The actual routine, as he drew it up, is printed by the ship's Royal Marine printers - and not only is there a copy hung up on every mess-deck and living space, but the key copy is framed over the Quartermaster's Desk at "the break" of the quarterdeck.

From that point the ship's routine is "run" in harbour: the Quartermaster of the watch on deck makes it run, and the Officer of the Watch is responsible that it does run, and to the minute.

There is a special routine for the daily work in harbour, and a special routine for Sundays in harbour; there is a sea routine as well.The Chief Boatswain's Mate checks over with the Captains of Tops that all are present - and along the deck comes the Commander himself, his feet thrust into short sea-boots, and with a muffler round his neck - up at the same time as his men and waiting to detail them to the various jobs that will keep his ship fighting fit and clean.The Boats' Officer has one or two early jobs to be done in his boats, and the Commander allocates "one hand from each part" to him; the Chief Gunner also has a few outstanding jobs, and the Commander says Carry on the Gunner's Party.Down in the Marine "Barracks" there is much final polishing of buttons and brass instruments, much settling of tunics and squaring of belts and side-arms and the ship's Marine Guard and Marine Band comes trooping up on to the midship deck where a Royal Marine Officer is already waiting for them.The Guard falls in and is inspected minutely by the Marine Officer: the Band falls in abaft the Guard.The cutters are wanted to bring off those Libertymen who have been ashore all night on leave.Sorting Out for the Great Clean-up The next item of routine is to get the ship clean, and throughout the ship the bugles ring out Watches for exercise fall in, One by one and in groups of twos and threes "the hands" appear from every forward hatchway.At length all the minor demands upon the available hands have been made and met - then clean ship with the remainder and the Commander orders "Part of the ship the rest! Forecastlemen collect their treasured "FX "-marked brooms and buckets, Foretopmen theirs, and Quarterdeckmen theirs.The canvas hoses, often leaking at the joints, and known more affectionately as "water-snakes," are coupled up to the fire-hydrants along the deck.He must make the most economical use of the hands available during working hours, dealing in "bodies" rather than in the "paper-strength" of his complement, for there are always men away on leave and attending "courses" somewhere or other.He must allow for a number of men being detached from ship routine for the various training duties required by the gunnery and torpedo officers.That's the secret of a warship's white decks - sand and scrubbers, salt-water and elbow-grease.While one party cleans the deck, others, with hand-scrubbers groom the gangways and platforms.Someone passes the word to the engine-room to "start the fire-main": streams of water are soon cascading everywhere.Squads of sailors in seaboots with hard scrubbers scrub steadily and evenly across* (*Scrubbing across the grain makes more noise than scrubbing with the grain and therefore conveys the impression (entirely false) of great effort!