Nor in the solitary and savage
seas far from you to the westward, gentlemen, is it altogether unusual
for ships to keep clanging at their pump-handles in full chorus even
for a voyage of considerable length! that is, if it lie along a tolerably
accessible coast, or if any other reasonable retreat is afforded them.
It is only when a leaky vessel is in some very out of the way part
of those waters, some really landless latitude, that her captain begins
to feel a little anxious.
"Much this way had it been with the Town-Ho; so when her leak
was found gaining once more, there was in truth some small concern
manifested by several of her company; especially by Radney the mate.
He commanded the upper sails to be well hoisted, sheeted home anew,
and every way expanded to the breeze. Now this Radney, I suppose,
was as little of a coward, and as little inclined to any sort
of nervous apprehensiveness touching his own person as any fearless,
unthinking creature on land or on sea that you can conveniently
imagine, gentlemen. Therefore when he betrayed this imagine,
solicitude about the safety of the ship, some of the seamen declared
that it was only on account of his being a part owner in her.
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