About the Book
Excerpt from Maryland Colonization Journal, Vol. 9: August, 1857 Life at sea is so monotonous, that it would be an extremely unprofitable business, all round, to attempt making daily or even weekly entries of events, especially as few events occur to be chronicled. One day answers for many. The ordinary sea day commences at 12 o'clock noon, when all hands fore and aft, i. E. In cabin and forecastle, get dinner. The crew are divided into two watches, called Larboard and Starboard watches, which alternate in performing ordinary ship duties. One watch is under charge of the first, the other of the second mate, when there are two mates only on board. After dinner, all hands are ordered to turn to, under charge of one of the officers, and labor till 6 o'clock, the regular supper hour. Then commences the alternate watches; from 6 till 8, is called the dog-watch; during which, half the crew have liberty to go below and sleep if they please; at 8, the next watch is called, and the other officer takes charge of the deck till 12, midnight; another change at 4, and again at8 in the morn ing, when all hands are called to breakfast: then, one watch goes below till dinner; so that the whole crew is not on deck, in good weather, except from 12 M. To 6 P. M. In times of emergency, however, of gales of wind, or any disaster, all hands are called, not excepting the cook and steward, and are kept on deck till the captain or officer considers one watch able to take care of the ship. The man at the wheel or steersman, is changed every half-watch or two hours during the twenty-four, and is, at times, the only man in active duty on board. But a sailor, in a well regulated ship, never has a leisure hour in his deck-watch in the day time. The pulling and hauling, making, taking in and trimming sails is but a small part of his duty; every part of a ship, from her deck upwards, is chafing and straining every moment at sea, in rain or shine, gale or calm, and constantly requires care, attention and labor. Probably no good, experienced shipmaster, at any one time, during his longest voyage, was ever at a loss, for a moment, to find work for his crew. At night the only business of the watch on deck, is, to steer the vessel, keep a good look-out ahead, and be ready to make, shorten, or trim sail. This is the regular routine for the officers and crew in ordinary merchant vessels. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
