"Calm itself has also its inconveniences, as the evil smells which arise
from the galley are then so strong that one cannot get away from them in
spite of the tobacco with which one is obliged to plug one's nostrils
from morning till night."
The gallant officer here goes into further details concerning the vermin on
board which it will be as well to spare the reader.
Jean Marteille de Bergeraq, who died at Culenbourg in 1777, was condemned
to serve on board the galleys in 1707 "in his quality of Protestant"; he
must indeed have been a man of iron constitution as he lived to the age of
ninety-five. This is his description of the life of a _forcat_:
"They are chained six to a bench; the benches are four feet wide covered
with sacking stuffed with wool over which are thrown sheepskins which
reach to the floor. The officer who is master of the galley slaves
remains aft with the captain to receive his orders; there are two under
officers, one amidships and one at the prow; all of these are armed with
whips, with which they flog the absolutely naked bodies of the
slaves. When the captain gives the order to row, the officer gives the
signal with a silver whistle which hangs on a cord round his neck; the
signal is repeated by the under officers and very soon all the fifty
oars strike the water as one. Imagine six men chained to a bench as
naked as they were born, one foot on the stretcher the other raised and
placed on the bench in front of them, holding in their hands an oar of
enormous weight, stretching their bodies towards the after part of the
galley with arms extended to push the loom of the oar clear of the backs
of those in front of them who are in the same attitude.
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