plings. Board
him!" Then, after giving much good advice as to how the rest of a sea
fight should be managed, Smith tells his pupils what to do in case of
fire. "Captaine, we are foul of each other and the ship is on fire!"
"Cut anything to get clear and smother the fire with wet clothes."
Here he adds this delightful little note: "In such a case they will
presentlie bee such friends as to help each other all they can to get
clear; and if they bee generous, and the fire bee quenched, they will
drink kindly one to the other, heave their canns overboard, _and begin
again as before_." The duties of a good crew after the fight are
carefully laid down: "Chirurgeon (surgeon) look to the wounded and wind
up the slain, and give them three guns (volleys) for their funerals"
(as we do still). "Swabber, make clean the ship! Purser, record their
names! Watch, be vigilant! Gunners, spunge your ordnance! Souldiers,
scour your pieces! Carpenters, about your leaks! Boatswain and the
rest, repair sails and shrouds! Cook, see you observe your directions
against the morning watch!" The first thing in this "morning watch"
the captain sings out, "Boy, hallo! is the kettle boiled?"--"Ay, ay,
Sir!" Then the captain gives the order: "Boatswain, call up the men to
prayer and breakfast." The victory won, and the Spanish ship once safe
in the hands of an English crew, the _Directions_ end with a grand
salute: "Sound drums and trumpets: Saint George for England!" ("Saint
George for England!" is what Sir Roger Keyes signalled to the fleet he
led against the Germans at Zeebrugge on St. George's Day in 1918, three
hundred years after Smith's book was written.)

Sea-Dogs worked desperately hard for all they got, ran far more than
the usual risks of war, and were cheated by most of the traders ashore.
As for the risks: when Shakespeare speaks of a "Putter-out of five for
one" he means that what we now call insurance agents would bet five to
one against the chance of a ship's ever coming back when she was going
on a long voyage through distant seas full of known and unknown
dangers, such as pirates, cannibals, shipwreck, and deadly diseases.
As for cheats: Sea-Dogs were not perfect themselves, nor were all
landsmen quite so bad as those in the old sailors' song:

For Sailours they bee honest men,
And they do take great pains.
But Land-men and ruffling Ladds
Do cheat them of their gains.

All the same, the "Land-men" often did c