He had just got to the end of
the windlass, when a great sea broke over the bows, and for a moment I
saw nothing of him but his head and shoulders; and at the next
instant, being taken off his legs, he was carried aft with the sea,
until her stern lifting up and sending the water forward, he was
left high and dry at the side of the long-boat, still holding on to
his tin pot, which had now nothing in it but salt water. But nothing
could ever daunt him, or overcome, for a moment, his habitual good
humor. Regaining his legs, and shaking his fist at the man at the
wheel, he rolled below, saying, as he passed, "A man's no sailor, if
he can't take a joke." The ducking was not the worst of such an
affair, for, as there was an allowance of tea, you could get no more
from the galley; and though the sailors would never suffer a man to go
without, but would always turn in a little from their own pots to fill
up his, yet this was at best but dividing the loss among all hands.
Something of the same kind befell me a few days after. The cook
had just made for us a mess of hot "scouse"- that is, biscuit pounded
fine, salt beef cut into small pieces, and a few potatoes, boiled up
together and seasoned with pepper.
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