Good God, this life is heaven to what we have at sea! We don't mind the fightin'.

We'd rather fight than eat." An evil grin covered his face for a minute.

"Yes, we'd rather fight than eat, for the stuff we get to eat is hell's broil, God knows! Did you ever think what the life of the sailor is, that swings at the top of a mast with the frost freezin' his very soul, and because he's slow, owin' to the cold, gets twenty lashes for not bein' quicker?
Well, I've seen that, and a bad sight it is.

Did you ever see a man flogged?
It ain't a pretty sight.

First the back takes the click of the whip like a damned washboard, and you see the ridges rise and go purple and red, and the man has his breath knocked clean out of him with every blow.