rog kids, shining in a double row along the
deck, which is lighted up, fore and aft, for the captain's visit, by a
candle in each berth. In frigates it is usual, I believe, to let the
people have a certain number of chests, besides their bags. These not
only form convenient seats for the men at meals, and couches on which
to stretch their worn-out limbs during the watch below, but they
afford a place in which the sailors may stow away some part of their
best attire, deposit their little knick-knacks, and here and there a
book, or mayhap a love-letter, or some cherished love-token. A chest,
in short, or the share of a chest, even though it be only a quarter,
or a sixth part, is always so great a comfort that this indulgence
ought to be granted when it can possibly be allowed. In single-decked
ships, I conceive it may generally be permitted: in a line-of-battle
ship hardly ever. In a frigate, as there are no guns on the lower
deck, where the people mess and sleep, there is nothing to clear away
on coming into action; but in a ship of the line the men pass their
whole lives amongst the guns, by night as well as by day, and as it is
absolutely necessary to keep every part ready for action at an
instant's warning, nothing can be allowed to remain between the guns
but such articles as may be carried out of the way in a moment. It is
sometimes nonsensical, and even cruel, to carry this system into a
frigate, where the same necessity for keeping the space unencumbered
does not exist. Doubtless the mate of the lower deck, and often enough
the first lieutenant, and sometimes even the captain, will be anxious
to break up all the men's chests, in order to have a clear-looking,
open, airy, between-decks, to make a show of; but with proper care it
may be kept almost as clear and quite as clean with a couple of chests
in each berth as without. Even were it otherwise, we ought, I think,
rather to give up a little appearance to secure so great a share of
comfort to those who, at best, are not overburdened with luxuries.

As the captain walks aft, along the lower deck, he comes to the
midshipmen's berth, or room, in which the youngsters mess. It is the
foremost and largest of a range of cabins built up on each side, and
reaching as far aft as the gun-room, or mess-place of the commissioned
officers. It is only in line-of-battle ships that the mids mess in the
cockpit; while in frigates they not merely mess but sleep in the part
of the lo