Sentence:  Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers,nb.... Even such a boat as the "Mount Vernon" offered a total <WSD>deck</WSD> space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  The floorlike covering of the horizontal sections, or compartments, of a ship. Small vessels have only one deck; larger ships have two or three decks.