a pound of oakum
daily, which is weighed every night by the ship's corporal, and his
food consists of bread and water, and for the greater part of the
confinement he is deprived of his bedding. Let me give an amusing
incident in connection with cell punishment. We had shipped at St.
John's a young man as an assistant to the captain's cook. Departing
from the naval rule of discipline, he received seven days' cell
seclusion. One night when the doctor went his usual round asking each
prisoner if all were well, this poor fellow replied: "No, sir, I have
not enough to eat; I should like a pound of cheese from the canteen."
Needless to add he obtained no cheese, and his very request indicates
how greatly he lacked knowledge concerning naval discipline, but he
learned it in the school of experience.

I mentioned seven days IOA. Now, although I passed through my
training days without being beaten by many stripes, I was not so
fortunate in the 'Emerald,' though my punishment is but a pin-prick,
hardly worth mentioning, but I do so in order to point out that I was
no superior being. Strange man indeed would he be who, on such a ship
as the 'Emerald,' never stood as a defaulter on the quarterdeck. Yes,
I once received seven days IOA, which being interpreted means--That
the bluejacket's rum is, stopped; that he is not allowed to smoke;
that he only gets thirty minutes to dinner, and has to eat it with
other IOA men off a piece of canvas spread out on the upper deck, and
the other half of the dinner hour he has to whitewash spare cells:
moreover, that he has to rise at 4 a.m. mornings and scrub decks--all
this included in IOA. My readers will readily notice that the first
clause is a means of strengthening the temperance cause, and
non-smokers will see no punishment in the second clause, whilst those
who are fond of picnics will consider the third clause a pleasure,
but the pinch is felt in the fact that during IOA one's leave
is cancelled. Now, IOB is similar to IOA with one or two slight
modifications.

Although I was not a smoker I once spat on the deck, and was marked
doing so by the first lieutenant. He ordered me to patrol the deck in
my spare time with a cutlass, and to capture the first man who
repeated the sin, Next day I discovered a transgressor and took him
aft to the officer of the day, before whom he confessed and was
ordered to relieve me of the cutlass. The sin was a general one, I
take it, if judged by the numbe