Being strongly urged by many old friends, for several years past, to publish some account of my unfortunate adventures, I have reluctantly yielded to their request. In so doing, I must crave the indulgence of my readers.
CAPTAIN DUNHAM'S
NINETEEN VOYAGES.
CHAPTER I.
| "The sailor ploughs the raging main, "In hopes a competence to gain, "And when his toil and danger's o'er, "Safe anchors on his native shore." |
Sloop Rover.
About the middle of May, in the year 1813, having a great desire to engage in some adventure; and hoping that fortune would smile upon my undertakings, I purchased of Messrs. Coddington & Thorp, of New-York, one quarter of an old Sloop called the Rover; for which I paid one hundred and twenty-five dollars. Messrs. Coddington & Thorp, and Captain Silus S. Vail, were owners of the other three-quarters.
The Rover was an old condemned sea vessel, having old thin sails, two deck beams broken, without top-mast, and a large piece of leather two feet square nailed over a rotten plank in her bottom.