M., till twelve, P.M. In a man-of-war, and in some
merchantmen, this alternation of watches is kept up throughout the
twenty-four hours; but our ship, like most merchantmen, had "all
hands" from twelve o'clock till dark, except in bad weather, when we
had "watch and watch."
An explanation of the "dog watches" may, perhaps, be of use to one
who has never been at sea. They are to shift the watches each night,
so that the same watch need not be on deck at the same hours. In order
to effect this, the watch from four to eight, P. M., is divided into
two half, or do, watches, one from four to six, and the other from six
to eight. By this means they divide the twenty-four hours into seven
watches instead of six, and thus shift the hours every night. As the
dog watches come during twilight after the day's work is done, and
before the night watch is set, they are the watches in which everybody
is on deck. The captain is up, walking on the weather side of the
quarter-deck, the chief mate on the leeside, and the second mate about
the weather gangway. The steward has finished his work in the cabin,
and has come up to smoke his pipe with the cook in the galley.
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