He informed the captain about the reports he had heard.

The latter agreed that it was wrong to maltreat sailors; but Paul felt sure that he closed his eye to many strange doings on his ship and that when a man representing himself to be a sailor came aboard and proved incompetent, there was no punishment considered severe enough for him.

Three such unfortunates were aboard this ship, one in Paul's watch and two in the second mate's watch.

Paul soon discovered that the man was unskillful.

He could neither steer, reef nor splice so he set him to scrubbing, and by a few encouraging remarks got him to work harder than any one on the watch.