Quotation from: The People of the Abyss

Written by: Jack London

A shirt was handed me--which I could not help but wonder how many other
men had worn; and with a couple of blankets under my arm I trudged off to
the sleeping apartment. This was a long, narrow room, traversed by two
low iron rails. Between these rails were stretched, not hammocks, but
pieces of canvas, six feet long and less than two feet wide. These were
the beds, and they were six inches apart and about eight inches above the
floor. The chief difficulty was that the head was somewhat higher than
the feet, which caused the body constantly to slip down. Being slung to
the same rails, when one man moved, no matter how slightly, the rest were
set rocking; and whenever I dozed somebody was sure to struggle back to
the position from which he had slipped, and arouse me again.