"
"Yes."
"Then, on a cruise," pursued Dave, "how can you divide watches
and thus keep going night and day?"
"Why, originally," Jack replied, "we put on long cruises with
only three aboard---the three who are at present officers. With
a boat like the 'Dodger,' which carries so few men, the commanding
officer cannot stand on his dignity and refuse to stand watch.
I frequently take my trick at the wheel. That gives Mr. Somers
his chance to go below and sleep."
"Yet Mr. Hastings is your only engineer officer."
"True, but two of our enlisted men are trained as engine-tenders.
Our engines are rather simple, in the main, and an enlisted
engine-tender can run our engine room for hours at a stretch under
ordinary conditions. Of course, if anything out of the usual should
happen while Mr. Hastings were taking his trick in his berth, he
would have to be wakened. But we can often make as long a trip as
from New York to Havana without needing to call Mr. Hastings once
from his berth during his hours of rest."
"Then you have two enlisted men aboard who thoroughly understand
your engines?" pressed Dave Darrin.
"Ordinarily," replied Hal Hastings, here breaking in. "But one
of our engine-tenders reached the end of his enlisted period to-day,
and, as he wouldn't re-enlist, we had to let him go. So the new
enlisted man whom we took aboard is just starting in to learn
his duties."
"Small loss in Morton," laughed Lieutenant Jack Benson.
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