Captain Peel, who commanded the party, was just the man to get the greatest possible amount of work from them.

Always in high spirits, taking his full share in all the work, and exposing himself recklessly in the heaviest fire, he was almost idolized by his men.
Jack Archer lived in a tent with five other midshipmen, and was attended upon by one of the fore-top men, who, not having been told off for the party, had begged permission to go in that capacity.
Tom Hammond was the most willing of servants, but his abilities were by no means equal to his good-will.

His ideas of cooking were of the vaguest kind.

The salt junk was either scarcely warm through, or was boiled into a soup.

The preserved potatoes were sometimes burned from his neglect of putting sufficient water, or he had forgotten to soak them beforehand, and they resembled bits of gravel rather than vegetables.