Quotation from: Elsinore

Written by: Jack London

"Condition?" he queried with a fine assumption of innocence. "Why,
that is why I did ship. I was in tiptop shape when I sailed. All
this come out on me afterward. You remember seem' me aloft, an' up
to my neck in water. And I trimmed coal below, too. A sick man
couldn't do it. And remember, sir, you'll have to testify to how I
did my duty at the beginning before I took down."