I would say that the men in the passage are <em>minor</em> characters. <u>The correct answer is the last one.</u>
Explanation:
Minor characters in a story are the ones that do stuff that contributes to the plot, but are not the main characters, the plot doesn't resolve around them or their story. In this case, the men in the ship "<em>scrambled to their places by the rowlocks and all in line dipped oars in the gray sea</em>" and that description helps the writer tells the story, or a part of it, but it is not the main event.
