A Son of the Sea by John Arthur Barry — Read

THE office of the Line was in Cornhill, and as Mr Bovey and Torre entered the long room, many clerks looked up from their books and grinned comprehendingly whilst the pair were shown into an inner sanctum where sat one of the partners of the big ship-owning firm of Messrs Derrick, Deadeye, and Scupper.

The last-named, who received them, was a white-haired, rubicund, jolly old gentleman, who treated the whole affair as if it were one of the finest jokes imaginable—this going to sea.