When the tide-bell rung, the boats were hoisted out, and two active seamen were employed to keep them from receiving damage alongside. The floating-light being very buoyant, was so quick in her motions, that when those who were about to step from her gunwale into a boat, placed themselves upon a cleat or step on the ship’s side, with the man or rail ropes in their hands, they had often to wait for some time, till a favourable opportunity occurred for stepping into the boat. While in this situation, with the vessel rolling from side to side, watching the proper time for letting go the man-ropes, it required the greatest dexterity and presence of mind to leap into the boat. One who was rather awkward, would often wait a considerable period in this position: at one time his side of the ship would be so depressed, that he would touch the boat to which he belonged, while the next sea would elevate him so much, that he would see his comrades in the boat on the opposite side of the ship, his friends in the one boat calling to him to “Jump,” while those in the boat on the other side, as he came again and again into their view, would jocosely say, “Are you there yet? You seem to enjoy a swing.” In this situation it was common to see a person, upon each side of the ship, for a length of time, waiting to quit his hold. A stranger to this sort of motion was both alarmed for the safety, and delighted with the agility of persons leaping into the boat, under those perilous circumstances. No sooner had one quitted his station on the gunwale, than another occupied his place, until the whole were safely shipped. [Sidenote: Difficulty of keeping boats alongside.] It also formed a critical operation with the sailors to keep the boats at a convenient distance from the vessel, to guard against being too far off; as, in that case, the man, in the act of stepping off the ship’s side, might have been in danger of falling into the sea. If, on the other hand, the boat was allowed to come in contact with the vessel, she would have been in danger of being staved or damaged. This state of things was fortunately not what we had to commence with, as the weather happened to be, as before noticed, serene, and the Smeaton’s sides were comparatively low in the water. The excessive rolling of the Pharos did not therefore come upon the artificers all at once, otherwise some unpleasant accidents must have happened, for in these rolling operations, if a stranger had, in a moment of alarm, let go his hold, at an improper time, he must have been pitched with violence into the sea.