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that occur but once in the dreary threescore years and ten , and fade away before we have time to enjoy them , and we only become conscious of their existence from the certainty that they are gone for ever . * * * * * Several years ago , and , if I am not much mistaken , just after the peace of 1815 , an officer , in full Austrian uniform , came on board one of our frigates then lying in the harbor of Genoa . From the richness of his regimentals , and a cross and ribbon in his button-hole , it was evident that the stranger was of high ancestral and military rank . It so happened that he came on board just at `` grog time , '' -LRB- four o'clock -RRB- in the afternoon ; and during the interesting moment that sailors are discussing their whiskey -- the whole Holy Alliance , with aids and prime ministers and protocols , might come on board , and balance Europe , or upset the scales , just as unto them seemed good , expedient , or politic , without attracting any attention from these short-jacketed philosophers ; unless indeed some straggler from the upper deck might come below , and casually inform his messmates , that `` there was a whole raft of soger officers on the quarter-deck ; '' for be it known to all concerned , that the word number is seldom or never used by nautical philologists to designate things numerable , it is always `` a _ raft _ of women , '' `` a raft of marines , '' & c. I could easily go on to show that the word `` raft '' is a good phrase , and peculiarly applicable to women and marines ; but I must resist the temptation of convincing the public , that sailors are as deeply versed in the mysteries of their mother-tongue , as many of those who stay ashore all their life-times , and make dictionaries . The day after the arrival of this military stranger , it was ascertained by the crew , that there was a supernumerary on board by the name of Williams ; for it is as impossible for the commander and officers of a man-of-war to keep a secret in the cabin , as it is for twelve `` good men and true , '' locked up in a jury-room . The new-comer seemed to have free access to the cabin , and was treated with much respect by the officers , but it was soon observed , by the seamen , that he never went on shore . In the course of a few months , he was put on board a homeward-bound ship : and when the crew of the frigate returned to America , they saw him again in New York , abandoned to intemperance .