f the officers and crew stood at their posts on
deck, now and then shaking the water from their hats and coats, after
they had been covered with a thicker shower than usual of rain or spray,
or looking up aloft at the straining canvas, or out over the dark
expanse of ocean; but all of them taking matters very composedly, and
wishing only that their watch were over, that they might enjoy such
comforts as were to be found below, and take part in the conviviality
which, in spite of the gale, was going forward.

It was Saturday night, and fore and aft the time-honoured toast of
"sweethearts and wives" was being enthusiastically drunk,--nowhere more
enthusiastically than in the midshipmen's berth; and not the less so
probably, that few of its light-hearted inmates had in reality either
one or the other. What cared they for the tumult which raged above
their heads? They had a stout ship and trusted officers, and their
heads and insides were well accustomed to every possible variety of
lurching and pitching, in which their gallant frigate the _Cerberus_ was
at that moment indulging. The _Cerberus_, a fine 42-gun frigate,
commanded by Captain Walford, had lately been put in commission, and
many of her officers and midshipmen had only joined just before the ship
sailed, and were thus comparatively strangers to each other. The
frigate was now bound out to a distant station, where foes well worthy
of her, it was hoped, would be encountered, and prize-money without
stint be made.

The midshipmen's berth of the _Cerberus_ was a compartment of somewhat
limited dimensions,--now filled to overflowing with mates, midshipmen,
masters'-assistants, assistant-surgeons, and captain's and purser's
clerks,--some men with grey heads, and others boys scarcely in their
teens, of all characters and dispositions, the sons of nobles of the
proudest names, and the offspring of plebeians, who had little to boast
of on that score, or on any other; but the boys might hope,
notwithstanding, as many did, to gain fame and a name for themselves.
The din of tongues and shouts of laughter which proceeded out of that
narrow berth, rose even above the creaking of bulkheads, the howling of
the wind, and the roar of the waves.

The atmosphere was somewhat dense and redolent of rum, and could
scarcely be penetrated by the light of the three purser's dips which
burned in some battered tin candlesticks, secured by lanyards to the
table. At one end of the tab