. Judging from the amount of trade done and prices charged, I
can quite believe this.

One of the most mischievous customs of that period was that of giving
grog to sailors on Saturday nights, and whenever sail had to be
shortened or any extra work done, and many a drunkard was made thereby.
What suffering, what untold misery has been wrought by this damnable
custom! The lives that have been sacrificed, the property damaged, and
vessels lost by having grog aboard, and by captain and officers
imbibing it and serving it out to the others with too generous a hand,
can never be estimated. Much of the calamity that has occurred, and
does yet occur, at sea could and can be traced to its direct use, and
the unutterable grief and ruin it has brought into many a fine sailor's
home is an odious testimony to those who put temptation in their way
and perhaps encourage the use of it for their own benefit. A poor lad
whom I knew many years ago acquired the taste for drink aboard the
vessel he served in. She was what is called by sailors a grand
grog-ship. He was assisting to discharge cargo, and in the middle of
the forenoon the bottle was passed round. Being a general favourite
with everybody, especially with the steward, whom he was always ready
to give assistance to in many little ways, he jokingly asked him for "a
good second mate's nip," a phrase which means that the rum or other
spirits had to be three fingers up from the bottom of the tumbler
glass. It was never doubted that the steward gave him a good deal more
than the regulation quantity, for he became very lively soon after.
Just at the time grog was served, empty waggons ran short, and the crew
were ordered to do odd jobs. The poor lad was sent to the fore topmast
head to splice a new lanyard into the main royal stay. He had done
this, and was setting the stay up when the marline spike must have
slipped out of the hitch in the lanyard. Suddenly the song he was
singing ceased; a jerky, nervous shout attracted attention to what had
happened; then the hush of anguish seized the horror-stricken
spectators who watched the tragedy, and soon all was over. He tumbled
backwards, and the sails all being loosened to air them and the topsail
yard at the mast head, he fell over it, broke his fall on the foreyard,
clutched at the reef points of the foresail, and then tumbled headfirst
into the jolly-boat which lay at the bow, and was smashed to pieces.
When the body was taken out of th