Chapter 44

A KNAVE IN OFFICE IN A MAN-OF-WAR.

The last smuggling story now about to be related also occurred
while we lay in Rio. It is the more particularly presented, since
it furnishes the most curious evidence of the almost incredible
corruption pervading nearly all ranks in some men-of-war.

For some days, the number of intoxicated sailors collared and
brought up to the mast by the master-at-arms, to be reported to
the deck-officers--previous to a flogging at the gangway--had, in
the last degree, excited the surprise and vexation of the Captain
and senior officers. So strict were the Captain's regulations
concerning the suppression of grog-smuggling, and so particular
had he been in charging the matter upon all the Lieutenants, and
every understrapper official in the frigate, that he was wholly
at a loss how so large a quantity of spirits could have been
spirited into the ship, in the face of all these checks, guards,
and precautions.

Still additional steps were adopted to detect the smugglers; and
Bland, the master-at-arms, together with his corporals, were publicly
harangued at the mast by the Captain in person, and charged to exert
their best powers in suppressing the traffic. Crowds were present at
the time, and saw the master-at-arms touch his cap in obsequious
homage, as he solemnly assured the Captain that he would still
continue to do his best; as, indeed, he said he had always done.
He concluded with a pious ejaculation expressive of his personal
abhorrence of smuggling and drunkenness, and his fixed resolution,
so help him Heaven, to spend his last wink in sitting up by night,
to spy out all deeds of darkness.

"I do not doubt you, master-at-arms," returned the Captain; "now go
to your duty." This master-at-arms was a favourite of the Captain's.

The next morning, before breakfast, when the market-boat came off
(that is, one of the ship's boats regularly deputed to bring off
the daily fresh provisions for the officers)--when this boat came
off, the master-at-arms, as usual, after carefully examining both
her and her crew, reported them to the deck-officer to be free
from suspicion. The provisions were then hoisted out, and among
them came a good-sized wooden box, addressed to "Mr.------ Purser
of the United States ship Neversink." Of course, any private
matter of this sort, destined for a gentleman of the ward-room,
was sacred from examination, and the master-at-arms commanded one
of his corporals to carry it down into the Purser's state-room.
But recent occurrences had sharpened the vigilance of the deck-
officer to an unwonted degree, and seeing the box going down the
hatchway, he demanded what that was, and whom it was for.