It was quite impossible to tell whether Tom was right or wrong: but his words were accepted for all and more than they were worth; for the speaker was a kind of oracle among the seamen, on account of his long experience in the service. The next morning, the engineers and firemen were observed to be very busy; and soon the smoke was seen to issue from the smoke-stack. The fires roared for several hours in the furnaces, and the steam hissed in accord with the impatience of the crew to be off. After Jack’s patience had been sorely tried by the long delay, he welcomed with a thrill of delight the pipe of the boatswain. “All hands, up anchor!” It seemed to him just as though the beginning of all things had come, and he sprang to his station at the capstan. The first-lieutenant was now in charge of the deck: he had received his orders from the captain, and was proceeding to the systematic execution of the details. The second-lieutenant was on the forecastle, with the boatswain near him. The third-lieutenant was in the waist, and the fourth on the quarter-deck, near the mizzen-mast. These were the stations which these officers took when any manœuvre which required all hands was to be executed. “Ship the capstan-bars!” said the first-lieutenant. The order was repeated by his subordinates; and all the sailors assigned to this duty seized the bars, and inserted them in the drum of the capstan. “Bring-to, forward!” continued the executive officer; which order was repeated by his juniors as before. Our non-nautical readers will not, perhaps, understand this command; and we will try to render it into English. The cable to which the anchor is attached, and which holds the ship to the bottom, is a very large iron chain. A rope, called the “messenger,” is attached to this chain by a contrivance called a “selvagee.” The messenger extends from the cable to the capstan, around which it is passed several times. When the capstan is turned by the men, of course it winds up the messenger, and hauls in the chain fastened to the anchor. “Bring-to, forward,” was the order requiring the men to attach the messenger to the cable, and pass it around the capstan. “Are you ready forward?” shouted the first-lieutenant, after he had waited a sufficient time for his former order to be executed. “All ready forward, sir!” responded the second-lieutenant. “Walk round with the capstan!” added the first-lieutenant. The men went round with a will; and Jack would fain have sung his “Yo-heave-oh!” as he had been accustomed to do at the windlass on board his father’s vessel: but the “people” of a man-of-war are required to execute their duties in silence. The music of a fife, playing Yankee Doodle, as an accompaniment to the movement, was, however, some consolation, and assisted him very much in keeping the needed “stopper on his jaw-tackle.”