It is for this reason that many South Sea whalemen do not come to anchor for eighteen or twenty months on a stretch.

When fresh provisions are needed, they run for the nearest land--heave to eight or ten miles off, and send a boat ashore to trade.

The crews manning vessels like these are for the most part villains of all nations and dyes; picked up in the lawless ports of the Spanish Main, and among the savages of the islands.

Like galley-slaves, they are only to be governed by scourges and chains.
Their officers go among them with dirk and pistol--concealed, but ready at a grasp.
Not a few of our own crew were men of this stamp; but, riotous at times as they were, the bluff drunken energies of Jennin were just the thing to hold them in some sort of noisy subjection.

Upon an emergency, he flew in among them, showering his kicks and cuffs right and left, and "creating a sensation" in every direction.