Chapter 43 - Page 2

plying to and from the shore--are similarly
inspected, sometimes each boat twenty times in the day.

This inspection is thus performed: The boat being descried by the
quarter-master from the poop, she is reported to the deck
officer, who thereupon summons the master-at-arms, the ship's
chief of police. This functionary now stations himself at the
gangway, and as the boat's crew, one by one, come up the side, he
personally overhauls them, making them take off their hats, and
then, placing both hands upon their heads, draws his palms slowly
down to their feet, carefully feeling all unusual protuberances.
If nothing suspicious is felt, the man is let pass; and so on,
till the whole boat's crew, averaging about sixteen men, are
examined. The chief of police then descends into the boat, and
walks from stem to stern, eyeing it all over, and poking his long
rattan into every nook and cranny. This operation concluded, and
nothing found, he mounts the ladder, touches his hat to the deck-
officer, and reports the boat _clean_; whereupon she is hauled
out to the booms.

Thus it will be seen that not a man of the ship's company ever
enters the vessel from shore without it being rendered next to
impossible, apparently, that he should have succeeded in smuggling
anything. Those individuals who are permitted to board the ship
without undergoing this ordeal, are only persons whom it would be
preposterous to search--such as the Commodore himself, the Captain,
Lieutenants, etc., and gentlemen and ladies coming as visitors.

For anything to be clandestinely thrust through the lower port-
holes at night, is rendered very difficult, from the watchfulness
of the quarter-master in hailing all boats that approach, long
before they draw alongside, and the vigilance of the sentries,
posted on platforms overhanging the water, whose orders are to
fire into a strange boat which, after being warned to withdraw,
should still persist in drawing nigh. Moreover, thirty-two-pound
shots are slung to ropes, and suspended over the bows, to drop a
hole into and sink any small craft, which, spite of all precautions,
by strategy should succeed in getting under the bows with liquor by
night. Indeed, the whole power of martial law is enlisted in this
matter; and every one of the numerous officers of the ship, besides
his general zeal in enforcing the regulations, acids to that a
personal feeling, since the sobriety of the men abridges his own
cares and anxieties.

How then, it will be asked, in the face of an argus-eyed police,
and in defiance even of bayonets and bullets, do men-of-war's-men
contrive to smuggle their spirits? Not to enlarge upon minor
stratagems--every few days detected, and rendered naught (such as