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The ship’s band renders music three times daily in port, and visiting parties are conducted through the ship. A large number of bum-boats, with their venders of fruit and curios, always surround the ship; these people are an interesting class and present a picturesque scene, with their quaint costumes, noisy chatter, and cargo of varieties.

As in all other ports, the men entitled to “liberty” (a word used to designate shore leave) make their preparation early, then await the noon hour, when the boatswain’s mate pipes his whistle, and cries out: “Lay aft all the liberty party.” All going ashore fall in, in double rank on the quarter-deck, where they answer their names and pass down the gangway and into boats, in which they are conveyed ashore, where the boys cut loose from discipline and nothing is too good for “Jack.”

On our first day in the harbor of Algiers I was on duty, and among other announcements I had to make to the admiral was the announcement of one Mr. O’Mally, a pedestrian from San Francisco, California, who desired an interview with the admiral of the flag-ship New York.