Transcriber’s Note
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SEA LIFE IN NELSON’S TIME
[Illustration: A FRIGATE UNDER SAIL]
SEA LIFE
IN NELSON’S TIME
BY
JOHN MASEFIELD
WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS
METHUEN & CO.
36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
LONDON
_First Published in 1905_
TO
CAPTAIN HENRY BAYNHAM, R.N.
I thank Mr W. BARCLAY SQUIRE and Mr F. KIDSON, for their versions of
the tune, “Drops of Brandy”; and Mr MARTIN SHAW for permission to use
his arrangement of the tune of “Spanish Ladies.” I also wish to thank
Mr LAURENCE BINYON for his help in the selection of the illustrations
here reproduced.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
Ship designing, building, sheathing, and rigging—The external
decorations and appearance—The internal arrangements, deck
by deck—The orlop and hold 1
CHAPTER II
The guns in use in our navy—Their nature—How loaded and
fired—Varieties—Carronades—Shot—Small-arms—Gun-ports. 31
CHAPTER III
The quarter-deck officers—The captain—The lieutenants—The
master, second master, and master’s mates—The midshipmen—The
midshipman’s berth 51
CHAPTER IV
The civilian and warrant or standing officers—The surgeon—The
surgeon’s assistants—The chaplain—The boatswain—The
purser—The gunner—The carpenter—Mates and yeomen—The
sailmaker—The ship’s police—The ship’s cook 85
CHAPTER V
The people—The boys—Manning—The divisions—The messes—The
dress—The King’s allowance—Grog—Marines 119
CHAPTER VI
Sea punishments—The cat—Flogging at the gangway—Flogging
through the fleet—Running the gauntlet—Keel-hauling—Hanging 157
CHAPTER VII
In action 170
CHAPTER VIII
The daily routine—Sunday—Ship visiting 185
CHAPTER IX
In port—Jews—Lovely Nan—Mutinies—Their punishment—Sailor
songs—“Drops of Brandy”—“Spanish Ladies,” etc.—Flags—Salutes 199
EPILOGUE 216
APPENDIX 219
INDEX 223
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
A FRIGATE UNDER SAIL _Frontispiece_
TO FACE PAGE
A FIRST-RATE SHIP OF WAR, _circa_ 1760 9
SECTION OF A FIRST-RATE SHIP OF WAR, LATE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 25
THE GUNS IN USE IN THE NAVY 35
A THREE-DECKER 50
A MIDSHIPMAN’S FIRST INTRODUCTION TO THE BERTH 75
A FRIGATE IN CHASE—GOING FREE 100
THE HEAD OF A 74-GUN SHIP, WITH DRAWING OF
SPRITSAIL YARD 112
TWO OF NELSON’S SAILORS 120
TWO OF NELSON’S SAILORS 126
A HORSE MARINE 138
A FRIGATE IN CHASE, BEFORE THE WIND 140
THE LEE ROLL 150
A FLOGGING AT THE GANGWAY 160
LIEUTENANT BLOCKHEAD KEEPING THE MORNING
WATCH 186
H.M.S. “VENERABLE” AT ANCHOR 200
SEA LIFE IN NELSON’S TIME
CHAPTER I
Ship designing, building, sheathing, and rigging—The external
decorations and appearance—The internal arrangements, deck by
deck—The orlop and hold
The ships in which Nelson went to sea were designed by
master-shipwrights, in large sheds or studios known as “mould-lofts.”
There was a mould-loft in all the royal dockyards, near the
dry docks or building slips. On the floor of a mould-loft the
master-shipwrights drew the plans of their ships, at the full size of
the intended vessel. On the walls, which were of great height, they
chalked out their side elevations, from the keel to the prospective
water-line, and from the water-line to the top of the poop-railings
or hammock nettings, the parts farthest from the sea when the ship
was afloat. Having chalked out their plans, and “laid down” their
ships to their satisfaction, they gave orders for the timber to be
cut in accordance with their designs. The work of building was then
begun at that royal yard to which the mould-loft was attached. The
chief yards were those at Chatham, Deptford, Plymouth, and Woolwich.
The smaller ships were built on slips or launches, which sloped down
to the water’s edge. Large ships, or first-rates, designed to carry
100 guns, were generally built in dry dock, and floated out when
completed by the admission of water.
The keel or backbone of the ship, the first wood to be placed in
position, was “laid down” upon oak blocks distant some four or five
feet from each other. The keel was generally of thick elm timbers,
placed lengthways, which were “scarfed together,” bolted and clinched
at the sides. Under this keel, and to each side of it, in some ships,
was placed a false keel of elm, lightly secured by copper staples.
This false keel protected the main keel if the ship grounded. On this
backbone or groundwork the hull of the ship was built.
Much of the oak used in the building of the ships was grown
in England in the royal forests—such as the Forest of Dean in
Gloucestershire, and the New Forest in Hampshire. The oak was very
costly, for the service required the very best wood. It could not be,
or should not have been, used for a year after cutting, for it needed
to be seasoned before being handled by the shipwrights. On coming
to the yards it was stacked for some months in sheds, in various
positions, according to its future use, to allow it to season. Much
of it was pickled, or boiled in a kiln for many hours, to allow the
workmen to bend it to the frame of the ship. In times of stress much
of it was used green—not properly seasoned.
The ships were built in the open air, and it was the custom to allow
the frame or skeleton of every ship to stand exposed to all the
airts “for a twelvemonth or a little more,” before any timbers were
placed across her ribs. It was thought that this exposure seasoned
the oak of the frame. As a matter of fact, the constant wettings and
warpings, from rain and sun, set up decay in the exposed wood, so
that many ships had begun to rot “before a plank was put on.” Some,
indeed, were as green as grass with mildew and fungus before the
timbers were fitted. The general life of a ship in those days, built
under these conditions, was only eight or nine years. Few lasted
so long “without great repairs equal almost to their first cost.”
Many rotted to pieces after a few months at sea. In 1812 a fine
three-decker, which had seen no hard sea service, was condemned as
rotten a year after she was launched.
The timbers of these ships were secured to the uprights of the frames
by long wooden pins, of oak or pitch-pine, known as tree-nails. The
use of tree-nails was reckoned “a great cause of decay,” but custom
and thrift prescribed them. They were most insecure, as fastenings,
for they were liable to shrink, so as to admit water to the middle of
the plank. The plank when once wetted began to rot, and the shrunken
tree-nail rotted with it, till at last the wooden bolt dropped from
its hole, and the water obtained free admission. In those ships in
which American oak had been used the decay set in more quickly than
in other cases. These ships used to strain their seams or timbers
open, ever so slightly, in heavy weather, admitting water to the
cracks. The wood so wetted began to develop dry-rot or fungus from
the moment the water penetrated its fibres. Both fungus and dry-rot
spread with strange rapidity when once it had established itself, and
a ship so attacked had either to be pulled to pieces, so that the
rotting oak could be removed, or broken up as useless.
To build a 74-gun ship, or third-rate (the most general rate employed
in our navy), of about 1700 tons, nearly 2000 oak-trees were needed.
Half of this number—perhaps a little more than half—were English
grown. The other moiety was foreign oak, “very good for the ship
bottoms, under water,” but less lasting than the English kind. The
foreign oak was sometimes American—and very subject to dry-rot—and
sometimes from Silesia and Dantzic. An attempt was made to introduce
cedar and scarlet logwood from Honduras, but the project failed,
through the bankruptcy of the contractor. Fir was tried, at one time,
for small ships of war, but it was too weak, and too little lasting,
to be used for great ships. It was reckoned that a ship could be
built for from £25 to £30 per ton, the actual cost of the oak being,
on an average, about £7 per ton—a price much exceeded in the years
subsequent to the death of Nelson.
When the ship was planked over and caulked she was sheathed below her
water-line, to protect her timber from the teredo worm. Oak was very
subject to the teredo, and many ships were practically eaten through,
year after year, until 1758. In that year, a 32-gun frigate, H.M.S.
_Alarm_, was sheathed with thin sheets of copper, against which
the teredo worm was powerless. It was found that the copper also
prevented the formation of barnacles and other filth which used to
accumulate, many inches thick, on the bottoms of ships not coppered,
impeding their way through the sea by several knots an hour. The
first experiments with copper were not wholly satisfactory, for the
copper corroded the heads of all the iron bolts with which it came
in contact. This was remedied to some extent by the use of a thin
sheath of fir wood, which kept the copper from direct contact with
the oak and the iron bolts. In 1783 iron bolts were abolished, and
copper bolts, or bolts with copper heads, were substituted. After
this, copper-sheathing became general throughout the navy and the
merchant-service. The copper of condemned ships was stripped from the
hulks at Portsmouth, and melted in a furnace, to clean it. It was
then hammered out into sheets and used again. As a rule, brown paper
was inserted between the oak of the ship’s bottom and the sheets of
copper.
Before the introduction of copper many experiments had been tried
to keep out the teredo worm. Sheet-lead had been found too heavy,
and not very efficacious. A layer of pitch, covered with successive
layers of brown paper, tar, short hair, and thin deal plank, had
been found effectual, if costly. A thin sheath of deal over the oak
was better than nothing, for it took the worms some little while to
get through to the oak, as they cared less for deal than for any
other wood they attacked. A packing of lime, or a thorough washing
with lime, was found to keep them away. There were also preparations
of tar and tallow, and arrangements of hides and chemicals, which
had their merits and demerits. Copper replaced all of these, though
there was some little grumbling at the cost at the time of its first
introduction.
As soon as a ship was built, sheathed, and launched, she was brought
alongside a sheer-hulk, an old man-of-war cut down to her lower
gun-deck. A sheer-hulk was fitted with a single mast in midships,
to which was attached “an apparatus consisting of sheers, tackles,
etc., to heave out or in the lower masts of His Majesty’s ships.”
The “Establishment,” or Admiralty scale, gave minute instructions as
to the length and size of every spar to be supplied to each rate. A
stock of masts was kept at each dockyard in a vat of pickle known as
a mast-pond. For great ships, and indeed for nearly all the rates in
the navy, the lower masts were “built,” or “made,” of two or more
pieces of fir strongly hooped together with iron hoops. When a ship
came alongside a sheer-hulk her lower masts and bowsprit were hoisted
into her and stepped. The fore-mast was stepped at a distance of
one-ninth the length of the lower gun-deck from the stem of the ship.
The main-mast was stepped in the centre of the ship, or a little
abaft the centre. The mizzen-mast was distant from the bow about
seventeen-twentieths of the length of the lower gun-deck. The heels
of all three masts were stepped or fixed in strong wooden sockets, or
mortises, known as tenons, at the bottom of the ship’s hold. These
mortises or tenons were of oak, and the timbers which formed them lay
across the keelson, or inner part of the keel. The bowsprit “steeved”
or raked upwards at an angle of about thirty-six degrees with the
horizon. The masts, as a rule, raked or inclined slightly aft, but
the rake of a ship’s mast was sometimes altered to suit her sailing.
Some ships sailed better with their masts stayed forward, or stayed
plumb, without rake.
When the lower masts and bowsprit were stepped and secured the ship
received her rigging from the rigging-loft. Her lower rigging was
then set up by master-riggers, helped by the marines and standing
officers. The shrouds and stays which secured the masts were made
of hempen rope, “three-strand shroud laid,” tarred on the outside,
but not within the lay of the rope. Wire rope, which is now used
for nearly all standing rigging, was then unknown. When the lower
rigging was all set up, and the rigging of the bowsprit finished, the
jibboom and top-masts were sent aloft and rigged. When these were
finished the flying jibboom and topgallant and royal masts were sent
up and rigged, after which the ship’s standing rigging was complete.
The stays, the strong ropes which supported the masts forward, were
always doubled.
When the standing rigging was complete, the yards, on which the
square-sails set, were crossed on their respective masts. The yards
were of fir, the lower yards being “made,” or built, of more than one
piece of timber. The upper yards were fashioned from single trees.
Some captains of Nelson’s time slung their lower yards with chain, a
custom which in time became general. As a rule, however, the lower
yards were slung with stout rope. The rig was practically that in
use at the time of the abolition of sailing ships in the Royal Navy
in the early sixties. There were, however, various differences.
The sprit-sail, a square-sail on the bowsprit, setting from a yard
underneath that spar, was still in use. The sail was not abolished
until about 1810, while the yard, or a relic of it, remained for
many years later, though no sail was set upon it. On the mizzen-mast
the spanker or driver was not set upon a gaff and boom, but on a
great lateen yard, pointing fore and aft, its lower and forward arm
reaching down to a little above the wheel. Ships with these lateen
“cross-jacks” were to be seen almost at the end of the eighteenth
century. No ships carried sails above their royals, the fourth
square-sail from the deck. Stay-sails were set between the masts,
and studding-sails at the extremities of the yards. Perhaps the last
change in rigging which Nelson saw was the introduction of the flying
jib, and its boom, at the extremity of the bowsprit.
[Illustration: A FIRST RATE SHIP OF WAR, CIRCA 1760]
Masts, spars, sails, and rigging for ships of every rate were always
kept in stock at the royal yards. The ships of the navy were built
according to the “Establishment,” or Admiralty regulations, each ship
of each rate being as like as possible, so that the gear of one 74
would fit every 74 in the service. The theory was excellent, but in
practice it failed, because many of the ships in our navy in Nelson’s
time were not built according to the “Establishment” but were
captured from the French and Spanish. Indeed, the only good ships
in our fleets were built by French and Spanish hands. The French
treated shipbuilding as an imaginative art. The very finest brains in
the kingdom were exercised in the planning and creation of ships of
beautiful model. Admirable workmen, and the best talents of France,
produced, in the latter half of the eighteenth century, a number of
sailing men-of-war which were more beautifully proportioned, faster
on every point of sailing, stronger, and with larger batteries,
than the ships built in this country at that time. A French 80-gun
ship at the close of the eighteenth century was bigger, more roomy,
faster, and a finer ship in every way, than our 98-gun ships. Our own
men-of-war were so badly designed and proportioned that they were
said to have been built by the mile, and cut off as required. They
were very cramped between-decks, yet they were nearly always pierced
for more guns than they could conveniently fight. They were very
crank ships, and so “weak” that they could not fight their lower-deck
guns in anything like weather. They were slow at all points of
sailing, and slack in stays. In heavy weather they sometimes rolled
their masts out, or sprung them by violent pitching. Had the French
been able to improve their guns as they improved their ships our navy
would have been destroyed. As it was, their superior sailing was to
some extent neutralised by the fact that decisive naval engagements
had to be fought at close range, within, say, a quarter of a mile
of the enemy. The Spanish ships were but a little inferior to the
French. A queer Irish genius named Mullins, who had settled in Spain,
was the master-shipwright responsible for them. They were used
(as some of our French prizes were used) as models by our English
designers, but the English ships were not markedly improved till
after the death of Nelson. The following table may help the readers
to an understanding of the different rates in use. The figures are
approximate.
+———————————+——————————+——————————+————+——————————+—————————+—————————+
| | |Weight of | No.| |Length of| Cost |
| | No. of |Broadsides| of |Tonnage |Lower Gun|(without |
| | Guns | | Men| | Deck | Guns) |
| +——————————+——————————+————+——————————+—————————+—————————+
| | | | | From | | |
|First-Rate | 100, |2500- |850-|2000-2600 |180 ft. |£70,000- |
| | or more |2550 lbs. |950 |tons. | |100,000 |
|Second-Rate| 98 or 90 |2050- |750 |2000 tons |170-180 |£60,000 |
| | |2300 lbs. | | |ft. | |
|Third-Rate | 80, 74, |1970, |720,|2000-1700,|170-160 |£54,000- |
| | or 64 |1764 or |640,|1300 |ft. |36,000 |
| | |1200 lbs. |490 |tons | | |
|Fourth-Rate| 50 |800 lbs. |350 |1100 tons |150 ft. |£26,000 |
|Fifth-Rate | 44, 40, |636- |320,|900-700 |150-130 |£21,500- |
| | 38, 36, |350 lbs. |300,|tons |ft. |15,000 |
| | or 32 | |250,| | | |
| | | |215 | | | |
|Sixth-Rate | 28, 24, |250- |200-|650-550 |130-120 |£13,000- |
| | 20 |180 lbs. |160 |tons |ft. |10,000 |
+———————————+——————————+——————————+————+——————————+—————————+—————————+
Beside these there were many small, unrated ships, such as gun-brigs,
sloops, ketches, schooners, cutters, etc., and some foreign prizes
so armed that they could not be rated by the English scale. It
must be noted that our official rating reckoned only the regular
armament—_i.e._ the guns of the regulation patterns. After 1779 our
ships carried carronades in addition to their other guns, but these
were never reckoned in the Admiralty ratings.
Viewed from without, a first, second, or third-rate wooden man-of-war
appeared ponderous and cumbersome. A modern sailor, accustomed to the
keen iron-ships of the present day, would have called such a ship a
sea-waggon, qualified or otherwise, before spitting and passing by.
But when the great sails were set, and the hull began to move through
the sea, the cumbrous hulk took on attributes of beauty and nobility.
There has been, perhaps, no such beautiful thing on earth, the work
of man’s hands, as an old 74 under sail.
If one had taken a boat and rowed out to such a ship as she lay
at anchor, fitted for the sea, towards the end of the eighteenth
century, one would have been struck, first of all, by her bulk.
The ships had bulging wooden sides, vast stern-works, and cumbrous
wooden beakheads. They set one wondering how oak of such thickness
could have been wrought to such curves. Till Nelson’s time there was
no uniformity in the painting of the exteriors of the ships. The
captains used their own discretion, and followed their own tastes,
in the selection and application of the colours. The most general
colour-scheme was as follows:—Along the water-line, just above
the ruddy gleam of the copper-sheathing, was a wide black streak,
running right round the ship, and reaching as high as the level of
the lower gun-deck. Above this the sides were yellow, of a yellow
sometimes inclining to brown, like the colour of certain varnishes,
and sometimes of a brighter tint, like the colour of lemon peel.
The after upper-works above the gun-decks, and the outer sides of
the poops above the quarter-deck guns, were painted a vivid red or
blue. This band of bright colour gradually faded, till by the time of
Trafalgar it had become a very deep and dull blue, of a dingy tint
that was very nearly black. A band of scarlet or pale blue, edged
with gold, ran round the forecastle, and continued down the beak to
the figurehead. The outsides of the port-lids were of the same colour
as the sides—that is, of a brownish yellow. The stern-works were
generally elaborate with gilded carving, gilt cherubs, and the like,
and with red, blue, green and gold devices, such as cornucopias,
drums and banners, royal arms, wreaths, etc. Round the stern of
each ship, outside the glazed cabin windows (we are talking of a
third-rate or 74-gun ship), ran a quarter gallery or stern walk, on
which the captain could take his pleasure. The supports and rails of
this walk were heavy with gold-leaf. First and second-rate ships had
three and two stern walks respectively. At the bows, at the extremity
of the great beakhead, was the ship’s figurehead, either a ramping
red lion or a plain white bust, or a shield, or some allegorical
figure suggested by the name of the ship. The allegorical figure was,
perhaps, the most popular among the sailors. They took great pride in
keeping it in good repair, with bright gilt on its spear or helmet,
red paint upon its cheeks, and pretty blue sashes wherever such
appeared necessary.
The ships of Lord Howe’s fleet, in 1794, appear to have been painted
(externally) as follows:—The side of the ships above the line of the
copper a dull brown tint; the tiers of ports a pale lemon yellow,
chequered by the port-lids, the outsides of which were brown, like
the sides of the ship. The gilded scroll-work, at bow and stern,
was as usual. Lord Nelson is said to have painted the ships of his
fleets after much the same pattern, only substituting black for the
dull brown of the sides and outer port-lids. The arrangement used
by him became popular. It was known as the “Nelson chequer”: black
sides and port-lids, and yellow streaks to mark each deck of guns. It
was at first used only by those ships which had fought at Trafalgar
or the Nile. In time it became the system adopted throughout the
Navy. The captains of some ships preferred their own colour-schemes,
and painted their vessels with red or orange streaks to mark the
gun tiers. The “Nelson chequer” was, however, to become the colour
arrangement generally employed. Some years after Trafalgar the
lemon-yellow ribands gave place to white, which continued in use till
wooden men-of-war became obsolete. Those which remain afloat are
painted black and white in the manner in use in the early sixties,
when such ships ceased to be built.
Internally, the sides of the ships were painted blood-red, in order
that the blood, which so often and so liberally spattered them, might
not appear. The inner sides of the port-lids were painted of this
colour, so that when the port-lids were opened, the brown or black
of the ship’s sides was diversified agreeably with scarlet squares.
After Trafalgar the interiors of the ships of war were sometimes
painted in other colours, according to the whims of their commanders.
Green was the most common variant, but the interior of some ships
was painted yellow or brown. A favourite arrangement was the white
and green—white for the ship’s sides and beams, and green for the
waterways and coamings. White became the rule about the year 1840.
Many internal fittings, such as gun-carriages, and, in some cases,
the guns themselves, were painted red or chocolate. Lower masts were
sometimes painted a dull brownish yellow. Top-masts and upper spars
were covered with a dark brown preserving varnish. Yards and gaffs
were painted black. Blocks, chains, dead-eyes, and wooden and iron
fittings for the rigging, were tarred black to match the yards. The
projecting platforms known as the chains or channels at the side
of the ships, to which the lower rigging was secured, were painted
to match the sides of the ships. As the masts of French ships were
generally painted black, the ships in our fleets painted their masts
white before any general engagement, so that the ships might be
distinguished in the smoke and confusion.
The visitor going aboard one of these ships, and entering her, not
by the entry port to the main-deck, with its little brass rail and
carved porch, but by the gangway to the upper-deck, would have
climbed from his boat by a ladder of battens nailed to the timbers.
At each side of this ladder was a side rope, extended by iron
stanchions. The rope, as a rule, was a piece of ordinary 3-inch hemp,
worn smooth and shiny by many hands. For important visitors, such
as a captain or flag-officer, special side ropes were rove, either
of white cord or of the ordinary rope covered with green or scarlet
cloth. Both the gangway and the entry port were guarded by a marine
sentry, in a red coat, pipeclayed belts, and white knee-breeches. A
midshipman kept watch about the gangway to report to the lieutenant
the arrival of all boats coming to the ship before they drew
alongside.
On gaining the deck of an old 74 the visitor would have found himself
upon the spar-deck, just abaft the main-mast, fronting the great
timber bitts, with their coils of running rigging. Close beside him
was the quarter-deck ladder, leading up to the quarter-deck.[1]
Above this again was the poop, a second raised platform or deck,
reached by short, small ladders from the quarter-deck. Right at the
stern of the ship, inclining outboard over the sea, was a flagstaff
on which flew an ensign as large as a mizzen-topgallant-sail. If
the visitor had clambered up the sloping deck to this point he
would have been able to overlook the whole of the upper surface
of the ship. Just beneath him, at his back, below the step of the
flagstaff, he would have seen a heavy lantern, or stern light, with
a ponderous and decorated case. To each side of the flagstaff were
lifebuoys, by which a marine with a hatchet was always stationed
when the ship was at sea. At the alarm of “man overboard” the marine
hacked through the lanyard supporting one of the lifebuoys and let
it drop into the water. At each side of the ship, along the poop
and quarter-deck, were the after-guns, which, till 1779, when the
carronade was adopted, were generally 9-pounders, in red wooden
trucks or carriages, secured to the ship’s side in the usual way.
These guns pointed through square port-holes which were cut, without
lids, through the thick wooden bulwarks. Forward of the mizzen-mast,
under the break of the poop,[2] or, in the later times, on the
quarter-deck itself, was the great double steering wheel, placed in
midships, abaft the binnacle which held the compass. The tiller ropes
were made of raw-hide thongs, raw-hide being tougher than rope, and
less dangerous to the crew when struck by a shot than chain would
have been. Over the wheel hung the forward arm of the great lateen
mizzen-yard,[3] a relic of Drake’s time, which was not abolished in
favour of the spanker gaff and boom until the end of the eighteenth
century. Along the sides of the quarter-deck, and along the ship’s
bulwarks as far forward as the beakhead, were the hammock nettings,
or hammock cloths, within which the hammocks of the ship’s company
were stowed.
Forward of the quarter-deck, between that deck and the forecastle,
was the waist, or, as a modern sailor would call it, the well. It was
not decked over, nor were the wooden bulwarks of the quarter-deck
continued along it, but to each side, in the place of bulwarks, were
iron standards, supporting two thick canvas breastworks or stout
nettings of rope about two feet apart, between which the hammocks of
the crew were stowed. Directly within these breastworks were broad
plank gangways, for the convenience of the sail-trimmers, small-arm
parties, and marines. Between the main and fore masts, in midships,
parallel with the decked-over gangways, were the booms, or spare
spars, tightly lashed in position. On the top of these spars, or
to each side of them, were the ship’s boats, long-boat, barge and
cutter, with their oars and sails inside them. Farther forward was
the forecastle, upon which were more carronades, or 9-pounder cannon,
and one or two heavy bow-chasers, or guns made to fire forward. On
the forecastle was the great ship’s bell, hanging from a heavy wooden
or iron belfry, with a plaited lanyard on the clapper to help the
timekeeper to strike it. In the centre of the forecastle was the
galley-funnel, the chimney of the ship’s kitchen. At the forward
end were ladders leading into the beakhead, from which the sailors
reached the bowsprit when occasion sent them thither.
Under the poop was the captain’s cabin, extending from its forward
limit to the gilded stern gallery. This part of the ship, extending
outboard as it did, like a great gilt excrescence, was sometimes
known as the coach or round house. Very frequently this cabin
contained no guns. If it contained guns they were seldom or never
fired. The ports of the cabin were glazed, and there was a couch or
settee running under them for the ease of the captain. These settees
were hollow, and formed convenient cupboards for the captain’s gear.
As the floor or deck of the cabin was laid upon the beams of the main
or upper gun-deck, it followed that the cabin was loftier and roomier
than any other place in the ship. The poop, the deck above it, was
raised some feet above the quarter-deck, as we have seen, so that
the captain’s state apartment may have been some eight or nine feet
high. A door from it opened into the stern walk, which opened by two
little doors, one on each side, to the quarter galleries. The cabins
were usually very bare. They were furnished with a large fixed table,
a few heavy chairs, a fixed or swinging sleeping cot, and a wooden
washhand stand containing a basin. It was shut off from the forward
portion of the ship by a simple wooden bulkhead, made of elm, so
fitted that it could be lifted from its place and shifted out of its
way when the ship went into action. In early times, in the days of
the Stuarts, this bulkhead and the interior of the cabin were made
gay with carved work, or, as it was then called “gingerbread work.”
Great ships of the first and second rates then carried joiners, to
repair and keep beautiful these decorations. In the latter half of
the eighteenth century the cabins were without decorations of any
kind. The only breaks to the bareness of the wood were the captain’s
foul-weather clothes, dangling from pegs, and his lamp swinging in
its gimbals or hinges, his telescope in his bracket, and, perhaps, a
trophy of swords and pistols, or a stand of the ship’s arms, such as
muskets and cutlasses, in a rack about the mizzen-mast. There were,
of course, captains like Captain Whiffle in the novel, or the scented
Captain Mizen in the play, who lived in great splendour, in carpeted
cabins hung with Italian pictures. These worthies kept perfumes
burning in silver censers to destroy the odour of the bilge. Such
captains were, however, the exception, not the rule. A captain with a
case of books and a pair of curtains to his windows was regarded as
a sybarite. Any decorations beyond these were looked upon as Persian
and soul-destroying.
The forward bulkhead of the cabin was pierced with a door in
midships, which opened on to the half-deck, the space covered by the
quarter-deck. The half-deck was also known as the steerage, from
the fact that the steering wheels and binnacle were placed there,
under the roof or shelter of the quarter-deck planks. The sides of
the half-deck were pierced for guns, generally carronades. It must
be remembered that the half-deck was, as its name implies, decked
over, so that one could walk from side to side of the ship on a floor
of planks. The waist, or space between the fore and main-masts, on
the same plane, was not so decked. The forecastle was decked across,
and the sides of the forecastle were pierced for carronades. But
there were no guns on the plank gangways along the sides of the
waist, partly because the position was exposed, and partly because
the space was needed in action by the sail-trimmers and small-arm
parties. The raised forecastle and high poop and quarter-deck, were
survivals from old time. In the old ships of war, of the reign of
Elizabeth, these superstructures had been built of great strength
and height, “the more for their majesty to astonish the enemy.” No
ship could be carried by boarding until the men defending these
castles had been overcome. No boarding party could enter such a
ship without great danger, for the bulkheads of these castles were
pierced for quick-firing guns, mounted so as to sweep the waist.
Any troop of boarders clambering into the waist could be shot down
by the gunners in the castles. The superstructures were excellent
inventions for that time, when naval engagements were decided by
hand-to-hand fighting, or by ramming. They were less useful when the
improvements in ordnance made it possible to decide a sea-fight by
the firing of guns at a distance. They lingered in our Navy until the
third or fourth decade of the nineteenth century, when the raised
or topgallant forecastle was abolished. Some twenty or thirty years
before this happened the quarter-deck and poop were merged together,
so that there was then but one deck above the spar-deck.
Passing forward from the steerage one came to the main hatchway in
the open space of the waist, just forward of the main-mast. The
ladders of this hatchway led from the waist to the deck below. This
deck below the spar-deck was known in first and second rates as the
main-deck. In third-rates, such as a 74-gun ship, it was called the
second or upper deck. Right aft, on this deck, was the ward-room
or officers’ mess, where the lieutenants had their meals. The room
was large and well-lit, for the stern of the ship was pierced with
five or six windows, which were all glazed, like the windows of the
captain’s cabin. Part of the ward-room was used as an officer’s
store-room, and this part seems to have been shut away from the rest
by means of wooden bulkheads, made of elm, as being less liable to
splinter if struck by a shot than any other sort of wood. There was
no stern walk outside the after windows on this deck, but there were
quarter galleries to each side. These were generally fitted up as
lavatories for the lieutenants. Forward of the ward-room, on each
side of the deck, were the state-rooms of the lieutenants—little
fenced-off cupboards, walled with elm wood, each of them just
large enough to hold a cot, a writing-desk, a chest of clothes, and
a few instruments. In some ships—as in fifth and sixth rates—the
lieutenants slung their hammocks in the ward-room, there being no
space for private cabins. Beyond the ward-room bulkhead was the open
deck, clear of obstruction save for the capstans and the openings
of the hatchways, almost as far forward as the fore-mast.[4] Abaft
the fore-mast, in midships, was the cook-room or galley, where the
cook perspired over his coppers. The galley floor was paved with
brick, to lessen the risk of fire. At each side of the deck, at their
respective port-holes, were the lines of cannon. The general calibre
for this deck, aboard a 74, was the 24-pounder. Of these there were
usually some fifteen or sixteen at each side of the ship on this, the
second or upper deck.
As a large portion of this deck was not decked over, but open to
the sky, save for the boats and spare spars, the fighting space
was comparatively light. In fine weather, and in moderately breezy
weather, the gun ports on this tier could be kept open, at anyrate
to leeward. In bad weather, when they were closed, when tarpaulins
covered the hatchways and open spaces, the deck was lit by the
bull’s-eyes—the round and oval plates of thick glass, which were let
into the centre of the port-lids. At night the only lights allowed
were cased in the battle-lanterns of thick horn. If the ship went
into action at night the sailors fought their guns by the light these
lanterns afforded, one lantern being placed beside each gun.
[Illustration: SECTION OF A FIRST RATE SHIP OF WAR, LATE 18TH CENTURY]
Beneath the second or upper deck was the first or lower gun-deck, the
principal deck of the ship. It was the broadest of the decks, and by
far the strongest, and the most roomy. Here the heaviest cannon, the
two long batteries of 32-pounder guns, were mounted; and here, in
action, was the fiercest of the fighting. Right aft, on this deck,
was the gun-room, in which the gunner and his mess lived. It was also
the ship’s armoury, where the muskets, cutlasses and pistols were
stored. The younger midshipmen sometimes slung their hammocks in the
gun-room,[5] under the fatherly eye of the gunner. In some ships the
gunner acted as caterer to the youngest of the midshipmen, and saw
to it that their clothes were duly washed during the cruise. Forward
of the gun-room bulkhead (or of the stand of arms mentioned below)
there was the open deck, with the lines of guns in their blood-red
carriages. The heavy rope cables stretched along this deck, in
midships, nearly as far aft as the main-mast. Right forward, in
midships, stretching across the bows, was the manger, a sort of pen,
some four feet high, over which the cables passed to the hawse-holes.
The manger was designed as a breakwater to keep the water which
splashed through the hawse-holes from pouring aft along the deck.
The hawse-holes were firmly plugged with oakum and wooden shutters
when the ship was at sea, but no contrivance that could be devised
would keep the water from coming in in heavy weather. The manger also
served as a sheep-pen or pigsty or cattle byre, if the ship carried
live stock. This lower-deck was the berth or sleeping deck, where
the men slung their hammocks at night. It was also the mess-deck,
where they ate their meals. The place was very dark and noisome in
foul weather, for a very moderate sea made it necessary to close the
port-lids, so that, at times, the crew messed in semi-darkness for
days together. It was also very wet on that deck in bad weather,
for no matter how tightly the ports were closed, and no matter how
much oakum was driven all round the edges of their lids, a certain
amount of water would leak through, and accumulate, and slop about
as the ship rolled, to the discomfort of all hands. In hot climates
the discomfort was aggravated by the opening of the seams of the
deck above, so that any water coming on to that deck would drip
down upon the deck below. Often in its passage it dripped into the
sailors’ hammocks, and added yet another misery to their miserable
lives. In midships on this deck, round the hatchway coamings,[6] were
shot racks, containing 32-lb round shot for the heavy batteries.
The pump-dale, or pipe for conveying the water pumped from the
hold, ran across the deck to the ship’s side from “the well” by the
main-mast. This was the sole obstruction to the run of the deck, from
the gun-room to the manger, between the midship stanchions and the
guns. There was a clear passage fore and aft, for the lieutenants in
command of the batteries. In midships were the hatch-coamings, the
capstans, the bitts and cables, and the stanchions supporting the
beams. Between these obstructions and the breaches of the guns was
a fairly spacious gangway, along which the officers could pass to
control the fire.
Below the lower or first deck was a sort of “temporary deck,” not
wholly planked over, called the orlop or overlap-deck. It was
practically below the water-line when the ship’s guns and stores
were aboard. It was therefore very dark and gloomy, being only lit
by a few small scuttles, in the ship’s sides, and by lanterns and
candles (or “purser’s glims”) in tin sconces. Right aft on this
deck was the after cockpit, where the senior midshipmen, master’s
mates, and surgeon’s mates, were berthed. This cockpit was of
considerable size, for here, after an action, the wounded were
brought, to suffer amputation and to have their wounds dressed. The
mess table, at which the reefers and mates made merry, was fixed in
the middle of the berth. After an action it was used as an operation
table by the surgeons. Adjoining the after cockpit were cabins for
the junior lieutenants; state-rooms for the surgeon, purser, and
captain’s steward; the ship’s dispensary; a little cupboard for
bottles and splints, and the purser’s store-room. In small ships of
the fifth and sixth rates the marines berthed on this deck, abreast
of the main-mast, hanging the beams with their pipeclayed belts and
cartridge boxes. The spirit-room, about which the imaginative writer
has written so imaginatively, was sometimes placed on this deck, near
the after cockpit. More generally it was below, in the after hold.
Further forward, on the orlop-deck, the line of battleships had racks
for the bags of the men and the chests of the marines, to which
access could be had at stated times. In midships was the sail-room,
or sail-locker, where the spare suits of sails were stowed. Here,
also, were the cable-tiers, or dark, capacious racks, in which the
cables were coiled, by candlelight, when the ship weighed her anchor.
It was the duty of the midshipmen to hold the candles while this
stowing of the cables was performed by the quarter-masters. After
a battle, when the after cockpit was filled with wounded men, the
midshipmen and mates slung their hammocks in the cable tiers. To the
sides of the cable tiers were other tiers for the stowage of spare
rigging and hawsers. Beyond these again, stretching across the deck,
was the fore cockpit, where the boatswain and carpenter had their
cabins and store-rooms. The carpenter’s store-room was filled with
tools, and with the implements for stopping shot holes. Most of the
actual carpentering was done above, in daylight, on the upper-deck.
The boatswain’s store-room contained blocks, fids, marline-spikes,
rope yarn, etc., for the fitting and repairing of the rigging. In
peace time, for some reason, the boatswain and carpenter slept on
the lower-deck in cots or double hammocks slung in the most favoured
places. In war time they kept their cabins.
Near the two cockpits were the entrances to the fore and after powder
magazines, where the ship’s ammunition lay. The hatches leading to
the magazines were covered over by copper lids, secured by strong
iron bars and padlocks. The magazines were only opened on very
special occasions by the captain’s order. A marine sentry stood at
the hatch of each magazine with a loaded musket, to prevent any
unauthorised person from tampering with the padlocks or trying to
enter. In battle this sentry was reinforced by a corporal’s guard
with fixed bayonets, or by midshipmen with loaded pistols.
The magazines were situated in the fore and after parts of the ship’s
hold. They were far below water, and situated in midships, so that no
shot could penetrate to them. They were lit by ingenious contrivances
called light-rooms, small chambers built just forward of them, and
separated from them by double windows of glass. Lanterns were lit
in these light-rooms and placed behind the windows, so that their
light should illuminate the magazines. The floors or decks of the
magazines were covered with felt, or with a rough kind of frieze
known as fearnought. The walls or sides were similarly covered. No
man was allowed to enter them until he had covered his shoes with
thick felt slippers, and emptied his pockets of any steel or other
metal, the striking of which might make a spark. The after-magazine
was the smaller of the two. It contained no powder casks, but only
a store of filled cartridges for the supply of the upper-deck 18-
and 24-pounders, and the forecastle and quarter-deck carronades.
In the fore-magazine were the tiers of powder casks, one above the
other, the lowest tier having copper hoops about them. This place
was protected even more carefully than the after-magazine, for here
the loose powder was handled and placed in cartridge; and here the
hand grenades and musket cartridges were stored. Here, too, were the
cartridges ready filled for the batteries of 32-pounders on the lower
or first gun-deck. This magazine was not reached by direct descent
from a ladder. To reach it one had to pass along a little passage
protected by a copper door and guarded by a marine. The cartridges
for the cannon were stored in cylindrical wooden tubs or boxes,
arranged in racks and covered with movable wooden lids. Forward of
the fore-magazine was a lift or hoist, by which the cartridges could
be passed from the magazine to the orlop, so that the boys employed
in passing powder should not have to descend into the magazine. In
some ships there was no such hoist, but a thick, wet, woollen screen
with a hole in it, through which the cartridges were handed. The
boys employed in carrying powder had to cover the cartridges with
their jackets as they ran from the magazine to the gun they supplied.
All magazines were fitted with a water tank and pipes, by which the
chamber could be swamped in the event of fire.
Between the magazines was the vast round belly of the ship, known as
the hold. Here the ballast, provision casks, and water casks were
stowed. In the space forward of the after-magazine was a chamber
known as the fish-room, for the storage of the ship’s salt fish.
Beside it was the spirit-room, full of wine, brandy, and rum casks.
Farther forward was the bread-room, a large apartment lined with tin,
and artificially dried by hanging stoves. It contained an incredible
quantity of ship’s biscuit, of which a pound a day was allowed to
each man on board. The water and beer casks, and the casks containing
peas, oatmeal, and salt flesh were stowed forward of the bread-room,
according to the rules of the service.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The quarter-decks of many ships were raised above the upper deck.
In small ships of war, such as frigates, the quarter-deck was the
after part of the upper-deck, below the break of the poop.
[2] Or under the break of the quarter-deck.
[3] Or “cross-jack.”
[4] In some ships the space under the booms on this deck was fitted
with a cattle-pen, in which the officers kept their live stock, if
they had any. In fine weather the deck about the cattle-pen was used
by the various craftsmen of the ship. The armourer and blacksmith
worked at their anvils about the galley. The carpenters sawed and
planed at their tables. The sailmakers spread their canvas, and
stitched, and put in patches. In fine weather the sick were placed
here for the benefit of the air and the sun.
[5] The youngest midshipmen sometimes slung their hammocks just
outside the gun-room, in a space cut off from the rest of the lower
deck by a stand of muskets and cutlasses extending across the deck. A
marine stood guard at the entrance to the railed-off portion. He was
generally a recruit, good for nothing else. He seems to have beguiled
his hours of sentry-go by blacking the boots of the ward-room
officers (Vide _The Navy at Home_).
[6] Coamings are raised ridges round the hatchway openings, designed
to keep the water from falling below in any quantity during foul
weather. They also prevent the unwary from falling down the ladders.