He was a seaman, but he was a wanderer too, while most seamen lead, if one may so express it, a sedentary life. Their minds are of the stay-at-home order, and their home is always with them - the ship; and so is their country - the sea. One ship is very much like the another and the sea is always the same.

This exert, placed in the first few pages of text, eloquently expresses the mutual bond all seamen have with one another. You also begin to note the distinct writing style that Conrad uses in the book (one in which he frequently uses dashes as a means to throw in information in a frank and direct manner); this style is used to the extreme in many instances later in the book, where he starts a thought, then interupts it with a rambling exert, and then returns to the original thought.