Moreover, Coke's villainy would have sacrificed no lives.

The _Andromeda_ might be converted into scrap iron, and thereby give back, by perverted arithmetic, the money invested in her.

But her white decks would not be stained with blood.
Whatever risk was incurred would be his, the responsible captain's, his only.

It was a vastly different thing that shot and shell should be rained on an unarmed ship by the troops of a civilized power when she was seeking the lowest form of hospitality.

No wonder if the bull-necked skipper foamed at the mouth and used words forbidden by the catechism; no wonder if he tried to express his helpless fury in one last act of defiance.
He rummaged the lockers for a Union Jack and the four flags that showed the ship's name in signal letters.