philosophical Transactions for 1776, vol. lxvi. p. 402. From that masterly paper we discover that many of the most important of our modern improvements in naval discipline are essentially due to the sagacity of that great navigator. Of all officers that ever lived, Captain Cook may be said to have taken the best way of establishing the soundness of his principles—that of invariable practical success—not in one or two situations only, but in the midst of so great a variety of circumstances, that no part of his system remained untried. His plans were found applicable in the coldest regions, when his people were exposed to severe hardships in their attempts to reach the South Pole; and not less so when they became acquainted with the luxurious climate and voluptuous manners of the South Sea Islands.

Unfortunately, the science of discipline cannot be reduced to rule and compass, like that of navigation; but a great deal has already been done, and may still be done, to establish some leading principles of this important branch of the profession, round which its numerous details revolve. It appears, however, that much remains to be accomplished towards its improvement. Nor am I aware of any greater benefit that could be conferred upon the Navy, than the composition of a perfectly intelligible, popular treatise on discipline, which should include all that is known, and has actually been tried by the best authorities, together with such examples of the operation of these principles as appear capable of useful application to general practice.

Such, however, is the diversity of our nature, that, supposing a work of this kind to be distributed throughout the Navy, and supposing it possible to have it made as complete as the condition of things will allow, there would still remain, I suspect, an ample field for the exercise of any amount of talents and resource on the part of officers. So far, indeed, from such a methodised system acting as any constraint upon the conduct of a judicious officer, the chances are, that he would only derive from it fresh suggestions, or hints, for rendering his discipline still more perfect; while at each fresh increment of knowledge he would be made sensible how much more he had still to learn.