each mess cook. The coffee is minus milk, but it is hot and palatable,
and really acts as a tonic.

The first order of the day is to scrub down decks and clean ship
generally, but, as the "Yankee" was still in the throes of preparation,
we were spared that disagreeable work and permitted to arrange our
belongings for the long voyage before us. In the service each man is
allowed a black bag about three feet six inches high, and twelve inches
in diameter, and a small wooden box, eighteen inches square, known as a
"ditty box," to keep his wardrobe in. All clothing is rolled, and
careful sailors generally wrap each garment in a piece of muslin before
consigning it to the black bag. In the ditty box are kept such articles
as toothbrush, brush and comb, small hand glass, writing material, and
odds and ends. Each bag and box is numbered, and must be kept in a
certain place. At first we thought it wouldn't be possible to keep our
clothing in such a small space, but experience taught us that we would
have ample room.

The following days until the eighth of May were days of manual labor,
which hardened our muscles and placed a fine edge on our appetites. To
see the men who had been accustomed to a life of luxury toiling away
with rope and scrubbing brush and paint pot, working like day laborers,
and happy at that, was really a remarkable spectacle. For my part, I
noticed with surprise that scratched and bruised hands--scratched so
that the salt water caused positive pain--did not appeal to me. I tore
off a corner of my right thumb trying to squeeze a large box through the
forward hatch, and the only treatment I gave it was a fragment of rather
soiled rag and a little vaseline borrowed from a mate. To quit work and
apply for the first aid to injured never struck me. Ashore I would
probably have called a doctor.