faint tone, walking off towards the poop-ladder with the lieutenant's
aid, having evidently had enough of the ship's rolling. He expressed a
wish to seek the seclusion of his own cabin, whereat I was not
surprised, both Dick Popplethorne and myself having observed his face
assume a greenish-yellowy-liver sort of look during the last few moments
of "Joe's" narrative; but he kept up his courage to the last, murmuring
yet more faintly as he tottered below. "Ve-wy good--ah! Ye-es, ve-wy
good--ah, indeed!"

"Funny, wasn't it?" said Dick Popplethorne to me as the two turned away,
laughing again, only more quietly now. "What a rum start for him to
sing out, `dead boy!'"

I thought so, too--afterwards.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

OFF USHANT.

At Eight Bells, or four o'clock in the ordinary parlance of landsmen,
Mr Bitpin was relieved by the first lieutenant, who then came on deck
with the rest of the starboard watch to take charge, while the port
watch went below at the same time.

This hour marked the beginning of the first dog watch, which, it may be
here mentioned for the benefit of the uninitiated, only lasts two hours,
from four o'clock to six, when the second dog watch, of similar
duration, commences and continues until eight o'clock, or "Eight Bells,"
again.

These subdivisions of time are necessary on board ship in order to allow
all to share alike the rough with the smooth, and give the officers and
men a change at regular intervals from day to night service, and the
reverse; for, if all the watches were of equal length, there could not
be any possible variation of the hours during which the hands would be
on and off duty respectively, the one section of the crew in such case
coming on deck at precisely the same time each day and going below in
similar rotation.

By the system in vogue, however, of cutting one of the watches into two
parts, which is common to the seamen of all countries in the mercantile
marine and is not merely limited to the routine of our men-of-war, there
is a constant change introduced; so that, the men who take, say, the
first watch to-night, from eight o'clock till midnight, will have the
middle watch to-morrow night, and so on in regular sequence until the
time comes round again for them to "return to their old love" again!

"Glass-eye," as the men called the first lieutenant, I noticed, was a
much smarter hand than Mr Bitpin, in spite of his drawly way of
speaking and lackadaisical