"One time when I was about fifty miles to the sou'-west o' Cape Horn, I--" "Dinner's ready, sir," said a thin, tall, active man, stepping smartly up to Singleton, and touching his cap.
"We must talk over that some other time, Buzzby.

The captain loves punctuality." So saying, the young surgeon sprang down the companion ladder, leaving the old salt to smoke his pipe in solitude.
And here we may pause a few seconds to describe our ship and her crew.
The _Dolphin_ was a tight, new, barque-rigged vessel of about three hundred tons burden, built expressly for the northern whale-fishery, and carried a crew of forty-five men.

Ships that have to battle with the ice require to be much more powerfully built than those that sail in unencumbered seas.

The _Dolphin_ united strength with capacity and buoyancy.

The under part of her hull and sides were strengthened with double timbers, and fortified externally with plates of iron, while, internally, stanchions and crossbeams were so arranged as to cause pressure on any part to be supported by the whole structure; and on her bows, where shocks from the ice might be expected to be most frequent and severe, extra planking, of immense strength and thickness, was secured.