Dr. X and Judge Fang were conveyed on board this vessel by a small crew 
who came out to meet them in a launch. As it drew alongside the Doctor's yacht, 
the Judge was startled to realize that its crew consisted entirely of young 
women. Their accents marked them as belonging to an ethnic subgroup, common in 
the Southeast, that lived almost entirely on the
water; but even if they had not spoken, Judge Fang would have inferred this 
from their nimble handling of the boat.