So he had to take the other boat, and go to the other ship.

The storm increased and drove the vessels out of sight of each other--drove them whither it would.
When it calmed, at the end of three days, the blonde's ship was seven hundred miles north of Boston and the other about seven hundred south of that port.

The blonde's captain was bound on a whaling cruise in the North Atlantic and could not go back such a distance or make a port without orders; such being nautical law.

The lawyer's captain was to cruise in the North Pacific, and he could not go back or make a port without orders.

All the lawyer's money and baggage were in the blonde's boat and went to the blonde's ship--so his captain made him work his passage as a common sailor.