hour? He has not come up on deck for nothing, and yet he appears to be
strangely puzzled: the fact is, by the arrangements of last night, it
was decided, that this morning, if Snarleyyow did not make his
appearance in the boat sent on shore for fresh beef for the ship's
company, the unfortunate Smallbones was to be _keel-hauled_.

What a delightful morning for a keel-hauling!

This ingenious process, which, however, like many other good old
customs, has fallen into disuse, must be explained to the non-nautical
reader. It is nothing more nor less than sending a poor navigator on a
voyage of discovery under the bottom of the vessel, lowering him[2] down
over the bows, and with ropes detaining him exactly in his position
under the kelson, while he is drawn aft by a hauling line until he makes
his appearance at the rudder-chains, generally speaking quite out of
breath, not at the rapidity of his motion, but because, when so long
under the water, he has expended all the breath in his body, and is
induced to take in salt water _en lieu._ There is much merit in this
invention; people are very apt to be content with walking the deck of a
man-of-war, and complain of it as a hardship, but when once they have
learnt, by experience, the difference between being comfortable above
board, and the number of deprivations which they have to submit to when
under board and overboard at the same time, they find that there are
worse situations than being on the deck of a vessel--we say privations
when under board, for they really are very important:--you are deprived
of the air to breathe, which is not borne with patience even by a
philosopher, and you are obliged to drink salt water instead of fresh.
In the days of keel-hauling, the bottoms of vessels were not coppered,
and in consequence were well studded with a species of shell-fish which
attached themselves, called barnacles, and as these shells were all