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." As the time approached when we were to board the "Yankee" for good, the ordinary watches were abandoned, and only anchor watches kept.

An anchor watch is a detail of five or six men, selected from the different parts of the ship, who do duty, really, as watchmen, during the night.

Two days before the order arrived to leave the "New Hampshire," it was found necessary to station several men, armed with guns and fixed bayonets, on the dock near the ship, to stop men from taking the "hawser route" ashore.