[66] To wear the smartest possible clothes on coming up for punishment was invariable routine. It was hoped that a smart appearance would mitigate the captain’s wrath.--_Vide_, _Sea Life in Nelson’s Time_, John Masefield. [67] To this day the British bluejacket calls himself a “matlo”--a corruption of the French matelot; so this pigtail introduction theory may be correct enough. [68] See Food, a page or so further on. [69] The curious, who wander into the by-lanes off Queen Street, Portsea, will still find heavy iron gates in places. Inside these gates those anxious to escape the press-gangs used to take refuge. [70] The “bounty” offered, however, was a decided inducement. Cases of bounties as high as £70 can be found. [71] _The British Tar in Fact and Fiction._ [72] There are West Country villages to-day in which, to my own knowledge, one pound of meat a week is an outside estimate of what is eaten per head. [73] There were those who accepted weevils in ship’s biscuits as mites in Gorgonzola cheese are accepted to-day! Unpalatable as ship’s biscuit is, there is a certain acquired taste about it. In the later nineties I have frequently seen it handed round as a species of dessert in the wardroom, every senior officer taking some and enjoying it. In the 1890 manœuvres the wardroom officers of “C fleet” did three weeks on “ships” only, in quite a casual way, though the quality even then left something to be desired. [74] They began at 4s. a day, working up to 11s. a day after six years, and 18s. a day at twenty years’ service, which few ever reached. [75] For extremely detailed accounts of surgery in action see _Sea Life in Nelson’s Times_, John Masefield. [76] A form of this rule exists to-day. A man wounded in action is not now mulcted; but a man who tumbles down a hatchway and breaks his leg has to suffer “hospital stoppages,” and “pay for his own cure,” to a certain extent. [77] Commander Robinson, R.N., in _The British Tar in Fact and Fiction_, seems to have got nearer the true picture than those who have painted things in darker and more lurid colours. He is practically the only writer upon the subject who has realised that many old yarns are capable of being discounted. [78] It is only fair to the Hebrew race to say that “Jew” was a generic term for a special type of person who grew rich on advancing money to sailors and selling them shoddy articles at ridiculously enhanced prices. Quite a large number of them were not of the Jewish race. [79] To-day this is flown at the bow only when a ship is at anchor. [80] At Trafalgar, the _Victory_, as she bore down, suffered heavily from the shot that penetrated her thin forward bulkhead. [81] _Ex_ Fincham, where the report is given in full. [82] The mail packet service was under the Admiralty in those days. [83] The seventy-three ton iron steamboat _Ruby_. [84] The Lord Armstrong, founder of Elswick, etc. [85] The italics are mine.--F.T.J.