You should make one more rally, Clinch, before you throw up in despair." "It is not so much for myself, Captain Cuffe, that I mind it, as for some that live ashore.

My father was as reputable a tradesman as there was in Plymouth, and when he got me on the quarter-deck he thought he was about to make a gentleman of me, instead of leaving me to pass a life in a situation that may be said to be even beneath what his own was." "Now you undervalue your station, Clinch.

The berth of a master's-mate in one of His Majesty's finest frigates is something to be proud of; I was once a master's-mate--nay, Nelson has doubtless filled the same station.

For that matter, one of His Majesty's own sons may have gone through the rank." "Aye, gone _through_ it, as you say, sir," returned Clinch, with a husky voice.

"It does well enough for them that go _through_ it, but it's death to them that _stick_.