o me; "pipe down if you please,
sir," and after adding, "We shall sail to-morrow morning, and I shall be
on board in the evening," he ordered a cutter to be manned, and went on
shore. At the time appointed we were under weigh, and three days
afterwards off the Black Rocks, which made us look black enough. The
enemy's fleet were much in the same state, with little prospect of their
coming out. Easterly winds were prevalent, and we were generally at
anchor, one half of the ship's company doing nothing, and the other
helping them. I soon found that our noble commander was fond of the game
of chess and a stiff glass of grog, and I frequently found him _en
chemise_ with those companions at daylight on one of the cabin lockers. He
was an unmarried man, but a great admirer of the fair sex of all
descriptions, and was sometimes heard to say he was astonished at their
want of taste in not admiring him. He was not altogether an unread man,
but his manners were like his dress, slovenly, and too often coarse. He
had been, when he was a lieutenant, in command of a cutter, and afterwards
of a lugger. There, the mids declared, he ought to have remained, as he
was out of his element on the quarter-deck of a fine frigate. They were
not singular in their opinion. He was, without exception, the most
slovenly officer I ever had the misfortune to sail with. I am probably
rather severe. His only redeeming quality was certainly good nature. He,
unfortunately for himself and in some measure for the Service, courted a
kind of left-handed popularity amongst the seamen, and neglected the
officers. The consequence was, that in less than two months the discipline
of the ship became so relaxed that the crew, from being one of the
smartest in the fleet, was now the slackest. After a disagreeable cruise
of nine weeks, in which time we had carried away the main and
foretop-masts, we were ordered to Portsmouth. After refitting we joined
another frigate to cruise off Havre de Grace, where the enemy had two
frigates and a corvette nearly ready for sea. We were shortly after joined
by a sloop of war. At the full and change of the moon we always anchored
inside the Cape, in order to watch the enemy's motions more effectively,
and, when under weigh, we sometimes trawled and dredged, and frequently
caught sufficient fish for the whole crew, as well as a quantity of
oysters.

On one unlucky evening we ran on board the sloop of war, carried away the
mainmast, a