the men at the overturned table , sailors on an east india merchantman , were as quick to take offense at the disruption of their drinking ; and a mingled crowd of sailors and laborers and soldiers , all better than three-quarters of the way drunk , and a great scarcity of women , as compared to what would have been found in nearly every other dockyard house of the world which laurence knew , was a powder-keg ready for the slow-match in any case .