There were sliding-doors
let into the entrance on either side the windlass, but one of them was
kept half open to admit air, the forescuttle above being closed. The
darkness here was made visible by an oil lamp,--in shape resembling a
tin coffee-pot with a wick in the spout,--which burned black and
smokily. The deck was up to my ankles in water, which gurgled over the
pile of swabs that lay at the open entrance. It took my eye some
moments to distinguish objects in the gloom; and then by degrees the
strange interior was revealed. A number of hammocks were swung against
the upper deck and around the forecastle were two rows of bunks, one
atop the other. Here and there were sea-chests lashed to the deck; and
these, with the huge windlass, a range of chain cable, lengths of rope,
odds and ends of pots and dishes, with here a pair of breeches hanging
from a hammock, and there a row of oilskins swinging from a
beam,--pretty well made up all the furniture that met my eye.
The whole of the crew were below. Some of the men lay smoking in their
bunks, others in their hammocks with their boots over the edge; one was
patching a coat, another greasing his boots; others were seated in a
group talking; while under the lamp were a couple of men playing at
cards upon a chest, three or four watching and holding on by the
hammocks over their heads.
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