There are, as will readily be conceived, a hundred minor points to be thought of in the equipment of a ship, to which I have not adverted, relating to the watching, stationing, and quartering of men and officers; the berthing and arrangement of the people into messes; the rules respecting their having leave to go on shore, and so on.  It may be well, however, to remind officers that they should never forget that the mere appearance of their ship is a matter of considerable consequence; and therefore, even in the very busiest times of the outfit, the yards should be carefully squared every evening after the work is over, all the ropes hauled taut, and the decks swept as soon as the artificers leave off work.  Not a single person beyond the sentries should ever be allowed to go from the hulk to the ship, except during working hours.  This rule prevents any interference with the tools or unfinished work of the dockyard men.  In a word, the crew should never be allowed to suppose that the discipline of forms and appearances, so to call it, is relaxed, because the usual regularity of working is in some degree interrupted.  That a ship is essentially in good order can at once be discovered by a professional eye, in the midst of her most bustling occupations and at any stage of the outfit.

Last of all the pilot comes on board; the sails are loosed and hoisted; and the lashings being cast off from the hulk, the gay ship sails joyously out of harbour, and takes up her anchorage at the anchoring ground.  The officers and crew set to work in getting things into their places; and being all thoroughly tired of harbour, and anxious to get to sea, a fresh feeling of zeal and activity pervades the whole establishment.

The powder is now got on board; the warrant-officers “indent” or sign the proper acknowledgments for their stores at the dockyard; and the purser, having completed the stock of provisions, closes his accounts at the victualling-office.  The captain’s wife begins to pack up her band-boxes in order to return home, while the Jews and bum-boat folks are pushing all the interest they can scrape together to induce the first lieutenant to give them the priority of entrance with their goods and chattels on the approaching pay-day.  The sailors’ wives about this period besiege the captain and his lady alternately, with petitions to be allowed to go to sea in the ship; to all, or most of which, a deaf ear must be turned.  When all things are put to rights, the port-admiral comes on board to muster and inspect the ship’s company, and to see how the different equipments have been attended to.

At length, just before sailing, pay-day comes, and with it many a disgusting scene will ever be associated until the present system be modified.  The ship is surrounded by a fleet of boats filled with gangs of queer-looking Jew-pedlars sitting in the midst of piles of slop-clothing, gaudy handkerchiefs, tawdry trinkets, eggs and butter, red herrings and cheeses, tin-pots, fruit, joints of meat, and bags of potatoes, well concealed beneath which are bottles and bladders filled with the most horribly adulterated spirituous liquors.  As many of these dealers as can be conveniently ranged on the quarter-deck and gangways may be admitted, that the market may be as open and fair as possible; but it is very indiscreet to allow any of them to go on the main-deck.