"Ah, you must settle that as best as you can with the wardroom steward, sir! Let this, Mr Nipper, be a lesson to you in future not to put off things until the last moment! You may take the dinghy, if you like, by-and-by and go to Clarence yard yourself, to see what can be done for getting some more beef for the wardroom and gunroom mess; but, I cannot spare another officer or man. We're much too short-handed already!" This was true enough, for we had only about a couple of hundred men of our crew, including the seamen, gunners and petty officers, as yet aboard. In those days only the marines and boys were drafted to ships when first commissioned, the compliment having to be made up as hands volunteered to join in response to the bills inviting enrolment that were stuck up in some selected public-house or tavern ashore, which, as the master-at-arms told me, was called the "Randy-woo!" The continuous service system now in vogue was not adopted until within a comparatively recent period, say some thirty years ago at the outside; prior to this all bluejackets on their discharge from a ship when she was paid off, instead of being merely granted leave according to the present custom, became absolutely free men and having the right to quit the service, if they so wished, for good and all. Although, should they change their minds after their money was all spent and come forward to join another ship about to be commissioned, the different periods they might have previously served afloat counted towards the time required to qualify them for a pension. When, therefore, the _Candahar_ was ordered to hoist the pennant and her captain and other officers appointed, she only received a certain percentage of trained gunnery hands from the _Excellent_, with a few boys and marines. She had to go into the open market, as it were, for the rest of her crew, like any ordinary ship about to sail on a trading voyage. Such being the case, following the usual practice at the time, the "Earl Saint Vincent," a tavern on Common Hard, was chosen for our rallying-place, or rendezvous. A large broadsheet was exposed in the window of this tavern inviting able-bodied seamen and artificers to join the battleship; one of our lieutenants attending each day for a certain number of hours at the little shipping office which was established in the bar parlour of the tavern to inspect the discharge notices and certificates of any sailors or landsmen who might wish to join. The officer relegated to this duty took care to satisfy himself that any candidates he selected should pass muster with the commander before sending them on board. He knew well enough that if the men had previously served in the navy and their characters were marked "very good," or even "good," there was little doubt of their acceptance. Up to the date of my going on board the ship, though, our recruiting agency had not been very successful.