Dear of troy: what I meant was that it must have been hell having to go aloft in the dark, which would have made it hard to see where you hand holds were, and he had to beat his hands against the yard, or the furled sail, in order to stimulate cirulation enough so that his hands could function, while really sick with an abscessed tooth. And to top it off, they were short several men.
In about the middle of the book, he describes his first captain flogging a guy who was dim witted enough not to say what the captain wanted him to say, and a guy who tried to speak up for him got flogged for interfering. And for two years hard dangerous work, they got paid hardly enough to pay for the clothing they wore out. Dana sure was a better man than I ever was.