although few of them had been tried in active
service, and fewer still, I fancy, had had charge of so ill-found a ship
as the _Zebra_.

One of the first complaints I was called upon to hear and report to my
officers was as to the ship's food, which was truly as scurvy and
unsavoury a provision as I ever saw. Biscuits and grog and pork were
such as the lowest slop-shop in Letterkenny would have been ashamed to
sell.

"It's good enough for hounds like them," was all I could get out of the
lieutenant. "They can take it or leave it."

The next complaint I made was on my own account, and referred to the
ship's stores. We had barely our complement of anchors and cables,
still less any to come and go on. For reserve spars and sails and other
tackle we were almost as badly off; while the ammunition and arms were
certainly not enough for a service involving any considerable action.

The officer in charge received all these representations with the utmost
indifference.

"Get better if you can," said he; "it's all of a piece, and quite proper
for a service that's gone to the dogs. Hark at those demons now! The
rum seems good enough, anyhow."

And indeed all that night the _Zebra_ was more like a madhouse than one
of his Majesty's ships. What authority there was was maintained at the
end of the cat-o'-nine-tails. As for the enthusiasm and patriotic
ardour which are usually supposed to hail the prospect of close-quarters
with the enemy, one would have had to listen long and hard for any sign
of either below decks that night.

"The best that can happen to us," said I to myself, as I turned in at
last, "is a hurricane up Channel, and the Dutch fleet at the end of it.
These may hold us together; nothing else will."

When Captain Swift came on board next evening things mended a little,
for our gallant officer was a man whose name and manner both commanded
respect. At the last moment some few additional stores were brought
off; and the little speech he made to the crew, reminding them of their
honourable profession, and holding out a prospect of distinction and
prize-money in the near future, was listened to with more respect than I
feared it would meet. The men, through one of their number, made a
formal complaint of their grievances, which Captain Swift received on
his part without resentment. The order was then given to weigh anchor,
and half-an-hour later the _Zebra_ was standing out to sea on as ill-
starred a