Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/174

 No doubt it would sound odd to a countryman to hear the boatswain and his mates blow through their  silver calls (whistles), which are about four inches long,  and sing out, one after the other, "Away, there, you  Leopards, away!" "You Foxes, away!" "You Lions, away!" "Come, hurry into your boats!" "Away, there, you Elephants!" "You Turtles, and White Handkerchiefs, away!" It might be that some of the boats' crews were down on the berth deck, and then it was,  "Hurry up, there, you Penguins, you Nightingales, you  Albatrosses, and man your boats!" There were two officers and five men attached to each boat while we  were surveying.

The following were the orders given by the commodore to the officers of the boats:

These and other instructions were often given while standing in the bow of the boat, heaving the lead, or  resting on our oars while the officers were measuring base  by sound.

When looking down into the water upon the coral