White Jacket: Chapter 48

Chapter 48

PURSER, PURSER'S STEWARD, AND POSTMASTER IN A MAN-OF-WAR.

As the Purser's steward so conspicuously figured at the unsuccessful
auction of my jacket, it reminds me of how important a personage that
official is on board of all men-of-war. He is the right-hand man and
confidential deputy and clerk of the Purser, who intrusts to him all
his accounts with the crew, while, in most cases, he himself, snug and
comfortable in his state-room, glances over a file of newspapers
instead of overhauling his ledgers.

Of all the non-combatants of a man-of-war, the Purser, perhaps, stands
foremost in importance. Though he is but a member of the gun-room mess,
yet usage seems to assign him a conventional station somewhat above
that of his equals in navy rank--the Chaplain, Surgeon, and Professor.
Moreover, he is frequently to be seen in close conversation with the
Commodore, who, in the Neversink, was more than once known to be
slightly jocular with our Purser. Upon several occasions, also, he was
called into the Commodore's cabin, and remained closeted there for
several minutes together. Nor do I remember that there ever happened a
cabinet meeting of the ward-room barons, the Lieutenants, in the
Commodore's cabin, but the Purser made one of the party. Doubtless
the important fact of the Purser having under his charge all the
financial affairs of a man-of-war, imparts to him the great importance
he enjoys. Indeed, we find in every government--monarchies and
republics alike--that the personage at the head of the finances
invariably occupies a commanding position. Thus, in point of station,
the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States is deemed superior
to the other heads of departments. Also, in England, the real office
held by the great Premier himself is--as every one knows--that of
First Lord of the Treasury.

Now, under this high functionary of state, the official known as
the Purser's Steward was head clerk of the frigate's fiscal
affairs. Upon the berth-deck he had a regular counting-room, full
of ledgers, journals, and day-books. His desk was as much
littered with papers as any Pearl Street merchant's, and much
time was devoted to his accounts. For hours together you would
see him, through the window of his subterranean office, writing
by the light of his perpetual lamp.

_Ex-officio_, the Purser's Steward of most ships is a sort of
postmaster, and his office the post-office. When the letter-bags
for the squadron--almost as large as those of the United States
mail--arrived on board the Neversink, it was the Purser's Steward
that sat at his little window on the berth-deck and handed you
your letter or paper--if any there were to your address. Some
disappointed applicants among the sailors would offer to buy the
epistles of their more fortunate shipmates, while yet the seal
was unbroken--maintaining that the sole and confidential reading
of a fond, long, domestic letter from any man's home, was far
better than no letter at all.

In the vicinity of the office of the Purser's Steward are the
principal store-rooms of the Purser, where large quantities of
goods of every description are to be found. On board of those ships
where goods are permitted to be served out to the crew for the
purpose of selling them ashore, to raise money, more business is
transacted at the office of a Purser's Steward in one _Liberty-day_
morning than all the dry goods shops in a considerable village
would transact in a week.

Once a month, with undeviating regularity, this official has his
hands more than usually full. For, once a month, certain printed
bills, called Mess-bills, are circulated among the crew, and
whatever you may want from the Purser--be it tobacco, soap, duck,
dungaree, needles, thread, knives, belts, calico, ribbon, pipes,
paper, pens, hats, ink, shoes, socks, or whatever it may be--down
it goes on the mess-bill, which, being the next day returned to
the office of the Steward, the "slops," as they are called, are
served out to the men and charged to their accounts.

Lucky is it for man-of-war's-men that the outrageous impositions
to which, but a very few years ago, they were subjected from the
abuses in this department of the service, and the unscrupulous
cupidity of many of the pursers--lucky is it for them that _now_
these things are in a great degree done away. The Pursers, instead
of being at liberty to make almost what they pleased from the sale
of their wares, are now paid by regular stipends laid down by law.

Under the exploded system, the profits of some of these officers
were almost incredible. In one cruise up the Mediterranean, the
Purser of an American line-of-battle ship was, on good authority,
said to have cleared the sum of $50,000. Upon that he quitted the
service, and retired into the country. Shortly after, his three
daughters--not very lovely--married extremely well.

The ideas that sailors entertain of Pursers is expressed in a
rather inelegant but expressive saying of theirs: "The Purser is
a conjurer; he can make a dead man chew tobacco"--insinuating
that the accounts of a dead man are sometimes subjected to post-
mortem charges. Among sailors, also, Pursers commonly go by the
name of _nip-cheeses_.

No wonder that on board of the old frigate Java, upon her return
from a cruise extending over a period of more than four years, one
thousand dollars paid off eighty of her crew, though the aggregate
wages of the eighty for the voyage must have amounted to about sixty
thousand dollars. Even under the present system, the Purser of a
line-of-battle ship, for instance, is far better paid than any other
officer, short of Captain or Commodore. While the Lieutenant commonly
receives but eighteen hundred dollars, the Surgeon of the fleet but
fifteen hundred, the Chaplain twelve hundred, the Purser of a line-of-
battle ship receives thirty-five hundred dollars. In considering his
salary, however, his responsibilities are not to be over-looked; they
are by no means insignificant.

There are Pursers in the Navy whom the sailors exempt from the
insinuations above mentioned, nor, as a class, are they so
obnoxious to them now as formerly; for one, the florid old Purser
of the Neversink--never coming into disciplinary contact with the
seamen, and being withal a jovial and apparently good-hearted
gentleman--was something of a favourite with many of the crew.

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