Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 1.djvu/220

 government cannot allow to pass unpunished. With us at sea there are many shades of difference; but that which the law of our service considers a serious offence, is often no more than an ebullition of local and temporary feeling, which in some cases might be curbed, and in others totally suppressed by timely firmness and conciliation.

The ships had been a long time at sea, the enemy did not appear—and there was no chance either of bringing him to action, or of returning into port. Indeed nothing can be more dull and monotonous than a blockading cruize "in the team," as we call it; that is, the ships of the line stationed to watch an enemy. The frigates have, in this respect, every advantage; they are always employed on shore, often in action, and the more men they have killed, the happier are the survivors. Some melancholy ferment on board of the flag ship I was in, caused an open mutiny. Of course it was very soon quelled; and the ringleaders having been tried by a