hout any added severity on personal
grounds. It is difficult to estimate how essentially this conviction,
if once fixed in the minds of the seamen, and guaranteed, as I think
it might be, in a great measure, by a very simple Admiralty
regulation, would contribute to extend the popularity of the naval
service throughout the country.

There are some minor details, in addition to the above suggestions,
which it may be useful to consider in connection with them. All
punishments should take place between the hours of nine in the morning
and noon, for the reasons hinted at above. If possible, also, not more
than one day should be allowed to elapse after the inquiry; for,
although there is always something like passion in a punishment which
is too prompt, there may, on the other hand, frequently appear
something akin to vindictiveness in one which has been delayed until
the details of the offence are well-nigh forgotten. The captain should
avoid pronouncing, either during or immediately after the
investigation of an offence, any opinion on the case; much of its
influence would be destroyed if the captain were to commit himself by
threats made in the moment of greatest irritation; he might be apt to
follow up, when cool, a threat made in anger, to show his consistency.

I could relate many instances of injustice arising from precipitancy
in awarding punishment; but the following anecdotes, for the accuracy
of which I can vouch, seem sufficient to arrest the attention to good
purpose.

Two men-of-war happened to be cruising in company: one of them a
line-of-battle ship, bearing an admiral's flag; the other a small
frigate. One day, when they were sailing quite close to each other,
the signal was made from the large to the small ship to chase in a
particular direction, implying that a strange sail was seen in that
quarter. The look-out man at the maintop mast-head of the frigate was
instantly called down by the captain, and severely punished on the
spot, for not having discovered and reported the stranger before the
flag ship had made the signal to chase.

The unhappy sufferer, who was a very young hand, unaccustomed to be
aloft, had merely taken his turn at the mast head with the rest of the
ship's company, and could give no explanation of his apparent neglect.
Before it was too late, however, the officer of the watch ventured to
suggest to the captain, that possibly the difference of height between
the masts of the two shi