The wooden world dissected : in the character of a ship of war, as also, the characters of all the officers, from the captain to the common sailor / by the author of The London-spy.

  • Ward, Edward, 1667-1731
Date:
1779
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The wooden world dissected : in the character of a ship of war, as also, the characters of all the officers, from the captain to the common sailor / by the author of The London-spy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    would deem himfelf an unpardonable blockhead, if he kept not out of the way of {mall fhot. Of all officers in the fhip he rails the meft a- gainft captains, tho’ he is the firft of any that hopes” to be one. He'll tell youa thoufand wicked {tories of them in his cups, and fwear they are more fa- talto the fhip than ftinking beef, and {carce one worth Keel-hawling. But when he’s fober again, he ferioufly curfes the freedom of his tongue, and is ready to eat his words when you’ll have him. He relies on the captain’s good word, as the cut-water to his pre- ferments, and begs a certificate, when he removes from the fhip, with as {neaking a look almoft as 2 cripple does from a country-juttice. He makes, at every turn, a heavy coyle about the difcipline of the navy, and yet puts it as little woman knows, that the end of war-fhips is fight- ing ; but this fpluttering manager feems to believe them built and maintained purely for failing and wearing out canvas. Hence, if he have but hands enough to furl, rief, and make finnate, he concludes this wooden’ fortrefs better manned than the Trojan horfe; for fhe is fitted for all weathers. So the only thing he dreams not on,.is the dif- eipline of fighting, till chance fometimes throws him in the way of it, and then he is ftruck as mute as a young whore taken in the faét, and knows not which way to turn him; for ’tis too late then to offer at inftructing the fhip’s crew, whom he has kept as ignorant of gunnery as a hackney coach-man. He reckons himfelf (tho’ perhaps but the fon of a coftard-monger) fifty. degrees above a com~ - mander