y provokes them. It is
not enough to say that they must submit, whether they like it or not.
They will submit, it is true; but in what temper? and how will these
men work when called upon to exert themselves, if they are habitually
treated with disrespect, and exposed to needless, and even impertinent
worry? I have even heard of some crack ships, as they are termed,
where the poor devils are obliged to pipe-clay their bags, to make
them look white, forsooth! Why, the very idea of pipe-clay is gall and
wormwood to the taste of the Johnnies. Of late years I understand
there have been introduced black painted water-proof bags, which are a
great comfort to the men. Besides keeping out wet, they require no
trouble to scrub and dry, and, after all, are fully as clean, and far
more useful in every respect.

To show the various sorts of outfit which the men composing a
man-of-war's crew may be furnished with on first coming on board, I
shall describe a scene which took place on the Leander's
quarter-deck, off the Port of New York, in 1804. We were rather
short-handed in those days; and being in the presence of a blockaded
enemy, and liable, at half-an-hour's warning, to be in action, we
could not afford to be very scrupulous as to the ways and means by
which our numbers were completed, so that able-bodied men were secured
to handle the gun-tackle falls. It chanced one day that we fell in
with a ship filled with emigrants; a description of vessel called, in
the classical dictionary of the cockpit, an "Irish guinea man." Out of
her we pressed twenty Irishmen, besides two strapping fellows from
Yorkshire, and one canny Scot.

Each of this score of Pats was rigged merely in a great coat, and a
pair of something which might be called an apology for inexpressibles;
while the rest of their united wardrobe could have been stowed away in
the crown of any one of their hats. Their motives for emigrating to a
country where mere health and strength of body are sure to gain an
independent provision were obvious enough; and I must say, that to
this hour I have not been able to forget the melancholy cry or howl
with which the separation of these hardy settlers from their families
was effected by the strong arm of power. It was a case of necessity,
it is true; but still it was a cruel case, and one for the exercise of
which the officer who put it in force deserves almost as much pity as
the poor wretches whose feelings and interests it became