The Adventures of Roderick Random

Onboard Sleeping Experience

The narrator’s hammock hangs parallel to his messmates on the outside of the berth. He watches his companions spring with great agility into their respective nests, where they seem to lie concealed and very much at their ease. However, the narrator can scarcely prevail upon himself to trust his carcase at such a distance from the ground in a narrow bag, imagining he would be apt on the least motion during sleep to tumble down at the hazard of breaking his bones. Despite his apprehensions, he eventually allows himself to be persuaded to attempt entry.

Woken by Dreadful Night Noise

After some fruitless efforts, the narrator finally succeeds in entering his hammock. However, the apprehension of the jeopardy in which he believes himself keeps sleep at bay until toward the morning watch. Eventually, despite his fears, slumber overpowers him—though he does not long enjoy this comfortable situation. He is aroused by a noise so loud and shrill that he believes the drums of his ears have burst, followed by a dreadful summons pronounced by a hoarse voice that he cannot understand.

Assisting Sick in Hammocks

The narrator observes the difficulty of attendants reaching those who hang on the inside toward the sides of the ship, as they seem barricaded by those who lie on the outside and entirely out of the reach of all visitation. He watches his friend Thompson administer clysters to patients by thrusting his wig in his pocket, stripping himself to his waistcoat, then creeping on all fours under the hammocks of the sick, and forcing his bare pate between two hammocks to keep them asunder with one shoulder until he completes his duty. Eager to learn the service, the narrator requests permission to perform the next operation of this kind.

Perfume Box Mishap

Following Thompson’s example, the narrator undresses and crawls along beneath the hammocks. When the ship rolls, this motion alarms him, and he lays hold of the first thing within his grasp with such violence that he overturns it. By the smell that issues upon him, he soon discovers he has unlocked a box of the most delicious perfume. His nose being none of the most delicate proves fortunate, as he might otherwise have been severely affected by this vapor, which diffuses itself all over the ship to the utter discomposure of everybody who tarried on the same deck.

Nose Tweaked by Sick Man

The narrator pushes his head with great force between two hammocks toward the middle where the greatest resistance exists. He makes an opening but, not understanding the knack of dexterously turning his shoulder to maintain his advantage, finds himself stuck up as it were in a pillory. The weight of three or four people bears on each side of his neck, putting him in danger of strangulation. While in this defenceless posture, a sick man rendered peevish by his distemper is so enraged at the smell the narrator has occasioned and the rude shock received from his elevation that he seizes the narrator by the nose and tweaks it so unmercifully that the narrator roars with anguish.

Stuck Between Ship Hammocks

In his attempt to assist the sick, the narrator finds himself wedged between hammocks with the weight of multiple patients pressing against his neck. Thompson perceives his predicament and orders one of the waiters to his assistance. With much difficulty, the waiter disengages him from this situation and hinders him from taking vengeance on the sick man, whose indisposition would not have screened him from the effects of the narrator’s indignation.

Steward’s Smell Accusation Defense

After the ministry for the sick concludes, the narrator and Thompson descend to the cockpit. Thompson comforts him with a homely proverb. When they have descended halfway down the ladder, Mr. Morgan, before seeing them, has intelligence by his nose of the approach of something extraordinary. He cries out about the enemy boarding them in a stinkpot and, addressing the steward from whom he imagines the odour proceeds, reprimands him severely for offenses against gentlemen of birth. The steward, conscious of his own innocence, declares he knows of no smells but those of Morgan’s own making.