He drank, gambled, and orated; but his indulgences were little compared with the debauches of able-bodied seamen when, after months of sea-life, they reached port again.

A ship in port at such a time was not a scene of evangelical habits.

Women of loose class, flower-girls, fruit-sellers, and costermongers turned the forecastle into a pleasure-house where the pleasures were not always secret; where native modesty suffered no affright, and physical good cheer, with ribald paraphrase, was notable everywhere.
"How did it happen, Michael ?" As he spoke, Dyck looked round the forecastle of the Ariadne with a restless and inquisitive expression.

Michael was seated a few feet away, his head bent forward, his hands clasped around his knees.
"Well, it don't matter one way or 'nother," he replied; "but it was like this.

The night you got a letter from Virginia we was penniless; so at last I went with my watch to the pawnbroker's.