and to correct a mistake prevalent among landsmen about a sailor's
life. Nothing is more common than to hear people say- "Are not
sailors very idle at sea?- what can they find to do?" This is a very
natural mistake, and being very frequently made, it is one which every
sailor feels interested in having corrected. In the first place, then,
the discipline of the ship requires every man to be at work upon
something when he is on deck, except at night and on Sundays. 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. When first leaving port, studding-sail gear is to be
rove, all the running rigging to be examined, that which is unfit
for use to be got down, and new rigging rove in its place: then the
standing rigging is to be overhauled, replaced, and repaired, in a
thousand different ways; and wherever any of the numberless ropes or
the yards are chafing or wearing upon it, there "chafing gear," as
it is called, must be put on. This chafing gear consists of worming,
parcelling, rounding, battens, and service of all kinds- both
rope-yarns, spun-yarn, marline and seizing-stuffs. Taking off, putting
on, and mending the chafing gear alone, upon a vessel, would find
constant employment for two or three men, during working hours, for
a whole voyage.

  The next point to be considered is, that all the "small stuffs"
which are used on board a ship- such as spun-yarn, marline,
seizing-stuff, etc., etc.- are made on board. The owners of a vessel
buy up incredible quantities of "old junk," which the sailors unlay,
after drawing out the yarns, knot them together, and roll them up in
balls. These "rope-yarns" are constantly used for various purposes,
but the greater part is manufactured into spun-yarn. For this
purpose every vessel is furnished with a "spun-yarn winch"; which is
very simple, consisting of a wheel and spindle. This may be heard
constantly going on deck in pleasant weather; and we had employment,
during a great part of the time, for three hands in drawing and
knotting yarns, and making, spun-yarn.

  Another method of employing the crew is, "setting up" rigging.
Whenever any of the standing rigging becomes slack, (which is
continually happening,) the seizing and coverings must be taken off,
tackles got up, and after the rigging is bowsed well taught, the
seizings and coverings replaced; coverings which is a very nice piece
of work. There is also such a connection between different parts of
a vessel, that one rope can seldom be touched without altering
another. You cannot stay a mast aft by the back stays, without
slacking up the head stays, etc., etc. If we add to this all the
tarring, greasing, oiling, varnishing, painting, scraping, and
scrubbing which is required in the course of a long voyage, and also
remember this is all to be done in addition to watching at night,
steering, reefing, furling, bracing, making and setting sail, and
pulling, hauling and climbing in every direction, one will hardly ask,
"What can a sailor find to do at sea?"

  If, after all this labor- after exposing their lives and limbs in
storms, wet and cold,

     "Wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch:

     The lion and the belly-pinched wolf

     Keep their furs dry;-"

the merchants and captains think that they have not earned their
twelve dollars a month, (out of which they clothe themselves,) and
their salt beef and hard bread, they keep them picking oakum- ad
infinitum. This is the usual resource upon a rainy day, for then it
will not do to work upon rigging; and when it is pouring down in
floods, instead of letting the sailors stand about in sheltered
places, and talk, and keep themselves comfortable, they are
separated to different parts of the ship and kept at work picking
oakum. I have seen oakum stuff placed about in different parts of
the ship, so that the sailors might not be idle in the snatches
between the frequent squalls upon crossing the equator. Some
officers have been so driven to find work for the crew in a ship ready
for sea, that they have set them to pounding the anchors (often
done) and scraping the chain cables. The "Philadelphia Catechism" is,

     "Six days shalt thou labor and do all thou art able,

     And on the seventh- holystone the decks and scrape the cable."

  This kind of work, of course, is not kept up off Cape Horn, Cape
of Good Hope, and in extreme north and south latitudes; but I have
seen the decks washed down and scrubbed, when the water would have
frozen if it had been fresh; and all hands kept at work upon the
rigging, when we had on our pea-jackets, and our hands so numb that we