For his part, Captain Waterman asserted that a more desperate crew of ruffians had never sailed out of New York and that only two of them were Americans.
They were mutinous from the start, half of them blacklegs of the vilest type who swore to get the upper hand of him.

His mates, boatswain, and carpenter had broken open their chests and boxes and had removed a collection of slung-shots, knuckle-dusters, bowie-knives, and pistols.
Off Rio Janeiro they had tried to kill the chief mate, and Captain Waterman had been compelled to jump in and stretch two of them dead with an iron belaying-pin.

Off Cape Horn three sailors fell from aloft and were lost.

This accounted for the casualties.
The truth of such episodes as these was difficult to fathom.

Captain Waterman demanded a legal investigation, but nothing came of his request and he was commended by his owners for his skill and courage in bringing the ship to port without losing a spar or a sail.