The Seafaring Class of the Old Age

The sailor of that day would go near to be arraigned as a pirate. The buccaneer on the wave might relinquish his calling and become, at once, if he chose, a man of probity and piety on land. A license was allowed the seafaring class not merely for their freaks on shore, but for far more desperate deeds on their proper element. It excited neither surprise nor animadversion when so reputable a citizen as old roger chillingworth, the physician, was seen to enter the market place in close talk with the commander of the questionable vessel.