Life on the ocean Author:Charles Nordhoff Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER VII. Lira in Harbor—Bumboats — At Sea again — What Sailors Eat and How Victuals arc cooked — The First Flogging on Board. At four o'clock next morn... more »ing we were awakened by the firing off of a gun, seconded by a din on the drums, similar to that of the evening before. Shortly after, the bugler called away the crews of the market-boats; at five, "all hands" were called, and the boatswain's mates went round admonishing every man to lash his hammock neatly, " seven turns, put on square, and hauled tight." Coming up the mizzen-hatch with my hammock, I found the commander there, examining each one as it was carried past, sending some back to try it over. Now the last man on deck with his hammock is blacklisted, so that there is usually a punishment consequent upon a neglect, or carelessness. As soon as the hammocks were stowed, the crew commenced holystoning the decks, the chief boatswain's mate meantime calling over the names of all on the blacklist, and apportioning to them the dirty work of the morning. Two parties were sent over the side, on catamarans, with slush, sand and canvas, to scour the line of copper which appears just above the water's edge. A catamaran is a structure composed of six air-tight casks lashed together, three in a row, with a few THE BLACK LIST ME. rough planks thrown loosely over for a dock ; of course the water washes over it continually, and sometimes, when there is a strong tide, or a stiff breeze, it is a matter of some difficulty to maintain a foothold on the crazy structure. Others were seen suspended on the large copper funnel or smoke-pipe, which served to carry off clear ail the smoke of the galley fires. " Charley Noble," as this funnel was familiarly nicknamed, had his face scoured as bright as a new doll's, every morning. Other...« less