They were a rough lot indeed, as sailors mostly are: being men rooted out of all the kindly parts of life, and condemned to toss together on the rough seas, with masters no less cruel.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet

Novel (1886), Kidnapped, ch. 7 “I Go to Sea in the Brig Covenant of Dysart”
    (Source)

This chapter was originally published in Young Folks Paper, Vol. 28, No. 807 (1886-05-15).