plied for, and will be sent off in the
victualling-office lighters. The purser then gets on board coals,
candles, lanterns, and other stores in his department. The rigging has
been repeatedly set up, and is now so well stretched that it is ready
for the last pull before going out of harbour. This done, and the
dead-eyes and ratlines squared, the shroud and backstay mats are put
on, and the masts and studding-sail booms carefully scraped. The lower
masts, and the heads of the topmasts and top-gallant masts, are next
painted, the yards blacked, and the rigging and backstays fore and aft
tarred down. The whole ship ought now to be scraped within and
without, and thoroughly cleaned and dried; after which the painters
may be sent for from the dockyard, and when they have primed the ship
it will be well to give her decks another good scouring. Next black
the bends, while the painters finish the upper works with one or two
more coats; and, finally, retouch the bends with the black-brush.

When the paint is thoroughly dry, the guns and ordnance stores are to
be got on board, and all the remaining stores drawn from the dockyard,
leaving nothing, if possible, excepting the gunpowder, to be got off.
At this stage of the equipment, the ropes forming the running rigging
may be rove and cut. At the same time, both suits of sails ought to be
got on board in a decked lighter, one for stowing away in the
sail-room, but completely fitted and ready for use; the others to be
bent to the yards. The hammock-cloths also being now fitted, are
brought off; and if the ship be "going foreign," double sets are
allowed, both of which in former times used to be painted; but the
spare cloths are now very properly supplied unpainted.

The ship being all ready for going out of harbour, the captain makes a
report to that effect to the admiral, the working boats are returned,
and the new ones drawn, and hoisted in. At the same time all
unserviceable stores, worn out in fitting the ship, are returned to
the dockyard, including the hulk hammocks, which must be well
scrubbed, dried, and made neatly up. The new hammocks are issued and
slung, and the bedding being lashed up in them, they are stowed in the
nettings, with their numbers ranged in a straight line, in regular
order fore and aft. This arrangement not only gives symmetry, but is
useful in affording the means of getting at any particular hammock
which may be required; for instance, if a man is taken