Chapter 12

THE GOOD OR BAD TEMPER OF MEN-OF-WAR'S MEN, IN A GREAT DEGREE,
ATTRIBUTABLE TO THEIR PARTICULAR STATIONS AND DUTIES ABOARD SHIP.

Quoin, the quarter-gunner, was the representative of a class on
board the Neversink, altogether too remarkable to be left astern,
without further notice, in the rapid wake of these chapters.

As has been seen, Quoin was full of unaccountable whimsies; he
was, withal, a very cross, bitter, ill-natured, inflammable old
man. So, too, were all the members of the gunner's gang;
including the two gunner's mates, and all the quarter-gunners.
Every one of them had the same dark brown complexion; all their
faces looked like smoked hams. They were continually grumbling
and growling about the batteries; running in and out among the
guns; driving the sailors away from them; and cursing and
swearing as if all their conscience had been powder-singed, and
made callous, by their calling. Indeed they were a most
unpleasant set of men; especially Priming, the nasal-voiced
gunner's mate, with the hare-lip; and Cylinder, his stuttering
coadjutor, with the clubbed foot. But you will always observe,
that the gunner's gang of every man-of-war are invariably ill-
tempered, ugly featured, and quarrelsome. Once when I visited an
English line-of-battle ship, the gunner's gang were fore and aft,
polishing up the batteries, which, according to the Admiral's
fancy, had been painted white as snow. Fidgeting round the great
thirty-two-pounders, and making stinging remarks at the sailors
and each other, they reminded one of a swarm of black wasps,
buzzing about rows of white headstones in a church-yard.

Now, there can be little doubt, that their being so much among
the guns is the very thing that makes a gunner's gang so cross
and quarrelsome. Indeed, this was once proved to the satisfaction
of our whole company of main-top-men. A fine top-mate of ours, a
most merry and companionable fellow, chanced to be promoted to a
quarter-gunner's berth. A few days afterward, some of us main-
top-men, his old comrades, went to pay him a visit, while he was
going his regular rounds through the division of guns allotted to
his care. But instead of greeting us with his usual heartiness,
and cracking his pleasant jokes, to our amazement, he did little
else but scowl; and at last, when we rallied him upon his ill-
temper, he seized a long black rammer from overhead, and drove us
on deck; threatening to report us, if we ever dared to be
familiar with him again.

My top-mates thought that this remarkable metamorphose was the
effect produced upon a weak, vain character suddenly elevated
from the level of a mere seaman to the dignified position of a
_petty officer_. But though, in similar cases, I had