provided sufficient stores. He had not escaped notice, but the meaner
sinner had obscured him for the moment.

An extraordinary characteristic of this age was the sailor's jealousy
lest improper innovations should be introduced into the mode of taking
their food. Knives and forks, cups, saucers, soup and plain plates were
a violation of sound forecastle principles, which in their eyes
threatened a coming degeneracy of the profession. Their use was viewed
as an attempt to become aristocratic, and those who dared adopt it were
looked upon as fops and mongrel seamen. The average man believed in his
tin pot, plate and pannikin, galvanized soup spoon and clasp knife;
there were no second course articles recognized. The tin pot had a hook
in front so that it could be hooked on to the galley grate to boil,
though it was not uncommon in long voyage ships to dispense with the
hook pot and have instead a large kettle for the whole of the
forecastle hands. The tidy man kept his utensils spotlessly clean. At
seven bells in the morning the watch below were knocked out to have
breakfast; this generally consisted of cracker hash, i.e., bread hash;
or cold salt beef or pork, whichever joint they had had on the day
previous hot for dinner; if she was a well-found ship butter was
supplied; they always had tea or coffee for the morning meal. If the
breakfast was of beef or pork, the platter or kid was put on the floor,
and each seaman took the piece of meat he intended to cut in one hand,
cut it off the junk with his clasp knife in the other, and if by any
means he happened to touch that which he did not cut he was submitted
to severe chastisement by being forcibly put over a chest lid and given
a dozen hard slaps with a boot jack. The piece of meat intended to be
eaten was put on a hard ship biscuit which served the purpose of a
plate, and was cut as required with the clasp knife and put into the
mouth with the right hand. Dinner was served at noon. On Sundays,
Tuesdays, Thursdays, it was beef and duff, according to scale;
Saturdays, beef and "strike-me-blind," i.e., boiled rice; Mondays,
Wednesdays and Fridays, pea-soup and pork. The mid-day meals were
partaken of in a similar way to the breakfast, except that the tin
plate was used for either duff and molasses, or pea-soup, or rice; it
might not be used for the beef or pork--this greatly depended on the
natural delicacy of the seamen, many of whom proclaimed that fingers
were made bef