PREFACE

By StellaInForest January 31, 2026

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.

CHAPTER I.
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.
CHAPTER II.
A Saucy Sailor--Sailors' Treatment--An Easy Ship--Three
Kinds of Discipline--A Good Run--Proving the Reckoning--Sea
birds.
CHAPTER III.
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.
CHAPTER IV.
The Voyage of the "Dublin" concluded--_Genova La Superba_--Leave
of Absence--On Shore in Italy--Loading Marble--Mates'
Opinions about Driving Sailors Ashore--Women in
Ships--Anchor at Gibraltar--Through the Straits--Pumps
Choked--How to Clinch Buntlines--Cleaning the Spittoon--A
Sleepy Officer's Danger--Holystones--Beating a Boy--Officers'
Ambition--Eternal Vigilance--Old Jenkings--A
Breeze Aloft--The Pilot's Rebuff--Blood Tubs--Paying
Off--Promotion--The Mate and the Owner.
CHAPTER V.
John Shephard--My Model Sailor--Christmas--Ode to the
_Rocket_--Grub--Doubtful Islands--Becalmed off Java--Officers'
Yarns--Off Java Head--Narrow Escape--A Floating
Light.
CHAPTER VI.
Life in the East Indies--Carimata Passage--Singapore--Three
Months' Extra Pay.
CHAPTER VII.
Penang--Penang Hill--Nearly Wrecked--Deliverance--West
Coast of Sumatra--Padang--Padang Thieves--Padang
Church--Malay Ordination--Padang Drives--Natives--Captain
Blowhard--Insolence.
CHAPTER VIII.
Another Voyage in the "Dublin"--Second Mate--Mr. Howard's
Grievances--Mr. Howard Leaves--Leaking--The New
Mate--Second Mates' Duties--Ships' Work--Squalls--Old
Harry--At the Fore-truck--Amsterdam--Dutchmen--The
Captain's Relapse--Worrying the Second Mate--Dreams--A
Growl--A Cabin Conference--An Irish Sailor--Two Finnish Sailors.
CHAPTER IX.
Another Voyage in the "Dublin" concluded--A North Sea Gale--The
Lee Shore--In Distress--Good-bye to Old Harry--Captain's
Yarns--Bullies--Gothenburg--Another Start--Decks Swept--Stopping
the Leak--Hurrying the Crew--A Hard Life--A Freezing Gale--A
False Bearing--Weatherwise--Leaving the "Dublin"--Mr. Wright's
Letter--Capt. Streeter's End.
CHAPTER X.
Land Again--The "Flying Dutchman"--A Cape of Good
Hope Gale--Gales--Rolling Down to St. Helena--Watch
and Watch--Tarring Down--Sailors' Growls--Sailors'
Opinions--Discontent in the Cabin--Ills of Sea Life.
CHAPTER XI.
Sailors' Resources--The Tar Barrel--A Wild Ship--Boarding
a Vessel--Ready for Port.
CHAPTER XII.
Sailors' Songs--Bully or Coax--Treatment of Sailors--Schooner
"Jane"--A Mackerel Shower--Fog on the Coast--Taking
a Pilot--Arrived--Paying off--Scraping Belaying
Pins.
"Once more upon the waters, yet once more!
And the waves bound beneath me, as a steed
That knows his rider."
--_Byron's Childe Harold._
"Who would not sell a farm and go to sea?"--_Sailor Proverb._

ON BOARD THE "ROCKET."

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