The cruise of the Snark

BY JACK LONDON
AUTHOR OF “VALLEY OF THE MOON,” “JOHN BARLEYCORN” “MUTINY OF THE ELSINORE,” ETC.
“Yes have heard the beat of the offshore wind, And the thresh of the deep-sea rain; You have heard the song—how long! how long! Pull out on the trail again!”
MILLS & BOON, LIMITED 49 RUPERT STREET LONDON, W.1
Copyright in the United States of America by The Macmillan Company
To CHARMIAN THE MATE OF THE “SNARK”
WHO TOOK THE WHEEL, NIGHT OR DAY, WHEN ENTERING OR LEAVING PORT OR RUNNING A PASSAGE, WHO TOOK THE WHEEL IN EVERY EMERGENCY, AND WHO WEPT AFTER TWO YEARS OF SAILING, WHEN THE VOYAGE WAS DISCONTINUED
It began in the swimming pool at Glen Ellen. Between swims it was our wont to come out and lie in the sand and let our skins breathe the warm air and soak in the sunshine. Roscoe was a yachtsman. I had followed the sea a bit. It was inevitable that we should talk about boats. We talked about small boats, and the seaworthiness of small boats. We instanced Captain Slocum and his three years’ voyage around the world in the Spray .
We asserted that we were not afraid to go around the world in a small boat, say forty feet long. We asserted furthermore that we would like to do it. We asserted finally that there was nothing in this world we’d like better than a chance to do it.
“Let us do it,” we said . . . in fun.
Then I asked Charmian privily if she’d really care to do it, and she said that it was too good to be true.
The next time we breathed our skins in the sand by the swimming pool I said to Roscoe, “Let us do it.”