CHAPTER XII.
NAVAL RATINGS AND SEA PAY.
MUSTERING CLOTHES.
The dinner-hour on Sunday is noon, the same as on other days; but there is this distinction, which ought to mark the afternoon in every well-regulated ship, the people are never disturbed between twelve o'clock and four, unless some particular service occurs which cannot without impropriety be deferred.

It is customary during the rest of the week to turn the watch up at one o'clock, but on Sunday, if possible, the people should be left alone: to be idle if they choose it, or to read, or otherwise to employ themselves according to their own fancy.

This, after all, is but a trifling indulgence, which hardly ever puts the captain or officers to any inconvenience.

Even if it did, what would it matter?
The interests of the country will not be worse attended to in the long-run for an occasional relaxation of strict etiquettes and formal observances.

Even if the ship be making a passage, and that, in strictness, all sail ought to be carried, no eventual loss will ever attend such very trivial abatement of speed; for the men will probably be far more active in making and shortening sail at other times, when their minor comforts are thus regarded, than when treated as if they had no feelings to be considered.
The circumstance which most distinctly marks the afternoon of Sunday on board a man-of-war, even more than on land, is the absence of all the usual stir caused by the multifarious occupations of the artificers and crew.