The merchant asked what had been my last voyage.
I answered, after a moment, to England.
"You do not seem to me," he said, "a seaman.

But I suppose there are all kinds of seamen." I said yes, the sea was wide.
"England now, at the present moment ?" he said, and questioned me as to Bristol, of which port he had trader's knowledge.

I answered out of a book I had read.

It was true that, living once by the sea, I knew how to handle a boat.

I could find in memory sailors' terms.