They were men used to desperate enterprises, and they had flocked to him because they smelled excitement and booty.
Of ordinary merchant seamen there were only a few.

When the Duke of Albemarle had come aboard at Plymouth before they set sail, he had shrugged his shoulders at the motley crew.

To his hint Phips had only replied with a laugh: these harum-scarum scamps were more to his mind than ordinary seamen.

At heart he himself was half-barbarian.

It is possible he felt there might some time be a tug-of-war on board, but he did not borrow trouble.