LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

[My Mother broke down and cried.]Frontispiece.
[The Officer walked slowly Along in Front of Them.]FacingPage49
[The Sight That met His Eyes was a Terrible One.]""65
[He brought His Glass to bear Upon the Object.]""113
["This is Jack Crane," said Captain Dawson.]""145
[He was just fairly stowed away When Haines came.]""193
[The Crew hauled away on the Rope.]""241
["Are You John Crane, Captain of the LatePrivateer Marguerite?"]""289

CAPTAIN JOHN CRANE.

CHAPTER I.

WHO AND WHAT I AM.—MY EARLY LIFE.—LEAVING HOME, AND WHY I LEFT IT.

I am a modest, bashful sort of man, though I say it myself, and have been a sailor for a goodly number of years. Perhaps on board a ship I am not so bashful, and especially when in command of her. I don't feel altogether at home on shore, although I've given up the sea, and propose to spend the rest of my life on land. I was born on the 25th of November, 1783, the day of the evacuation of the city of New York by the British, at the end of the Revolutionary War.