As this, and the other exercise of sponging, loading, and running out the guns in the heat, stench, and fury of a sea-fight was excessively hard labour, the men went into action stripped to the waist. The decks on those occasions were thickly sanded, lest the blood upon them should make them too slippery for the survivors' feet. Tubs of water were placed between the guns for the wetting of the sponges and the extinguishing of chance fires. The ship's boys carried the cartridges to the guns from the magazines below the water-line. The round-shot were placed close to hand in rope rings called garlands. Nets were spread under the masts to catch wreck from aloft. The decks were "cleared for action." All loose articles about the decks, and all movable wooden articles such as bulkheads (the partitions between cabins), mess-tables, chests, casks, etc., were flung into the hold or overboard, lest shot striking them should splinter them. Splinters were far more dangerous than shot. In this book it may be noticed that the officers hoped to have no fighting while the gun decks of the ships in the squadron were cumbered with provision casks. The ships of war carried enormous crews. The _Centurion_ carried four hundred seamen and one hundred soldiers. At sea, most of this complement was divided into two watches. Both watches were subdivided into several divisions, to each of which was allotted some special duty, as the working of the main-mast, the keeping of the main deck clean, etc., etc. Many members of the crew {x} stood no watch, but worked at special crafts and occupations about the ship. A wooden ship of war employed and kept busy a carpenter and carpenter's mates, a sailmaker and sailmaker's mates, a cooper and a gunner, each with his mates, and many other specially skilled craftsmen and their assistants. She was a little world, carrying within herself all that she needed. Her daily business required men to sail her and steer her, men to fight her guns, men to rule her, men to drill, men to play the spy, men to teach, preach, and decorate, men to clean her, caulk her, paint her and keep her sweet, men to serve out food, water, and intoxicants, men to tinker, repair, and cook and forge, to doctor and operate, to bury and flog, to pump, fumigate and scrape, and to load and unload. She called for so many skilled craftsmen, and provided so much special employment out of the way of seamanship, that the big crew was never big enough. The special employments took away now one man, now another, till there were few left to work the ship. The soldiers and marines acted as a military guard for the prevention of mutiny. They worked about the ship, hauling ropes, etc., when not engaged in military duty.