"it was not more than a day or two at the furthest after pointing her prow for her island haven, that the town-ho’s leak seemed again increasing, but only so as to require an hour or more at the pumps every day. you must know that in a settled and civilized ocean like our atlantic, for example, some skippers think little of pumping their whole way across it; though of a still, sleepy night, should the officer of the deck happen to forget his duty in that respect, the probability would be that he and his shipmates would never again remember it, on account of all hands gently subsiding to the bottom.