It was nobody's business to wait on him, and he could procure neither sufficient food, nor any water; they only brought him some grog to drink, which in his weakness and sickness was nauseous to him as medicine.
"I say, you young cub down there," shouted the skipper to him from the hatchway, "come up and swab this deck." He got up, and after bruising himself severely, as he stumbled about to find the ladder, made an effort to obey the command.

But he staggered from feebleness when he reached the deck, and had to grasp for some fresh support at every step.
"None of that 'ere slobbering and shamming, Bill.

Why, d---- you, what d'ye think you're here for, eh?
You swab the deck, and in five minutes, or I'll teach you, and be d----d." Sick as death, Eric slowly obeyed, but did not get through his task without many blows and curses.

He felt very ill--he had no means of washing or cleaning himself; no brush, or comb, or soap, or clean linen; and even his sleep seemed unrefreshful when the waking brought no change in his condition.

And then the whole life of the ship was odious to him.
His sense of refinement was exquisitely keen, and now to be called Bill, and kicked and cuffed about by these gross-minded men, and to hear their rough, coarse, drunken talk, and sometimes endure their still, more intolerable familiarities, filled him with deeply-seated loathing.
His whole soul rebelled and revolted from them all, and, seeing his fastidious pride, not one of them showed him the least glimpse of open kindness, though he observed that one of them did seem to pity him in heart.
Things grew worse and worse.