they pass on board other vessels, and interchange exaggerations
over an extra pot of grog, the mischievous consequence is certain;
for each of the parties is likely enough to break up the visit
miserably discontented, and to return under a thorough conviction
that, while everything done in their own ship is wrong, all the
officers are either foolish or tyrannical, or both. If there must be
ship-visiting, let it be on week days, and in the morning; but,
clearly, the less the better; and most assuredly it ought never to be
allowed on Sunday evening.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] It would have gratified Captain Hall if he had lived to see that
some of the changes for which he pleads so earnestly are being
adopted, and that the best hands in the navy are now retained as
continuous service men.

CHAPTER XII.

NAVAL RATINGS AND SEA PAY.

MUSTERING CLOTHES.

The dinner-hour on Sunday is noon, the same as on other days; but
there is this distinction, which ought to mark the afternoon in every
well-regulated ship, the people are never disturbed between twelve
o'clock and four, unless some particular service occurs which cannot
without impropriety be deferred. It is customary during the rest of
the week to turn the watch up at one o'clock, but on Sunday, if
possible, the people should be left alone: to be idle if they choose
it, or to read, or otherwise to employ themselves according to their
own fancy. This, after all, is but a trifling indulgence, which hardly
ever puts the captain or officers to any inconvenience. Even if it
did, what would it matter? The interests of the country will not be
worse attended to in the long-run for an occasional relaxation of
strict etiquettes and formal observances. Even if the ship be making a
passage, and that, in strictness, all sail ought to be carried, no
eventual loss will ever attend such very trivial abatement of speed;
for the men will probably be far more active in making and shortening
sail at other times, when their minor comforts are thus regarded, than
when treated as if they had no feelings to be considered.

The circumstance which most distinctly marks the afternoon of Sunday
on board a man-of-war, even more than on land, is the absence of all
the usual stir caused by the multifarious occupations of the
artificers and crew. Indeed, the lower deck of a man-of-war on Sunday
afternoon, between dinner time and the hour of tea, or evening grog, a
cast of idleness is the most char