"Well, I expect to see you in Talcahuano in the spring, and I'll put you in mind of this."
"If you see me there as soon as that, I'll stand treat."
"I see the old slaver has brought a lot of bran new sailors from New York to-day. I suppose, Gardner, you'll have the training of some of these young fellows," said another.
"No, not this lot; ours are all on board. These are to go in the Fortitude and the Arethusa."
"Well, Grafton's going in the Arethusa. They'll all find their right places there."
"There's a fellow will make a slashing midship oarsman," said one.
"Yes, and here's another for a bowman," replied his neighbor, with a glance at me, as I stood within ear shot, and overheard this colloquy.
I had no chance to hear more at present; for the whole party, after their names had been registered, were handed over to the tender mercies of the boarding-house keeper, and the procession moved off, in straggling order, "down under the bank" to dinner.
Mr. Loftus, the boarding-master, was an elderly gentleman of pompous appearance, who had been whaling himself in his younger days, and thought himself quite an oracle in his way. He entertained his boarders with many thrilling reminiscences of his youth, interspersed with sage advice how to conduct ourselves so as to get ahead, and rise in our profession, as he himself had done, and regretted that ill health had prevented him from following it up until he got command of a ship, which must inevitably have been the case in a few more years. He informed us that the majority of us would probably be shipped the next day in the Arethusa, and we might consider ourselves truly fortunate in getting this opportunity, as the Arethusa was a new ship, with all the modern improvements, and a crack appointment, so that we might look upon the voyage as already made, before the ship left home. Furthermore the ship carried three maints' gall'nt sails, and had more backstays than any other ship in port, which fact, he said, had a material bearing on the success of the cruise.
All this produced a feeling of anxiety in the minds of the newly enlisted to be chosen on the roll of the Arethusa rather than to be left for the Fortitude and other less desirable ships.