The Voyage of the Arrow to the China Seas. / Its Adventures and Perils, Including Its Capture by Sea Vultures from the Countess of Warwick, as Set Down by William Gore, Chief Mate

THE VOYAGE OF THE ARROW

“I DREW HER TO ME AND KISSED HER.”
To the China Seas. Its Adventures and Perils, including Its Capture by Sea Vul- tures from the Countess of Warwick, as set down by William Gore , Chief Mate.
By T. Jenkins Hains Author of “The Black Barque,” “The Windjammers,” etc. With Six Illustrations by H. C. Edwards
Boston : L. C. PAGE & COMPANY (Incorporated) Mdccccvi
Copyright, 1906 By L. C. Page & Company (INCORPORATED) ——— All rights reserved First Impression, April, 1906 COLONIAL PRESS Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. Boston, U.S.A.

In setting down this tale, I will say at the beginning that I am only a sailorman, and rough. Therefore, if I offend, I crave pardon, for my knowledge is only that of the sea, and my manners are ocean-bred. If any one is too delicately constituted to listen to a man like myself, and prefers a tale of gentleness and delicate desire, he had best pass over this narrative of part of my life, which has already received so much publicity. I know many people hold off from me. I know some sweet-scented sea lawyers who fancy they have a taste for description have called me many hard names, and that many honest folk hold away from me because of it. This and much more. But I have gone my way in silence and lived according to the little voice within me, as a strong man should. And it is not weakness now that prompts me to speak. I feel it my duty, and will tell what I know and remember about the part of my life which the public have chosen to discuss so freely.
I do not know who will believe a sailor’s tale, for sailors have been known to enlarge on their yarns, but my father was a sailor before me and was an honest man. So were many of the Gores, and I myself have been master of a deep-water clipper-ship.
In spite of this I hardly feel that I have reached an exalted pinnacle of human fame, for most people do not regard me as a success, nor am I held up as a shining example of what man might accomplish in his life’s work, although I was captain of the Southern Cross —until I ran her ashore and lost her on the Irish coast.