The first lieutenant, or "glass-eye" as the men called him, went out at once on the forecastle, where a number of the hands, under the superintendence of Mr Hawser, the boatswain, were already engaged rigging the fish davit and overhauling the anchor gear, with Mr Bitpin and Morgan looking on to see that everything was done properly. "Charley" Gilham, and "Gunnery Jack," stopped down on the main deck to look after the capstan, which was soon surrounded by a squad of "jollies" under the command of one of the marine officers, Lieutenant Wagstaff, a fellow as tall as a maypole and with a headpiece of very similar material! Mr Jellaby, however, not knowing where his deputy, Mr Bitpin, might be, came up on the quarter-deck; but he had no sooner appeared there than the commander despatched him to another station. "Please go down at once to the lower deck, Mr Jellaby," said he, on catching sight of him. "I want you to attend to the working of the cables. See how smart you can be with those new hands we have from the foretop!" "Very good, sir," replied "Joe," all on the alert in an instant. "I will go down directly." Away he accordingly went; whereupon, I, having nothing special to do, and seeing everyone else appointed to some station or other, was just scuttling down the hatchway after him when the Commander called me back. "Stop here, Mr Vernon," he cried. "I want you to act as my messenger again. Try if you can be as useful as the one they have to bring in the cable with. I suppose you know what sort of `messenger' that is, eh?" "Oh, yes, sir," I replied glibly enough. "It is a species of endless chain, passing round the base of the capstan amidships, and through a stationary block called a `controller' on the forepart of the lower deck, to which the cable is attached by nippers as it comes through the hawse-hole inboard; and, as the capstan is hove round, the messenger drags the cable up, the nippers being released and taken forward again to get a fresh grip, while the slack of the cable passes down the deck pipes into the cable lockers below, sir." "Very well answered, youngster," said Commander Nesbitt, approvingly, when I had reeled off this long yarn. "But, I think, it's about time for Mr Jellaby to give us the signal for heaving round now." He liked things done smartly, did the commander, for he knew how they should be done; and, being prompt and ready in his own actions, judged others by himself. Barely five minutes had elapsed since "all hands" had been piped, and in that interval the cable had to be unbitted and the "slip" stopping it to the deck knocked off by the blacksmith.