And it is because he is used to it, that sometimes he does not complain of it.
Of all men-of-war, the American ships are the most excessively neat, and have the greatest reputation for it.

And of all men-of-war the general discipline of the American ships is the most arbitrary.
In the English navy, the men liberally mess on tables, which, between meals, are triced up out of the way.

The American sailors mess on deck, and pick up their broken biscuit, or _midshipman's nuts_, like fowls in a barn-yard.
But if this unobstructedness in an American fighting-ship be, at all hazards, so desirable, why not imitate the Turks?
In the Turkish navy they have no mess-chests; the sailors roll their mess things up in a rug, and thrust them under a gun.

Nor do they have any hammocks; they sleep anywhere about the decks in their _gregoes_.

Indeed, come to look at it, what more does a man-of-war's-man absolutely require to live in than his own skin?
That's room enough; and room enough to turn in, if he but knew how to shift his spine, end for end, like a ramrod, without disturbing his next neighbour.
Among all men-of-war's-men, it is a maxim that over-neat vessels are Tartars to the crew: and perhaps it may be safely laid down that, when you see such a ship, some sort of tyranny is not very far off.
In the Neversink, as in other national ships, the business of _holy-stoning_ the decks was often prolonged, by way of punishment to the men, particularly of a raw, cold morning.