Cambridge, 1893.

CONTENTS

[PART I]
IN THE MERCHANT SERVICEPAGE
I.How I went to Sea[3]
II.My First Voyage[24]
III.The Mutiny[40]
IV.Not Born to be Drowned[54]
V.A “Shanghaeing” Episode[64]
VI.To California before the Gold Discovery[77]
VII.Recapturing a Runaway[93]
VIII.Chased by Pirates[115]
[PART II]
IN THE NAVAL SERVICE
I.The Outbreak of the Civil War[137]
II.A Night Attack by a ConfederateRam[148]
III.The Passage of the Forts and theCapture of New Orleans[162]
IV.On to New Orleans[178]
V.Chasing a Blockade Runner[191]
VI.A Narrow Escape[205]
VII.A Successful Still Hunt[220]
VIII.Catching a Tartar[230]
IX.The Naval Traitor[240]
X.Hunting for Bushwhackers[254]
XI.The End of the Struggle[271]

TWENTY YEARS AT SEA

PART I

IN THE MERCHANT SERVICE

CHAPTER I
HOW I WENT TO SEA

It was a blazing hot morning of the first week in September, 1842. The sun was pouring down with the fierce heat that so often marks the departing days of our Northern summers, and the evil smells in the filthy gutters of the southern section of Brooklyn were more than usually noxious.