I could give a pretty long list of cases which I have myself seen, or have heard others relate, where men have been drowned while their shipmates were thus struggling on board who should be first to save them, but who, instead of aiding, were actually impeding one another by their hurry-skurry and general ignorance of what really ought to be done.  I remember, for example, hearing of a line-of-battle-ship, in the Baltic, from which two men fell one evening, when the ship’s company were at quarters.  The weather was fine, the water smooth, and the ship going about seven knots.  The two lads in question, who were furling the fore-royal at the time, lost their hold, and were jerked far in the sea.  At least a dozen men, leaving their guns, leaped overboard from different parts of the ship, some dressed as they were, and others stripped.  Of course, the ship was in a wretched state of discipline where such frantic proceedings could take place.  The confusion soon became worse confounded; but the ship was hove aback, and several boats lowered down.  Had it not been smooth water, daylight, and fine weather, many of these absurd volunteers must have perished.  I call them absurd, because there is no sense in merely incurring a great hazard, without some useful purpose to guide the exercise of courage.  These intrepid fellows merely knew that a man had fallen overboard, and that was all; so away they leaped out of the ports and over the hammock-nettings, without knowing whereabouts the object of their Quixotic heroism might be.  The boats were obliged to pick up the first that presented themselves, for they were all in a drowning condition; but the two unhappy men who had been flung from aloft, being furthest off, went to the bottom before their turn came.  Whereas, had not their undisciplined shipmates gone into the water, the boats would have been at liberty to row towards them, and they might have been saved.  I am quite sure, therefore, that there can be no offence more deserving of punishment, as a matter of discipline, and in order to prevent such accidents as this, than the practice of leaping overboard after a man who has fallen into the water.  There are cases, no doubt, in which it would be a positive crime in a swimmer not to spring, without waiting for orders, to the rescue of a fellow-creature whom he sees sinking in the waves, at whatever hazard to himself or to others; but I speak of that senseless, blindfold style in which I have very often witnessed men pitch themselves into the water, without knowing whether the person who had fallen overboard was within their reach or not.  Even in highly-disciplined ships this will sometimes take place; and the circumstances which increase the danger seem only to stimulate the boldest spirits to brave the risk.  I conceive there is no method of putting a stop to the practice but by positively enjoining the people not to go overboard, unless expressly ordered; and by explaining to them on every occasion when the ship’s company are exercised for this purpose, that the difficulty of picking a man up is generally much augmented by such indiscreet zeal.