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CHAPTER XIV.
HAVING entered the ship, we were all indiscriminately stripped, (according to indispensable custom) and were saluted with several buckets of salt-water, thrown over our heads by a boatswain's mate. After undergoing this watery ordeal, we were compelled to put on a suit of slop-clothing. Our own apparel, though good in kind, being thrown overboard. We were then double-ironed, and put between-decks, where we selected such births, for sleeping, &c., as each thought most eligible. The next day, we received on board forty-six more prisoners, from the Hulks at Woolwich, and the Canada fifty. The Nile also took on board one hundred women, from the different gaols in Great Britain. The three ships then sailed for Spithead, where, on our arrival, the Minorca and Canada had their numbers augmented, from the
