On the above curious subject a retired naval officer obligingly sends
us the following notes.
One bright moonlight night I was on deck, as was frequently my wont,
chatting with the lieutenant of the middle watch. It was nearly calm,
the ship making little way through the water, and the moon’s light
nearly as bright as day. We were together leaning over the capstan,
chatting away, when W—— suddenly exclaimed: ‘Look! H——, at that
sentry,’ and pointing to the quarter-deck marine who was pacing slowly
backwards and forwards on the lee-side of the deck.
‘Well,’ I replied, after watching him somewhat inattentively as he
passed once or twice on his regular beat, ‘what of him?’
‘Why, don’t you see he is fast asleep? Take a good look at him when he
next passes.’
I did so, and found W—— was right. The man, although pacing and turning
regularly at the usual distance, was fast asleep with his eyes closed.
When next the man passed, W—— stepped quickly and noiselessly to his
side, and pacing with him, gently disengaged the bunch of keys which
were his special charge—being the keys of the spirit-room, shell-rooms,
store-rooms, &c.—from the fingers of his left hand, to which they were
suspended by a small chain; he then removed the bayonet from his other
hand, and laid it and the keys on the capstan head. After letting him
take another turn or two, W—— suddenly called ‘Sentry!’
‘Sir?’ replied the man, instantly stopping and facing round as he came
to the ‘attention.’
‘Why, you were fast asleep, sentry.’
‘No, sir.’
‘But I say you were.’
‘No, sir. I assure you I was not.’
‘You were not, eh? Well, where are the keys?’
The man instantly brought up his hand to shew them, as he supposed; but
to his confusion the hand was empty.
‘Where is your bayonet?’ continued W——.
The poor fellow brought forward his other hand, but that was empty
also. But the puzzled look of astonishment he put on was more than we
could stand; both burst out laughing; and when the keys and bayonet
were pointed out to him lying on the capstan, the poor fellow was
perfectly dumfounded. W—— was too merry over the joke, however, to
punish the man, and he escaped with a warning not to fall asleep again.
Sentries and look-outs must be very liable to fall asleep from the very
nature of their monotonous pacing, and this may in some degree account
for the facility with which sentries have at times been surprised and
secured before they could give an alarm. In this instance, the most
curious fact, I think, was the regularity with which the man continued
to pace his distances and turn at the right moment. I have known other
instances of sentries and others walking in their sleep, though the
end has not always been so pleasant to the victims. In one case, the
quarter-deck sentry, in the middle of the night, crashed down the
wardroom hatchway with musket and fixed bayonet, with a rattling that
startled us all out of our cabins. The fellow fell on his back upon
the top of the mess-table, but not much the worse for his exploit.
On another occasion a messenger boy paid us a visit in the night: he
fell upon a chair, which he smashed to pieces, but the sleeper escaped
unhurt.
These can hardly be considered true cases of somnambulism, but shew how
men may continue their occupations when overcome by sleep. Nothing but
seeing his bayonet and the keys lying on the capstan could have ever
convinced the marine that he had been sleeping; no mere assertion to
that effect would ever have influenced him.