Except
at these times, you will never see a man, on board a well-ordered
vessel, standing idle on deck, sitting down or leaning over the
side. It is the officers' duty to keep every one at work, even if
there is nothing to be done but to scrape the rust from the chain
cables. In no state prison are the convicts more regularly set to
work, and more closely watched. No conversation is allowed among the
crew at their duty, and though they frequently do talk when aloft,
or when near one another, yet they always stop when an officer is
nigh.
With regard to the work upon which the men are put, it is a matter
which probably would not be understood by one who has not been at sea.
When I first left port, and found that we were kept regularly employed
for a week or two, I supposed that we were getting the vessel into sea
trim, and that it would soon be over, and we should have nothing to do
but to sail the ship but I found that it continued so for two years,
and at the end of the two years there was as much to be done as
ever. As has often been said, a ship is like a lady's watch, always
out of repair.
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