Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 1.djvu/56

 mising disposition, which I despise. Now wash your face and go on board. Try by all means to conciliate the rest of your messmates, for first | impressions are everything, and rely on it, Murphy's report will not be in your favour."

This advice was very good, but had the disadvantage of coming too late for that occasion by at least half an hour. The fracas was owing to the captain's mismanagement, and the manners and customs of the navy at the beginning of the nineteenth century. 'The conversation at the tables of the higher ranks of the service in those days, unless ladies were present, was generally such as a boy could not listen to without injury to his better feelings. I was, therefore, "hinted off;" but with due respect-to my captain, who is still living, I should have been sent on board of my ship, and cautioned against the bad habits of the natives of North Corner and Barbican; and if I could not be admitted to the mysterious conversation of a captain's table, I should have been told in a clear and decided