Chapter 32 - Page 2

going home to Down East," said another; "so far
eastward, you know, _shippy_, that they have to pry up the sun
with a handspike."

To make this anecdote plainer, be it said that, at sea, the
monotonous round of salt beef and pork at the messes of the
sailors--where but very few of the varieties of the season are to
be found--induces them to adopt many contrivances in order to
diversify their meals. Hence the various sea-rolls, made dishes,
and Mediterranean pies, well known by men-of-war's-men--_Scouse,
Lob-scouse, Soft-Tack, Soft-Tommy, Skillagalee, Burgoo, Dough-
boys, Lob-Dominion, Dog's-Body_, and lastly, and least known,
_Dunderfunk_; all of which come under the general denomination of
_Manavalins_.

_Dunderfunk_ is made of hard biscuit, hashed and pounded, mixed
with beef fat, molasses, and water, and baked brown in a pan. And
to those who are beyond all reach of shore delicacies, this
_dunderfunk_, in the feeling language of the Down Easter, is
certainly "_a cruel nice dish_."

Now the only way that a sailor, after preparing his _dunderfunk_,
could get it cooked on board the Neversink, was by slily going to
_Old Coffee_, the ship's cook, and bribing him to put it into his
oven. And as some such dishes or other are well known to be all
the time in the oven, a set of unprincipled gourmands are
constantly on the look-out for the chance of stealing them.
Generally, two or three league together, and while one engages
_Old Coffee_ in some interesting conversation touching his wife
and family at home, another snatches the first thing he can lay
hands on in the oven, and rapidly passes it to the third man, who
at his earliest leisure disappears with it.

In this manner had the Down Easter lost his precious pie, and
afterward found the empty pan knocking about the forecastle.