Sea-roving

de la S-, the most Scandinavian- looking of Provencal squires, fair, and six feet high, as became a descendant of sea-roving Northmen, authoritative, incisive, wittily scornful, with a comedy in three acts in his pocket, and in his breast a heart blighted by a hopeless passion for his beautiful cousin, married to a wealthy hide and tallow merchant.

Further, the book offers useful definitions of the different types and terminology for the men (and women) who were employed in sea-roving activities, explaining in Chapter two, for instance, the differences between "Freebooters, Filibusters, Cruisers, Corsairs, Buccaneers, Privateers, and Pirates" (10-22).