C Watch

The crew was divided into three watches (A, B, and C) made up of 6-7 students, a scientist, and a mate. The "others" included the captain, two Mystic professors, the chief scientist, the stewards (cooks), and the engineer. A group was always on watch as part of a rotating schedule of 4-5 hour shifts. The ship never slept and there were no need for alarm clocks as the off going watch woke the oncoming watch 20mins before turnover. A typical day consisted of being woken up at 0240, starting watch at 0300, being relieved at 0700 for breakfast, scrubbing the "soles" with sponges as a watch to earn our shower day, nap, lunch, class on the quarterdeck, nap, dinner, watch from 1900-2300 then sleep until morning watch from 0700-1300. And so on...

"The part that's a bitch isn't missing sleep. It's putting yourself through waking up so many times." Tuning the Rig by Harvey Oxenhorn

During each watch you were assigned to either the galley, the deck, or lab. This meant that at any given moment, the galley was being cleaned, meals were being prepared, Science (with a capital "S") was underway, someone was on lookout, at the helm, doing a boat check, recording weather, sail handling, etc.

C Watch group picture