All the incidents of this book are facts, occurring in the writer's own experience. In a few cases names have been altered, in accordance with his desire, neither to give offence to the living, nor to cast discredit upon the dead. He makes no apology for its imperfections; for he issues it, not as a contribution to literature, but as a needed exposure of abuses on shipboard, which are too common, but too little known. He refers with diffidence to his own methods of discipline, believing that in the principles which prompted them, lie the means of promoting the interests and good repute of our Merchant Marine.
CONTENTS.
The Rocket—The Cargo—Shipping the Crew—The Start—Rolling—Discomfort—Quiet—Gale—Storm Music—Discipline—Northeast Trades—Aye! Aye!—Doldrums—Sharks—A Shark Story—South-east Trades.
A Saucy Sailor—Sailors' Treatment—An Easy Ship—Three Kinds of Discipline—A Good Run—Proving the Reckoning—Sea birds.
The Voyage of the "Dublin"—Capt. Streeter—A Darkey Crew—No Profanity—The Mates—A Bully—A Tobacco Cargo—Owner's Instructions—A Blower—No Sitting Down—Pomposity—Brass Knuckles—Flogging—The Third Mate—Reefing Topsails—Mr. Jones—A Smart Officer—The Brick-wall Theory—Reflections—Good Advice—Land, ho!—Porpoises—Mother Carey's Chickens—Captain and Mate—Land In Sight—Overheard—Gibraltar—Information—Where Christ was born—In the Mediterranean—Jake—Gulf of Lyons—Genoa Bay—Quarantine—Discharging Cargo.