 Stringers "always consider themselves most important, because they are so long"; the garboard-strake says "I'm twice as thick as most of the others, so I ought to know something".The Steam, who "had been to sea many times before... he used to spend his leisure ashore in a cloud, or a gutter..." makes many comments on the conditions and the various complaints.As the "Dimbula" enter the Port of New York, the ship's parts stop talking and after a long silence there is a "new, big voice...