One of the green-hands was a Boston boy, from one of the
public schools, and, of course, knew many things which we wished to
ask about, and on inquiring the names of our two Boston boys, found
that they had been schoolmates of his. Our men had hundreds of
questions to ask about Ann street, the boarding-houses, the ships in
port, the rate of wages, and other matters.
Among her crew were two English man-of-war's-men, so that, of
course, we soon had music. They sang in the true sailor's style, and
the rest of the crew, which was a remarkably musical one, joined in
the choruses. They had many of the latest sailor songs, which had
not yet got about among our merchantmen, and which they were very
choice of. They began soon after we came on board, and kept it up
until after two bells, when the second mate came forward and called
"the Alerts away!" Battle-songs, drinking-songs, boat-songs,
love-songs, and everything else, they seemed to have a complete
assortment of, and I was glad to find that "All in the Downs," "Poor
Tom Bowline," "The Bay of Biscay," "List, ye Landsmen!" and all
those classical songs of the sea, still held their places.
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