d main-sheets, besides being subject to ignoble
duties; attending to the drainage and sewerage below hatches. These
fellows are all Jimmy Duxes--sorry chaps, who never put foot in ratlin,
or venture above the bulwarks. Inveterate "_sons of farmers_," with the
hayseed yet in their hair, they are consigned to the congenial
superintendence of the chicken-coops, pig-pens, and potato-lockers.
These are generally placed amidships, on the gun-deck of a frigate,
between the fore and main hatches; and comprise so extensive an area,
that it much resembles the market place of a small town. The melodious
sounds thence issuing, continually draw tears from the eyes of the
Waisters; reminding them of their old paternal pig-pens and
potato-patches. They are the tag-rag and bob-tail of the crew; and he
who is good for nothing else is good enough for a _Waister_.

Three decks down--spar-deck, gun-deck, and berth-deck--and we come to a
parcel of Troglodytes or "_holders_," who burrow, like rabbits in
warrens, among the water-tanks, casks, and cables. Like Cornwall
miners, wash off the soot from their skins, and they are all pale as
ghosts. Unless upon rare occasions, they seldom come on deck to sun
themselves. They may circumnavigate the world fifty times, and they see
about as much of it as Jonah did in the whale's belly. They are a lazy,
lumpish, torpid set; and when going ashore after a long cruise, come
out into the day like terrapins from their caves, or bears in the
spring, from tree-trunks. No one ever knows the names of these fellows;
after a three years' voyage, they still remain strangers to you. In
time of tempests, when all hands are called to save ship, they issue
forth into the gale, like the mysterious old men of Paris, during the
massacre of the Three Days of September: every one marvels who they
are, and whence they come; they disappear as mysteriously; and are seen
no more, until another general commotion.

Such are the principal divisions into which a man-of-war's crew is
divided; but the inferior allotments of duties are endless, and would
require a German commentator to chronicle.

We say nothing here of Boatswain's mates, Gunner's mates, Carpenter's
mates, Sail-maker's mates, Armorer's mates, Master-at-Arms, Ship's
corporals, Cockswains, Quarter-masters, Quarter-gunners, Captains of
the Forecastle, Captains of the Fore-top, Captains of the Main-top,
Captains of the Mizen-top, Captains of the After-Guard, Captains o