There were two men on each barge, who came aboard every morning to draw rations.

That was a funny business, for we never lay to if we could help it.

There was a dinghy belonging to each barge, and the men used to row to the next and get a lift in that barge's dinghy, and so forth.

Six men would appear in the dinghy of the barge nearest us and carry off supplies for the rest.

The men were mostly Frisians, slow-spoken, sandy-haired lads, very like the breed you strike on the Essex coast.
It was the fact that Schenk was really a deep-water sailor, and so a novice to the job, that made me get on with him.