They must also provide themselves with four pairs of duck trousers, a straw hat for fine weather, and a canvas or beaver one for squalls, though this need not be insisted on. Shoes are not much used, except by those whose work lies aloft; and prudent hands generally keep a blue jacket by them, in case of rain or night-work. It is not a bad rule to muster the crew occasionally with blue jackets, even in hot weather, to see that such things are really in existence. Each man has, of course, a bed, a pillow, and two blankets; sheets are never heard of. He has also two hammocks, one of which is slung and in use, the other scrubbed, dry, and stowed away, ready to be exchanged for the dirty one. The hammocks, at the time I first went to sea (1802), were made of a coarse brown stuff, which it was difficult, if not impossible, to make white by any amount of scrubbing; and, what was worse, so thick that it was by no means easily dried. Now-a-days, they are generally made either of canvas, or of a twilled sacking, and, when spread out, measure 4-1/2 feet by 3-1/2; but when lashed up, and ready for stowing away in the netting, they form long sacks, about as big as a man's body, but not tapering to the ends.
In ships where much pains is taken to have the hammocks stowed properly, they are lashed up, so as to preserve the same width all along, and with neither more nor fewer than seven turns with a well-blacked small lashing, carefully passed round at equal intervals. When the hammocks are prepared in this way, and all made of the same size, (which condition may be secured by putting them through a ring of given dimensions,) they are laid in symmetrical order all round the ship, above the bulwark, on the quarter-deck and forecastle, and in the waist nettings along the gangways. Each hammock, it may be mentioned, has a separate number painted neatly upon it on a small, white, oval patch, near one of the corners; so that, when they are all stowed in the nettings, a uniform line of numbers extends round the ship, and the hammock of any man who may be taken ill can be found by his messmates in a moment. The bags, in like manner, of which each person has two, are numbered separately. In rainy weather the hammocks are securely covered by painted cloths.
As a seaman's kit generally forms his whole property, it ought to be carefully preserved, and every possible facility given that the service will allow of for his keeping it in good order. A captain of any consideration will naturally bear in mind, that, as the comfort and health of the men under his command depend most materially upon the manner in which they are clad, and especially upon the damp or dry state of their dress, it becomes an important branch of his duty to see that their things are taken care of with as much exactness as the spare sails, cordage, or provisions. It much too frequently happens, however, that the unfortunate sailors' clothes are more torment to them than advantage, and they may think themselves lucky if they can catch hold of a jacket or trousers to shift withal, so eternally are they interfered with by some inconsiderate officers. "Pipe the bags up!" "Pipe the bags down!" "Stow the bags afresh!" "Pipe to scrub the bags!" and twenty such orders are given in a day in some ships, to the endless misery of the people. It is, no doubt, necessary that the bags should be scrubbed and stowed properly, and be piped up and down at the proper times and seasons. But there are two ways of doing these things: one, which gives the men no more trouble than is absolutely unavoidable; the other, which harasses and justly provokes them. It is not enough to say that they must submit, whether they like it or not. They will submit, it is true; but in what temper? and how will these men work when called upon to exert themselves, if they are habitually treated with disrespect, and exposed to needless, and even impertinent worry? I have even heard of some crack ships, as they are termed, where the poor devils are obliged to pipe-clay their bags, to make them look white, forsooth! Why, the very idea of pipe-clay is gall and wormwood to the taste of the Johnnies. Of late years I understand there have been introduced black painted water-proof bags, which are a great comfort to the men. Besides keeping out wet, they require no trouble to scrub and dry, and, after all, are fully as clean, and far more useful in every respect.
To show the various sorts of outfit which the men composing a man-of-war's crew may be furnished with on first coming on board, I shall describe a scene which took place on the Leander's quarter-deck, off the Port of New York, in 1804. We were rather short-handed in those days; and being in the presence of a blockaded enemy, and liable, at half-an-hour's warning, to be in action, we could not afford to be very scrupulous as to the ways and means by which our numbers were completed, so that able-bodied men were secured to handle the gun-tackle falls. It chanced one day that we fell in with a ship filled with emigrants; a description of vessel called, in the classical dictionary of the cockpit, an "Irish guinea man." Out of her we pressed twenty Irishmen, besides two strapping fellows from Yorkshire, and one canny Scot.
Each of this score of Pats was rigged merely in a great coat, and a pair of something which might be called an apology for inexpressibles; while the rest of their united wardrobe could have been stowed away in the crown of any one of their hats. Their motives for emigrating to a country where mere health and strength of body are sure to gain an independent provision were obvious enough; and I must say, that to this hour I have not been able to forget the melancholy cry or howl with which the separation of these hardy settlers from their families was effected by the strong arm of power. It was a case of necessity, it is true; but still it was a cruel case, and one for the exercise of which the officer who put it in force deserves almost as much pity as the poor wretches whose feelings and interests it became his bounden duty to disregard.
In most admired contrast to this bewildered drove of half-starved Paddies stood the two immense, broad-shouldered, high-fed Yorkshiremen, dressed in long-tailed coats, corduroy breeches, and yellow-topped boots, each accompanied by a chest of clothes not much less than a pianoforte, and a huge pile of spades, pick-axes, and other implements of husbandry. They possessed money also, and letters of credit, and described themselves as being persons of some substance at home. Why they emigrated they would not tell; but such were their prospects, that it was difficult to say whether they or the wild Irishers were the most to be commiserated for so untoward an interruption. Be this as it may, it cost the clerk half-an-hour to write down a list of their multifarious goods and chattels, while a single scratch of the pen sufficed for that of all the Irishmen.
At last honest Saunders came under review. He was a tall, raw-boned, grave-looking personage, much pitted with the smallpox, and wearing a good deal of that harassed and melancholy air, which, sooner or later, settles on the brow of an assistant to a village pedagogue. He was startled, but not abashed, when drawn to the middle of the deck, and asked, in the presence of fifty persons, what clothes and other things he possessed? Not choosing at first to betray his poverty, he made no answer, but looked round, as if to discover where his chest had been placed. He then glanced at his thread-bare sleeve and tattered shoon, with a slight touch of dry and bitter humour playing about the corners of his mouth, and a faint sparkle lighting up his grey and sunken eye, as he returned the impatient official stare of the clerk, who stood, pen in hand, ready to note down the items.
"Don't be frightened, man," said the captain; "no one is going to hurt you, your things are quite safe. What does your property consist of?"
"A trifle, sir, a trifle," quoth poor Sawney; "fourpence ha'penny and an auld knife!"
Before concluding this subject, it may perhaps be useful to remark, that, unless in those cases where such a measure is absolutely necessary, the actual examination and minute recording of the men's clothes might, in general, be advantageously dispensed with. I have, indeed, occasionally fancied I saw traces of irritation and wounded pride amongst the men, when all their little knick-knacks, every hat, hose, and handkerchief, or old shoe, was examined into and noted down, to be reproduced that day month, or its absence accounted for. I tried a middle course in my own ship, which appeared to answer all the purposes required. From time to time the men were ordered to bring their bags to divisions, and to spread out their clothes to air on the deck, over the guns, along the hammock-nettings, or in the rigging. In this way the officers and mids, who passed repeatedly up and down the line, had opportunities enough, if they did their duty, to see that all the clothes were clean, dry, and in good order. When any man's things were observed not to be in the condition demanded by the regulations of the ship, or he was found ragged in his clothes, or not properly dressed, then such delinquent was no longer indulged with the exemption, but had his kit subjected to a daily, or weekly, or monthly scrutiny, as the case might be. As long as he was in this predicament, he was obliged to exhibit every article in proper condition, and was not at liberty, without asking leave, to destroy even such worn-out things as an old Jew clothesman would turn up his beard at. I took care that no part of this surveillance should be talked of as a punishment, although, unquestionably, it was intended and felt as such; but studied rather to give it the character of a necessary duty in the instance of individuals who, if not so watched, would, by their misconduct, hurt the general discipline of the ship. It was very seldom that any one exposed to such drilling for a month or six weeks ever brought himself within the range of its humiliation a second time.