First, then, he must prepare himself to undergo, periodically, the discomfort of want of proper rest and irregularity in times of meals; he may, for instance, not be able to leave the bridge for over forty-eight hours or more on a stretch, and, of course, any shipmaster who may read this will know that this is no uncommon occurrence; during this time he may be unable to get regular meals, and what he does get may have to be eaten in a hurry and at an anxious time when he cannot properly enjoy and digest it.

A time like this may be followed by a period of rest, when the days will hang heavily on his hands, and he will be tempted to long afternoon sleeps merely to get through the weary hours.

Now, as a course of this kind of thing is bound, unless care be exercised, to act unfavorably on the digestion and bring on some form of dyspepsia, so also the nights and days of great anxiety and moments of great strain will, besides increasing the dyspeptic tendency, be apt to bring on nervousness in some form or other.  It is a fact that in these times, and often from want of attention to health, nearly every shipmaster long in harness is more or less nervous.

There are people in the present day who have actually talked of making their chief engineer (who exercises his special trade at sea or on shore as suits himself and is in no sense a seaman) the master of the vessel, and turning the shipmaster into a mere pilot.  Those who talk in this way forget that to do this the responsibility must be shifted on to the engineer.  Of course such a change as this cannot happen, the country would not stand it; but I merely mention it to show the vast amount of ignorance there is, even among those who should be well informed, as to the real strain and responsibility on the modern shipmaster.

The master then, if anxious to do the best for himself, should, if possible, be a total abstainer, for two reasons:  first, because, as he will be obliged to be irregular in his feeding, alcohol in any form will do him harm and tend to augment the dyspepsia.  Secondly, because, often in times of great mental strain, combined with exposure, a glass of spirits will give great temporary relief (which is of itself a dangerous fact for a weak-minded man), but this will always be followed by depression, and will in reality be doing great harm instead of lasting good.  Spirituous liquor may be necessary for a few, but these should use it under medical advice if at all.  It is a hard thing for many men to give up their grog, but there is not a man of any experience in the merchant service who has not seen its blasting effects on many a master and officer.  It is almost impossible to find a substitute for it which shall recommend itself to anyone who has really a liking for it, about the only things being coffee, lime juice, or lemonade and ginger ale.  So-called temperance drinks are all of them very nasty stuff, besides containing a large percentage of alcohol;