He was shipped off with just enough money in his pocket--no, in the purser's pocket--for the needs of the voyage--and when he reached his destined port he would find a remittance awaiting him there.

Not a large one, but just enough to keep him a month.

A similar remittance would come monthly thereafter.
It was the remittance-man's custom to pay his month's board and lodging straightway--a duty which his landlord did not allow him to forget--then spree away the rest of his money in a single night, then brood and mope and grieve in idleness till the next remittance came.

It is a pathetic life.
We had other remittance-men on board, it was said.

At least they said they were R.M.'s.