the blunderbuss, and upon his behaving saucily when I taxed him with it, I took him out of the vessel._" [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1479--Capt. Brett, 17 April 1743. The captain's use of gender is philologically instructive. Not till later times, it seems, did ships lose the character of a "strong man armed" and take on, uniformly, the attributes of the skittish female.] [Illustration: SAILORS CAROUSING. From the mezzotint after J. Ibbetson.] So abhorrent a condiment was "sauce" to the naval palate, whether of officer or impress agent, that its use invariably brought its own punishment with it. "You are no gentleman!" said Gangsman Dibell to one Hartnell, a currier who accidentally jostled him whilst he was drinking in a Poole taproom. "No, nor you neither!" replied Hartnell. The retort cost him a most disagreeable experience. Dibell and his comrades collared him and dragged him off to the rendezvous, where he was locked up in the black-hole till the next day. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 580--Inquiry into the Conduct of the Impress Officers at Poole, 13 Aug. 1804.] At Waterford Capt. Price went one better than this, for a man who was totally unfit for the service having one day shown him some trifling disrespect, the choleric old martinet promptly set the gang upon him and had him conveyed on board the tender, "where," says Lieut. Collingwood, writing a month later, "he has been eating the king's victuals ever since." [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1501--Lieut. Collingwood, 18 March 1781.] Punishment enough, surely! One night at Londonderry, as Lieut. Watson was making his way down to the quay for the purpose of boarding the _Hope_ tender, of which he was commander, he accidentally ran against a couple of strangers. "Hallo! my lads," cried he, "who and what are you?" "I am what I am," replied one of them, insolently. The lieutenant, who had been dining, fired up at this and demanded to know if language such as that was proper to be addressed to a king's officer. "As you please," said he of the insolent tongue. "If you like it better, I'll say I'm a piece of a man." "So I see by your want of manners," retorted the lieutenant. "Come along with me, my brave piece! I know those who will make a whole man of you before they're done." With that he seized the fellow, meaning to take him to his boat, which lay near by, but the pressed man, watching his chance, tripped him up and made off. Next day there was a sequel. The lieutenant "was taken possession of by the Civil Power" on a charge of assault. [Footnote: _Admiralty Records_ 1. 1531--Lieut. Watson, 27 Oct. 1804.]