We were weak, famished, and exhausted from our night's hardship and lack of sleep, and yet there we stood, and stood, and stood, without rhyme or reason.
Sailors were very plentiful in this crowd.

It seemed to me that one man in four was looking for a ship, and I found at least a dozen of them to be American sailors.

In accounting for their being "on the beach," I received the same story from each and all, and from my knowledge of sea affairs this story rang true.

English ships sign their sailors for the voyage, which means the round trip, sometimes lasting as long as three years; and they cannot sign off and receive their discharges until they reach the home port, which is England.

Their wages are low, their food is bad, and their treatment worse.