ibility, having the care of the ships in ordinary, of all the
moorings, and generally of all the vessels, and every description of
stores in the naval arsenal.

The first thing to do is to get hold of one of the warrant-officers to
"hoist the pendant," which is a long slender streamer, having a St.
George's cross on a white field in the upper part next the mast, with
a fly or tail, either Red, White, and Blue, or entirely of the colour
of the particular ensign worn by the ship; which, again, is determined
by the colour of the admiral's flag under whose orders she is placed.
The pendant being hoisted shows that the ship is in commission, and
this part of the colours is never hauled down day or night. At sunset,
when the ensign is hauled down, a smaller pendant, three or four yards
in length, is substituted for the long one, which, in dandified ships,
waves far over the stern. Ships in ordinary hoist merely an ensign.
The boatswain, gunner, and carpenter, who are called the
warrant-officers, always remain on board, even when the rest of the
officers and crew are paid off, and the ship laid up in ordinary.
These valuable personages, under the general superintendence of the
captain of the ordinary, an old officer of rank, and assisted by a few
lads to row them to and from the shore, keep the ships clean, and
guard against fire and pillage, to which they might otherwise be
exposed at their moorings in the different creeks.

The next step, after the ship is commissioned, is to open a
muster-book. The requisite blank books and other papers are supplied
to the captain by the superintendent of the dockyard, in order that
the names of the officers and men may be entered as they assemble. The
admiral being then informed that the ship is in commission, he orders
the commandant of marines to embark the proper complement of men from
the barracks.

The master-attendant, in the mean time, is applied to for a
receiving-ship or hulk, alongside of which the ship may be placed, and
in which the crew may live while she is fitting out. The same officer
will likewise give the boatswain a "note" for one or more of what are
called harbour boats--strong affairs, but good enough to perform the
rough sort of work required in fitting out. The boatswain's demand for
scrapers, buckets, and junk for swabs, is made out and approved, that,
from the first moment to the last, the hulk may be kept clean.

The officers of the newly-commissioned ship tak