To satisfy the demands of the economists, lint was forbidden and sponges restricted, so that a single sponge might have to serve for a dozen wounded men. Blood-poisoning was thus indiscriminately spread, and a wounded man thus infected with the worst form of it, was mulcted in his pay for medicines required. When the Spithead mutineers demanded “more humanity to the wounded” those were the things that probably they had in mind. It has further to be remembered that a man wounded too badly to be of any further use afloat was flung ashore without pension or mercy. The surgeons were fully as humane as their brethren ashore, possibly much more so, from the mere fact that any community of men flung together to sink or swim together compels common sympathies. To the men the purser was classically a thief, the surgeon a callous brute, the officers generally brutes of another kind. This cheap view of the situation has been perpetuated _ad lib_. But all the best evidence is to the effect that, as a rule, and save in exceptional cases, most of those on board a warship pulled together, and that all strove to make the best of things. Things to be made the best of were few, no doubt, and the grumblers and growlers are the folk who have left most records. Allowing for the different era, similar growls can be found to-day. To-day the contented man says nothing; the discontented says a little, and outside sympathisers say a great deal. The truth probably lies with the actually discontented’s version somewhat discounted. In the days of the Great War, the same fact probably obtained. Unquestionably the seaman proper loved the sea and his duty, despite all hardships and drawbacks. To this fact is to be attributed the easy victories of the Great Wars, and, relatively to corresponding shore life, sea life afloat can hardly have been quite so black as most people delight to paint it.[77] The pay of the Navy of the period remains to be mentioned. It ran as follows:-- Captain--6s. to 25s. a day, according to the ship, plus a variety of allowances. Midshipmen--£2 to £2 15s. 6d. a month. Surgeons--11s. to 18s. a day, with half-pay when unemployed. Assistant-Surgeons--4s. and 5s., with half-pay when unemployed. Chaplains--about 8s. 6d. a day, with allowances. Schoolmasters--£2 to £2 8s. a month, with bounties. Boatswains--£3 to £4 16s. a month. Boatswain’s Mate--£2 5s. 6d. a month. Gunner--£1 16s. to £2 2s. a month. Carpenter--£3 to £5 16s. a month, according to the ship. Quartermaster--£2 5s. 6d. a month. Sailmaker--£2 5s. 6d. a month. Sailmaker’s Assistant--£1 18s. 6d. a month. Master-at-Arms--£2 0s. 6d. to £2 15s. 6d. a month. Ship’s Corporals--£2 2s. 6d. a month. Cook--11s. 8d. a month and pickings. Able Seaman--11s. a month (33s. a month after 1797). Ordinary Seaman--9s. a month (25s. 6d. a month after 1797). Landsman--7s. 6d. a month (23s. a month after 1797). Ship’s Boy--13s. to 13s. 6d. a month.