"I have served on board vessels of every description.  I've been on board slavers, and merchant vessels, and men-of-war of several nations. I've served with Lord Cochrane both in the Pacific and Atlantic; and for a long time I was in an opium clipper in the China Seas; but, as you know, lads, a rolling stone gathers no moss, and here I am, as poor as I was when I first began life.  However, there are plenty of ways by which a man may make his fortune if he chooses, and I must find one of them some of these days."