“Thank you, Doctor,” said the captain; “not bad; I owe you one.”

We laughed; the doctor kept his countenance; and the captain looked very grave; but he continued his lies, and dragged in as usual the name of Sir Sydney Smith to support his assertions.  “If you doubt me, only ask Sir Sydney Smith; he’ll talk to you about Acre for thirty-six hours on a stretch, without taking breath; his cockswain at last got so tired of it, that he nick-named him ‘Long Acre.’”

The poor doctor did not come off scot free; the next day, he discovered that the deck leaked over his cabin, and the water ran into his bed.  He began, with a hammer and some nails, to fasten up a piece of painted canvas, by way of shelter.  The captain heard the noise of the hammer, and finding it was the doctor, desired him to desist.  The doctor replied, that he was only endeavouring to stop some leaks over his bed:  the captain said they should not be stopped; for that a bed of leeks was a very good bed for a Welshman.

“There, Doctor; now we are quits:  that’s for your Dog Star.  I suppose you think nobody can make a pun or a pill, in the ship, but yourself?”

“If my pills were no better than your puns,” muttered the doctor, “we should all be in a bad way.”

The captain then directed the carpenter not to allow any nails to the doctor, or the use of any of his tools; he even told the poor surgeon that he did not know how to make a pill, and that “he was as useless as the Navy Board.”  He accused him of ignorance in other parts of his profession; and, ordering all the sick men on deck, rope-ended them to increase their circulation, and put a little life into them.

Many a poor sick creature have I seen receive a most unmerciful beating.  My wonder was that the men did not throw him overboard; and I do really believe that if it had not been for respect and love to the officers, they would have done so.  No sooner had we got into blue water, as he called it—­that is, out of soundings—­than he began his pranks, which never ceased till we reached Carlisle Bay.  Officers and men were all treated alike, and there was no redress, for no one among us dared to bring him to a court-martial.  His constant maxim was—­“Keep sailors at work, and you keep the devil out of their minds—­all hands all day-watch, and watch all night.”

“No man,” said Jacky (the name we gave him) “eats the bread of idleness on board of my ship:  work keeps the scurvy out of their bones, the lazy rascals.”

The officers and men, for the first three weeks, never had a watch below during the day.  They were harassed and worn to death, and the most mutinous and discontented spirit prevailed throughout the ship.  One of the best seamen said, in the captain’s hearing, that, “since the ship had been at sea, he had only had three watches below.”

“And if I had known it,” said the captain, “you should not have had that;” and turning the hands up, he gave him four dozen.