Down the wharf he walked, joyfully, as one who greets an old friend.
The wharf was practically deserted.

An ancient watchman was dozing in a sort of sentry box, but he did not wake.

There was a pile of foreign-looking crates and boxes at the further end of the pier, evidently the last bit of cargo waiting to be carted away.

The captain inspected the pile, recognized the goods as Chinese and Japanese, then read the name on the big ship's stern.

She was the _Empress of the Ocean_, and her home port was Liverpool.
Captain Elisha, as a free-born Yankee skipper, had an inherited and cherished contempt for British "lime-juicers," but he could not help admiring this one.