Sea Stories

The Merchantman and the Pirate
Young Folks’ Library in Twenty Volumes Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Editor-in-Chief
SEA STORIES
EDITED BY CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY
BOSTON HALL AND LOCKE COMPANY PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1902, By HALL & LOCKE COMPANY. Boston, U.S.A.
Stanhope Press P. H. GILSON COMPANY BOSTON, U.S.A.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF COLORED ILLUSTRATIONS
BY CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY
Most of us have passed through a period of life during which we have ardently longed to be, if not actually a rover, a buccaneer, or a pirate, at least and really a sailor! To run away to sea has been the misdirected ambition of many a youngster, and some lads there are who have realized their desire to their sorrow. The boy who has not cherished in his heart and exhibited in his actions at sometime or other during his youthful days, a love of ships and salt water, is fit for—well, he is fit for the shore, and that is the worst thing a sailor could say about him!
The virile nations, the strong peoples, are those whose countries border on the sea. They who go down to the great deep in ships are they who master the world. On the ocean as well as on the mountain top dwells the spirit of freedom. When men have struggled with each other in the shock of war, or the emulation of peace, when they have matched skill against skill, strength to strength, courage with courage, the higher quality of manhood in each instance has been required upon the sea; for there the sharp contention has been not only between man and man but between nature and man as well. A double portion of heroic spirit is needed to meet the double demand. That is the reason we love the sea. It is this Homeric spirit of the Ocean Masters that fills the dreams of youth and stirs the memories of old age.