It was a word and a blow with the mates, and they would think no more of catching up a handspike and stretching a man senseless on the deck than I should of killing a fly.

There was two or three among 'em of a better sort than the others.

The best of 'em was the carpenter, an old Dutchman.

'Leetle boy,' he used to say to me, 'you keep yourself out of the sight of de skipper.

Bad man dat.