over the bowsprit and through a hole horizontally cut in the stem.  At each turn the gammoning hawser is hove taut, while every effort is used to bring the bowsprit down into its place.  A heavy boat is sometimes suspended from the end, the weight of which greatly assists the gammoning process.  Another set of ropes, called bob-stays, extending from about one-third from the outer end of the bowsprit to the cut-water, nearly at the water-line, contribute essentially to its stability.  It is further secured in a lateral direction by shrouds reaching from its extremity to the bows of the ship.

I need not mention, that, in order to give a finish, as it were, to the end of the ship, and to convert that into a source of ornament which might otherwise be deemed a deformity, the top of the stem has been appropriated as the position of the figure-head, the characteristic emblem of the vessel.  In some ships the sailors pride themselves especially on the beauty of their figure-head; and many a time have I seen the captain of the forecastle employed for hours in painting the eyes, hair, and drapery of his favourite idol.  I suppose few commanding-officers will allow of this liberty; for it must be owned that as Jack’s taste in female beauty, and in the disposition and colours of dress, are borrowed from a very questionable model, his labours in adorning the figure-head are apt to produce strange monsters.  I once heard of a captain who indulged his boatswain in this whim of representing his absent love as far as the king’s allowance of paint could carry the art; and it must be owned, that, as the original Dulcinea owed her roses to the same source, the representation “came very close aboard of the original,” as the delighted boatswain expressed it.  This very proximity in colouring, scantiness of drapery, and so forth, which formed the boatswain’s pride, perplexed the worthy captain, who had given his sanction to the work, for he could never cross the bows of his own ship with a party of friends, without raising a laugh at the expense of his taste in figures.  The whole crew, however, soon fell as much in love with the damsel as the boatswain had done before them; and it would have been cruel to have sent the painter to daub her ladyship all over with one uniform colour, according to the general fashion.  The considerate commander took a different line.

“You seem proud of your head, Mr. Clearpipe, I shall gild her for you!”

In a few days, the sparkling eyes and blushing cheeks of Mrs. Boatswain, like Danae, had yielded up their charms to the golden shower.  The glittering figure-head soon became the delight of the ship’s company, and on one occasion furnished the captain with rather an odd means of calling out their energies.  The ship was sailing in company with several others of the same class, and when they all came to reef topsails together, she was beat on the first occasion.  As they were setting about a second trial of activity, the captain called out to the people aloft,—­