It taught them how to face danger and endure hardships.

It developed their manliness, and made them more self-reliant.

It gave them a knowledge of the world they could not get elsewhere, and laid a good foundation for a fixed and lasting character.

Indeed, some of our richest and most enterprising merchants have dated their prosperity from one of these voyages.
The short, bluff-looking man pacing the quarter-deck was Captain Price Bottom; and a more honest-hearted old salt never sailed the sea.

His great skill in killing whales had made him famous among whalemen throughout the Pacific.