_That_ is his home; he would not care much, if another Flood came and overflowed the dry land; for what would it do but float his good ship higher and higher and carry his proud nation's flag round the globe, over the very capitals of all hostile states! Then would masts surmount spires; and all mankind, like the Chinese boatmen in Canton River, live in flotillas and fleets, and find their food in the sea.
Mad Jack was expressly created and labelled for a tar.

Five feet nine is his mark, in his socks; and not weighing over eleven stone before dinner.

Like so many ship's shrouds, his muscles and tendons are all set true, trim, and taut; he is braced up fore and aft, like a ship on the wind.

His broad chest is a bulkhead, that dams off the gale; and his nose is an aquiline, that divides it in two, like a keel.

His loud, lusty lungs are two belfries, full of all manner of chimes; but you only hear his deepest bray, in the height of some tempest--like the great bell of St.Paul's, which only sounds when the King or the Devil is dead.
Look at him there, where he stands on the poop--one foot on the rail, and one hand on a shroud--his head thrown back, and his trumpet like an elephant's trunk thrown up in the air.