The detachments, including that from the Seventeenth, were accordingly shipped off, when or from whence I have been unable to discover. As little is known of the life on a transport in those days, it may be worth while to put down here such few details as I have succeeded in collecting. In the first place, then, hired transports seem generally to have been thoroughly bad ships. That they should have been small was unavoidable; but they seem as a rule to have been in every respect bad, and by no means invariably seaworthy. Those who have seen in the naval despatches of those days the extraordinary difficulty that was found in keeping even men-of-war clean, and the foul diseases that were rampant in the fleet through the jobbery and mismanagement of the Admiralty, will not be inclined to expect much of the hired transports. Let us then imagine the men brought on board a ship full of foul smells from bad stores and bilge-water, and then proceed to a brief sketch of the regulations. The first regulation is that the ship is to be frequently fumigated with brimstone, sawdust, or wet gunpowder--no doubt to overcome the pervading stench. Such fumigation was to begin at 7 A.M., when the berths were brought up and aired, and be repeated if possible after each meal. Moreover, lest the free circulation of air should be impeded unnecessarily, it was ordained that married couples should not be allowed to hang up blankets, to make them separate berths, _all over the ship_, but in certain places only. [Sidenote: 1795.] The men were to be divided into three watches, one of which was always to be on deck; and in fine weather every man was to be on deck all day, and kept in health and strength by shot drill. For the rest the men were required to wash their feet every morning in two tubs of salt water placed in the forecastle for the purpose, to comb their heads every morning with a small tooth comb, to shave, to wash all over, and to put on a clean shirt at least twice a week.