Too young to obtain an appointment, he instead spent three years as a common sailor under other services.

Why, dear heart, I've worked my way up from a common sailor, and am the better for it.

They were described as "12 gentlemen and one common sailor".

"You mean that this is no place for a common sailor?"

By 1850 he had lost his fortune, and hired as a common sailor bound for China.

He had been a common sailor then, in all probability.

Now, Tough Bill was not the man to put up with humiliation at the hands of a common sailor.

I found my new companions little different from the common sailors.

How it had ever come into the possession of a common sailor neither he nor I could imagine.

No, he won't go as anything but a common sailor.