I sailed as freighter and trader principally to China, Australia, and Japan, and among the Spice Islands.

Mine was not the sort of life to make one long to coil up one's ropes on land, the customs and ways of which I had finally almost forgotten.

And so when times for freighters got bad, as at last they did, and I tried to quit the sea, what was there for an old sailor to do?
I was born in the breezes, and I had studied the sea as perhaps few men have studied it, neglecting all else.

Next in attractiveness, after seafaring, came ship-building.

I longed to be master in both professions, and in a small way, in time, I accomplished my desire.