Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/34

 or on dry land. Every one looked solemn. Thoughtless as I was at that time. I yet felt great reverence for the Supreme Being, and always doffed my hat before  eating my meals. At the end of the service, each mess was given a Bible and a Prayer Book.

The day was indeed beautiful, with a light breeze, and the squadron was in company. I said that the crew looked sober. I know that many of them felt sad. Some of them had shipped for this expedition soon after the act was passed by Congress authorizing it to be fitted out, in the year 1836. Others had shipped for various stations, and had been for over a year on board the frigate Macedonian, under Commodore Jones and other  commanders. To take off the rough, a few days before we left Norfolk, the commodore had given all hands a  day’s liberty on shore; still, many felt very sad at having laid at anchor a year without visiting home or seeing  any of their dear ones. Though Jack is a hand before the mast, he is a fellow-man with rights and feelings, and  they should be respected by a generous government  such as ours.

This was the first full-rigged ship I had ever sailed in, and it appeared different from all my other sea homes,  which had been sloops, schooners, and brigs. In the first place, we had three decks — the spar deck, gun  deck, and berth deck. Then, too, the crew was so large — two hundred. We were divided into sixteen messes, twelve men in a mess. I was in one of the petty officer’s messes. Each mess was provided with a piece of canvas — which, when spread on deck, served as  a table cloth — a large tin pail and pan, and two wooden