Going aboard

There are two ways of going up on board. The first one consists in lightly climbing a sort of ladder, made of small cross-pieces of wood nailed to the outside of the ship and to hoist oneself onto the deck with the ropes hanging to each side, in ways of handrails.
Robert-Robert went up this way, but Lavenette couldn’t be persuaded to use it.
“I say! He exclaimed to cover his fright, such a path is only suitable for cats! I have too much respect for my quality of man, my dignity of intelligent and reasonable animal, to agree to degrading myself to such an extent! I mean, really! ”
The other way had to be used, that is the armchair which is usually kept for boarding women, children, older men, crippled or fearful people. This armchair went down from the top of the yard, at the end of a long rope, and drew Lavenette from the bottom of the rowing boat. Unfortunately for him, his strange costume had got all the sailors who pulled on the armchair rope in a cheerful mood. Before letting their victim set foot on the deck of the ship, they indulged in the malicious pleasure of heaving him up to the yard, letting him down again and bouncing him harshly for a few minutes, in this sort of salad shaker. Robert and Simon had to step in to put an end to this banter, which had Lavenette shouting at the top of his voice. Such was the phenomenon puzzling so much the perspicacious mind of the people from Brest who got to witness it.

Extract from Adventures of Robert-Robert, by L. Desnoyers, illustrated by F. de Courcy, 1839.