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.