I suppose we carried a chronometer, though I
never saw it or heard the cry of "stop," which usually
accompanies a.m. or p.m. "sights" taken for longitude. He used
sometimes to make a deliberate sort of haste below after taking a
sight, when he may have been looking at a chronometer perhaps.
What I do know about his procedure is, that he always used a very
rough method of equal altitudes, which would make a mathematician
stare and gasp; that his nautical almanac was a ten-cent one
published by some speculative optician is New York; that he never
worked up a "dead reckoning;" and that the extreme limit of time
that he took to work out his observations was ten minutes. In
fact, all our operations in seamanship or navigation were run on
the same happy-go-lucky principle. If it was required to "tack"
ship, there was no formal parade and preparation for the
manoeuvre, not even as much as would be made in a Goole billy-
boy. Without any previous intimation, the helm would be put
down, and round she would come, the yards being trimmed by
whoever happened to be nearest to the braces. The old tub seemed
to like it that way, for she never missed stays or exhibited any
of that unwillingness to do what she was required that is such a
frequent characteristic of merchantmen.
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