CONTENTS
| Chapter | Page | |
| I | “After You, Pilot” | [1] |
| II | Getting Ready | [16] |
| III | Jack—Chief Boatswain’s Mate | [28] |
| IV | All Hands Aboard! | [40] |
| V | The First Forenoon at Anchor | [56] |
| VI | Sports by Land and Water | [67] |
| VII | Under Way for Marblehead | [81] |
| VIII | The Salem Fire | [92] |
| IX | Scouts to the Rescue | [103] |
| X | In Marblehead Harbor | [113] |
| XI | Dick’s Confession | [126] |
| XII | Another Meeting of the Club | [140] |
| XIII | A Green Hand | [148] |
| XIV | The Key of the Keelson | [158] |
| XV | Seasickness | [168] |
| XVI | The Commandant’s Inspection | [185] |
| XVII | Storm-Bound at Provincetown | [194] |
| XVIII | A Clearing Sky and a Fresh Start | [208] |
| XIX | A Rescue | [222] |
| XX | Vineyard Haven | [237] |
| XXI | Disrating and Promotion | [249] |
| XXII | Friendly Things and a New Point of View | [259] |
| XXIII | The Four Square Club | [271] |
| XXIV | A Guest of the Club | [282] |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
| Without thinking of the side-ladder, he dove off the rail | [Frontispiece] |
| PAGE | |
| He wet his thumb and held it up in the air to judge which way the wind was blowing | [52] |
| Dick dove forward on the ground to touch the base | [70] |
| She seemed to be measuring the distance to a really secure footing on Dick’s shoulder | [109] |
BOY SCOUTS AT SEA
CHAPTER I
“After You, Pilot”
“Say, George, won’t you come down to the island this afternoon and spin us a yarn? You know we’re going to Boston to-morrow to ship on board the Bright Wing, and we want to talk things over; perhaps you could give us some extra points.”
The speaker was Dick Gray, who had been an apprentice Sea Scout ever since the previous autumn, and was now about to take his first summer cruise on the Boy Scout ship with his two companions, Tom Sheffield and Chippie Smith. He was talking to his brother George, a midshipman just home from Annapolis for his vacation, and he naturally looked up to him as an authority in nautical matters. Besides, George had recently returned from a long trans-Atlantic cruise, and he had only just heard of Dick’s interest in the Sea Scouts. Much had happened since George’s last visit home, and Dick was eager to tell him all about it and to win his sympathy and approval.
The headquarters of the three boys was a little shack on Duck Island, which formed part of the home farm, where, for a couple of years past, they had kept their pets and hatched all the plans for their various adventures.
George was a good deal older than Dick, and had recently—within the last few days—heard a story which had impressed him so deeply that his idea of all his duties as an officer had been changed and heightened. When, therefore, Dick asked him to come down to the island and to spin a yarn to the boys, this story immediately jumped into his mind and he wondered whether he could tell it in such a way as to create in them the same feeling that it had aroused in him.