any of
us; and for the most the object was to acquire a sufficient seaman's
knowledge, not an officer's. Yet, curiously enough, so at least it
seemed to me, there was a disposition on the part of some to be
jealous of any supposed infringement of our prerogative to be treated
as "a bit of an officer." Ashore or afloat, we made our own beds or
lashed our own hammocks, swept our rooms, tended our clothes, and
blacked our boots; our drills were those of the men before the mast,
at sails and guns; all parts of a seaman's work, except cleaning the
ship, was required and willingly done; but there was a comical
rebellion on one occasion when ordered to pull--row--a boat ashore for
some purpose, and almost a mutiny when one lieutenant directed us to
go barefooted while decks were being scrubbed, a practice which,
besides saving your shoe-leather, is both healthy, cleanly, and, in
warm weather, exceedingly comforting. Some asserted that the
lieutenant in question, who afterwards commanded one of the
Confederate commerce-destroyers, and from his initials (Jas. I.) was
known to us as Jasseye, had done this because he had very pretty feet
which he liked to show bare, and we must do the same; much as Germans
are said to train their mustaches with the emperor's. At all events,
there was great wrath, which I supposed I should have shared had I not
preferred bare feet--not for as sound reasons as the lieutenant's. It
stands to reason, however, that that imputation was slanderous, for
there were no appreciative observers, unless himself. Why waste such
sweetness on the desert air of a lot of heedless midshipmen? With so
many details regulated--if not enforced--from the length of our hair
to the cut of our trousers, it did seem hypercritical to object to
going shoeless for an hour. But who is consistent? The uncertainty of
our position kept the chip on the shoulder.

V

MY FIRST CRUISE AFTER GRADUATION--NAUTICAL CHARACTERS

1859-1861

At the moment of graduation, in the summer of 1859, I had a narrow
escape from the cutting short of my career, resembling that which a
man has from a railway accident by missing the train. To a certain
extent the members of classes were favored in forming groups of
friends, and choosing the ship to which they would be sent. Myself and
two intimates applied for the sloop-of-war _Levant_, destined for the
Pacific by way of Cape Horn; our motive being partly the kind of
vessel, supposed by us to