James Fenimore Cooper 
Homeward Bound Or The Chase A Tale of the Sea [EPUB ebook] 

The assembling of the passengers of a packet-ship is at all times a matter of interest to the partiesconcerned. During the western passage in particular, which can never safely be set down at less thana month, there is the prospect of being shut up for the whole of that period, within the narrowcompass of a ship, with those whom chance has brought together, influenced by all the accidentsand caprices of personal character, and a difference of nations, conditions in life, and education.