An address to the officers of His Majesty's Navy / by an old naval surgeon.

Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An address to the officers of His Majesty's Navy / by an old naval surgeon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    the very same men, when the ship, after any con- tinuance in harbour, is again ordered out; their bloated countenances—the effect of drink and de- bauchery—their emaciated frames, and their de- terioration altogether, occasion the remark I have often heard Captains make, that a long continu- ance in port so disorganizes their ship, that it re- quires a considerable time, with all their ex- ertions, to bring her back to the order and disci- pline she was in when she arrived from sea. Every officer or man in the navy will admit, that it has long been a general custom, to receive on board our ships of war, a mass of the most aban- doned women, who are domesticated with our men and boys. When the men have permission to go on shore, they accompany them ; and when the men return to the ship, they also return with them; each woman being perseveringly watchful not to leave her man, so long as he has any thing to excite her cupidity. I mention this fact, to shew how next to impossible it is for the sailor to reflect upon the course he is pursuing, while he has not any respite whatever from the entan- glements of the locust which, with so much in-.
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