It was over the water it began.

For, see you, it was our custom to lick the dew from the oar-blades, the gunwales, the thwarts, and the inside planking.

And each man of us had developed property in the dew-collecting surfaces.

Thus, the tiller and the rudder-head and half of the plank of the starboard stern-sheet had become the property of the second officer.

No one of us lacked the honour to respect his property.