It spread through all Fairport, and there was hardly a man who could bear arms on sea or land who was not off at his country's bidding.
Old Jock, who had had one leg bitten off by a shark, men who had been crippled by a fall from mainmast or yard, and sickly sailors, worn out by the fevers of southern ports, were left at home to keep company with the few true landsmen, the shopmen of the town.
Old Jock had been content to serve as pilot since the departure of Joe, and well he knew the channel; but he seemed to have grown lazy, or particularly careful of himself, since Hal had come under his roof.

Now he positively refused to go to the vessel in the offing.

He plainly expressed his doubts as to what kind of a craft she was, and moreover declared that such a squall as was coming up was "not to be risked by any man in his senses, even if that old ship went to the bottom with every soul in her." Blair listened intently to this conversation.

Too many times had he been to and fro with his father in his pilot's duty not to know well the dangerous channel.

Every crook and turn in it was as familiar to him as the windings of the little path in his mother's flower-garden.