At sunset, when the ensign is hauled down, a smaller pendant, three or four yards in length, is substituted for the long one, which, in dandified ships, waves far over the stern.

Ships in ordinary hoist merely an ensign.
The boatswain, gunner, and carpenter, who are called the warrant-officers, always remain on board, even when the rest of the officers and crew are paid off, and the ship laid up in ordinary.
These valuable personages, under the general superintendence of the captain of the ordinary, an old officer of rank, and assisted by a few lads to row them to and from the shore, keep the ships clean, and guard against fire and pillage, to which they might otherwise be exposed at their moorings in the different creeks.
The next step, after the ship is commissioned, is to open a muster-book.

The requisite blank books and other papers are supplied to the captain by the superintendent of the dockyard, in order that the names of the officers and men may be entered as they assemble.

The admiral being then informed that the ship is in commission, he orders the commandant of marines to embark the proper complement of men from the barracks.
The master-attendant, in the mean time, is applied to for a receiving-ship or hulk, alongside of which the ship may be placed, and in which the crew may live while she is fitting out.

The same officer will likewise give the boatswain a "note" for one or more of what are called harbour boats--strong affairs, but good enough to perform the rough sort of work required in fitting out.