Some were from the same land as the captain, others had been sailing a long time under his orders.
As shipowner, Ulysses now underwent numberless experiences whose existence he had never before suspected.

He went through the anguishing transformation of the actor who becomes a theatrical manager, of the author who branches out into publishing, of the engineer with a hobby for odd inventions who becomes the proprietor of a factory.

His romantic love for the sea and its adventures was now overshadowed by the price and consumption of coal, by the maddening competition that lowered freight rates, and by the search for new ports with fast and remunerative freight.
The _Fingal_ which had been rebaptized by its new proprietor with the name of _Mare Nostrum_, in memory of his uncle, turned out to be a dubious purchase in spite of its low price.

As a navigator Ulysses had been most enthusiastic upon beholding its high and sharp prow disposed to confront the worst seas, the slenderness of the swift craft, its machinery, excessively powerful for a freight steamer,--all the conditions that had made it a mail packet for so many years.

It consumed too much fuel to be a profitable investment as a transport of merchandise.