He had another taste of their quality at Las Palmas, where they made trouble with the port guards and Brown brawled in the cheap wine shops behind the cathedral.

In fact, it was some relief when the captain fell off the steam tram that runs between town and port, and a cut on his head stopped his adventures.
Then they steamed for fourteen-hundred miles before the Northeast Trades, with a misty blue sky overhead and long, white-topped seas rolling up astern.

The Trade breeze was cool and bracing, but they lost it near the coast, and now the air was hot and strangely heavy.

One felt languid and cheerfulness cost an effort.

The men had begun to grumble and Lister was glad the voyage was nearly over and it was time to get to work.
Lightning flickered on the sea, touching the back of the smooth swell, and then for a few moments left all very dark.