On our return to the "New Hampshire," the battalion was placed under the
regular ship's routine. All the men were divided into two watches,
starboard and port. The port watch, for instance, goes on duty at eight
bells in the morning, stands four hours, and is then relieved by the
starboard watch; this routine continues day and night, except from four
until eight in the afternoon, when occur the dog watches, two of them,
two hours long each, stood by the port and starboard men respectively.
The dog watches are necessary to secure a change in the hours of duty
for each watch.

From now on we were given a taste of the actual work of the service.
Details were made up each morning and sent to the "Yankee" to assist in
getting her in readiness for service. One of the first duties was to
carry on board and stow away in the hold one hundred kegs of mess pork.
As each keg contained one hundred pounds, the task was not easy for men
unaccustomed to manual labor. Still there was no complaint. In fact, the
only growling heard so far had come from some of the men who had seen
service in the regular navy. Burke, the fireman, declaimed loudly
against the "shoe leather an' de terrer-cotter hard-tack which they do
be tryin' to feed to honest workers. As for the slops they call coffee,
Oi wouldn't give it to an Orangeman's pig!"

The food served out on board the "New Hampshire"--being the usual
Government ration of salt-horse, coffee, and hard-tack--was vastly
different from that to which the majority of the boys were accustomed,
but it was accepted with the good grace displayed by the members of the
Reserve on every occasion. All these little discomforts are, as the
Navigator (a commissioned officer of the regular navy) remarked, "merely
incidental to the service."