An explanation of the "dog watches" may, perhaps, be of use to one
who has never been at sea. They are to shift the watches each
night, so that the same watch need not be on deck at the same hours.
In order to effect this, the watch from four to eight, P.M.,
is divided into two half, or dog watches, one from four to six,
and the other from six to eight. By this means they divide the
twenty-four hours into seven watches instead of six, and thus
shift the hours every night. As the dog watches come during twilight,
after the day's work is done, and before the night watch is set, they
are the watches in which everybody is on deck. The captain is up,
walking on the weather side of the quarter-deck, the chief mate is
on the lee side, and the second mate about the weather gangway.
The steward has finished his work in the cabin, and has come up to
smoke his pipe with the cook in the galley. The crew are sitting on
the windlass or lying on the forecastle, smoking, singing, or telling
long yarns. At eight o'clock, eight bells are struck, the log is hove,
the watch set, the wheel relieved, the galley shut up, and the other
watch goes below.

The morning commences with the watch on deck's "turning-to" at
day-break and washing down, scrubbing, and swabbing the decks.
This, together with filling the "scuttled butt" with fresh water,
and coiling up the rigging, usually occupies the time until seven
bells, (half after seven,) when all hands get breakfast. At eight,
the day's work begins, and lasts until sun-down, with the exception
of an hour for dinner.

Before I end my explanations, it may be well to define a day's work,
and to correct a mistake prevalent among landsmen about a sailor's