The Death Ship: A Strange Story, Vol. 1 (of 3)

THE DEATH SHIP
NEW AND POPULAR NOVELS AT ALL THE LIBRARIES
THE YOUNGEST MISS GREEN. By F. W. Robinson, author of 'Grandmother's Money,' &c. 3 vols. A DAUGHTER OF DIVES. By Leith Derwent, author of 'Circe's Lovers,' 'King Lazarus,' &c. 3 vols. THE DUCHESS. By the Author of 'Molly Bawn,' 'Phyllis,' 'Airy Fairy Lilian,' &c. 1 vol. A CREATURE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. By Harry Lander. 3 vols. A MODERN DELILAH. By Vere Clavering. 3 vols.
HURST & BLACKETT, 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.
AN ACCOUNT OF A CRUISE IN THE FLYING DUTCHMAN, COLLECTED FROM THE PAPERS OF THE LATE MR. GEOFFREY FENTON, OF POPLAR, MASTER MARINER.
BY W. CLARK RUSSELL, AUTHOR OF THE WRECK OF THE GROSVENOR, THE GOLDEN HOPE, A SEA QUEEN, ETC., ETC.
IN THREE VOLUMES VOL. I LONDON HURST AND BLACKETT, LIMITED 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET 1888 All Rights Reserved
PRINTED BY TILLOTSON AND SON, MAWDSLEY STREET BOLTON

THE DEATH SHIP.
I will pass by all the explanations concerning the reasons of my going to sea, as I do not desire to forfeit your kind patience by letting this story stand. Enough if I say that after I had been fairly well grounded in English, arithmetic and the like, which plain education I have never wearied of improving by reading everything good that came in my way, I was bound apprentice to a respectable man named Joshua Cox, of Whitby, and served my time in his vessel, the Laughing Susan—a brave, nimble brigantine.
We traded to Riga, Stockholm, and Baltic ports, and often to Rotterdam, where, having a quick ear, which has sometimes served me for playing upon the fiddle for my mates to dance or sing to, I picked up enough of Dutch to enable me to hold my own in conversing with a Hollander, or Hans Butterbox, as those people used to be called; that is to say, I had sufficient words at command to qualify me to follow what was said and to answer so as to be intelligible; the easier, since, uncouth as that language is, there is so much of it resembling ours in sound that many words in it might easily pass for portions of our tongue grossly and ludicrously articulated. Why I mention this will hereafter appear.