"About nine o'clock the company began to think of supper, when a boy was called into the room. Nothing in human shape did I ever see before so loathsome and nasty. He had on his body a fragment only of a check shirt, his bosom was all naked and greasy, over his shoulders hung a bundle of woolen rags which reached in strings almost down to his feet, and the whole composition was curiously adorned with little shining animals. The boy no sooner made his appearance than one of our society accosted him in this gentle language. 'Go you ---- rascal, and see whether lobscouse is ready.' Upon this the fellow began to mutter and scratch his head, but after two or three hearty curses, went for the galley and presently returned with an elegant dish which he placed on the table. It was a composition of beef and onions, bread and potatoes, minced and stewed together, then served up with its broth in a wooden tub, the half of a quarter cask. The table was furnished with two pewter plates, the half of one was melted away, and the other, full of holes, was more weather-beaten than the sides of the ship; one knife with a bone handle, one fork with a broken tine, half a metal spoon and another, taken at Quebec, with part of the bowl cut off. When supper was ended, the company continued their exercise of drinking, swearing and carousing, till half an hour after two, when some of these obliging gentlemen made a motion for my taking some repose. Accordingly, a row of greasy canvas bags, hanging overhead by the beams, were unlashed. Into one of them it was proposed that I should get, in order to sleep, but it was with the utmost difficulty I prevented myself from falling over on the other side....
"The next day, towards evening, several passengers came on board, viz: Mr. Barons, late Collector, Major Grant, Mr. Barons' footman, and Mrs. Cruthers, the purser's wife, a native of New England. After some considerable dispute, I had my lodgings fixed in Mr. Pearson's berth, where Master Robant, Mr. Baron's man, and I, agreed to lie together in one large hammock."[64]
[64] Rev. W. A. Bartlett, _The Frontier Missionary_, Boston, 1853.
Such were the accommodations of the petty officers' mess on board a twenty-gun ship of 1760 in the New England service.