Herman Melville

“ Sir, this Rio is a charming harbour, and we poor mariners--your trusty sea-warriors, valiant Captain! who, with you at their head, would board the Rock of Gibraltar itself, and carry it by storm--we poor fellows, valiant Captain! have gazed round upon this ravishing landscape till we can gaze no more. ”

“ And it is a weary thing, Captain Claret, to be imprisoned month after month on the gun-deck, without so much as smelling a citron. Ah! Captain Claret, what sings sweet Waller:
' But who can always on the billows lie? The watery wilderness yields no supply. ' compared with such a prisoner, noble Captain,
' Happy, thrice happy, who, in battle slain, Press'd in Atrides' cause the Trojan pain! ' Pope's version, sir, not the original Greek."
And so saying, Jack once more brought his hat-rim to his mouth, and slightly bending forward, stood mute. ”

“ We had not lain in Rio long, when in the innermost recesses of the mighty soul of my noble Captain of the Top--incomparable Jack Chase--the deliberate opinion was formed, and rock-founded, that our ship's company must have at least one day's "liberty" to go ashore ere we weighed anchor for home.
Here it must be mentioned that, concerning anything of this kind, no sailor in a man-of-war ever presumes to be an agitator, unless he is of a rank superior to a mere able-seaman ”