that you can ever be alone. You dine at a vast
_table d'hote_; sleep in commons, and make your toilet where and when
you can. There is no calling for a mutton chop and a pint of claret by
yourself; no selecting of chambers for the night; no hanging of
pantaloons over the back of a chair; no ringing your bell of a rainy
morning, to take your coffee in bed. It is something like life in a
large manufactory. The bell strikes to dinner, and hungry or not, you
must dine.

Your clothes are stowed in a large canvas bag, generally painted black,
which you can get out of the "rack" only once in the twenty-four hours;
and then, during a time of the utmost confusion; among five hundred
other bags, with five hundred other sailors diving into each, in the
midst of the twilight of the berth-deck. In some measure to obviate
this inconvenience, many sailors divide their wardrobes between their
hammocks and their bags; stowing a few frocks and trowsers in the
former; so that they can shift at night, if they wish, when the
hammocks are piped down. But they gain very little by this.

You have no place whatever but your bag or hammock, in which to put
anything in a man-of-war. If you lay anything down, and turn your back
for a moment, ten to one it is gone.

Now, in sketching the preliminary plan, and laying out the foundation
of that memorable white jacket of mine, I had had an earnest eye to all
these inconveniences, and re-solved to avoid them. I proposed, that not
only should my jacket keep me warm, but that it should also be so
constructed as to contain a shirt or two, a pair of trowsers, and
divers knick-knacks--sewing utensils, books, biscuits, and the like.
With this object, I had accordingly provided it with a great variety of
pockets, pantries, clothes-presses, and cupboards.

The principal apartments, two in number, were placed in the skirts,
with a wide, hospitable entrance from the inside; two more, of smaller
capacity, were planted in each breast, with folding-doors
communicating, so that in case of emergency, to accommodate any bulky
articles, the two pockets in each breast could be thrown into one.
There were, also, several unseen recesses behind the arras; insomuch,
that my jacket, like an old castle, was full of winding stairs, and
mysterious closets, crypts, and cabinets; and like a confidential
writing-desk, abounded in snug little out-of-the-way lairs and
hiding-places, for the storage of valuables.

Superadded t