e. Not only are particular bands assigned to the three _tops_,
but in getting under weigh, or any other proceeding requiring all
hands, particular men of these bands are assigned to each yard of the
tops. Thus, when the order is given to loose the main-royal,
White-Jacket flies to obey it; and no one but him.

And not only are particular bands stationed on the three decks of the
ship at such times, but particular men of those bands are also assigned
to particular duties. Also, in tacking ship, reefing top-sails, or
"coming to," every man of a frigate's five-hundred-strong, knows his
own special place, and is infallibly found there. He sees nothing else,
attends to nothing else, and will stay there till grim death or an
epaulette orders him away. Yet there are times when, through the
negligence of the officers, some exceptions are found to this rule. A
rather serious circumstance growing out of such a case will be related
in some future chapter.

Were it not for these regulations a man-of-war's crew would be nothing
but a mob, more ungovernable stripping the canvas in a gale than Lord
George Gordon's tearing down the lofty house of Lord Mansfield.

But this is not all. Besides White-Jacket's office as looser of the
main-royal, when all hands were called to make sail; and besides his
special offices, in tacking ship, coming to anchor, etc.; he
permanently belonged to the Starboard Watch, one of the two primary,
grand divisions of the ship's company. And in this watch he was a
maintop-man; that is, was stationed in the main-top, with a number of
other seamen, always in readiness to execute any orders pertaining to
the main-mast, from above the main-yard. For, including the main-yard,
and below it to the deck, the main-mast belongs to another detachment.

Now the fore, main, and mizen-top-men of each watch--Starboard and
Larboard--are at sea respectively subdivided into Quarter Watches;
which regularly relieve each other in the tops to which they may
belong; while, collectively, they relieve the whole Larboard Watch of
top-men.

Besides these topmen, who are always made up of active sailors, there
are Sheet-Anchor-men--old veterans all--whose place is on the
forecastle; the fore-yard, anchors, and all the sails on the bowsprit
being under their care.

They are an old weather-beaten set, culled from the most experienced
seamen on board. These are the fellows that sing you "_The Bay of
Biscay Oh!_" and "_Here a sheer h