+-------------------------------------------------+ |Transcriber's note: | | | |Obvious typographic errors have been corrected. | | | +-------------------------------------------------+ NEW BOOKS AT EVERY LIBRARY. SONS OF BELIAL. By WILLIAM WESTALL. 2 vols. LILITH. By GEORGE MACDONALD. 1 vol. THE PROFESSOR'S EXPERIMENT. By MRS. HUNGERFORD. 3 vols. THE IMPRESSIONS OF AUREOLE. 1 vol. DAGONET ABROAD. By GEORGE R. SIMS. 1 vol. CLARENCE. By BRET HARTE. 1 vol. OTHELLO'S OCCUPATION. By MARY ANDERSON. 1 vol. HONOUR OF THIEVES. By C. J. CUTCLIFFE HYNE. 1 vol. THE MACDONALD LASS. By SARAH TYTLER. 1 vol. THE PRINCE OF BALKISTAN. By ALLEN UPWARD. 1 vol. THE KING IN YELLOW. By ROBERT W. CHAMBERS. 1 vol. LONDON: CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY. HEART OF OAK VOL. I. PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE LONDON HEART OF OAK A THREE-STRANDED YARN BY W. CLARK RUSSELL AUTHOR OF 'THE WRECK OF THE GROSVENOR' 'THE PHANTOM DEATH' 'THE CONVICT SHIP' ETC. [Illustration: Decoration] IN THREE VOLUMES--VOL. I. LONDON CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY 1895 CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME CHAPTER PAGE I. MISS OTWAY OPENS THE STORY 1 II. MARIE'S SWEETHEART 16 III. THE 'LADY EMMA' 30 IV. MARIE BEGINS HER VOYAGE 57 V. THE HIDDEN LIFE OF THE SHIP 85 VI. A STRANGE MAN ON BOARD 112 VII. A RACE AND A ROLLER 136 VIII. A HURRICANE 161 IX. DISMASTED 190 X. THE JURY-MAST 212 HEART OF OAK CHAPTER I MISS OTWAY OPENS THE STORY I date the opening of this narrative, February 24, 1860. I was in the drawing-room of my father's house on the afternoon of that day, awaiting the arrival of Captain Burke, of the ship 'Lady Emma,' and his wife, Mary Burke, who had nursed me and brought me up, and indeed been as a mother to me after my own mother's death in 1854; but she had left us to marry Captain Edward Burke, and had already made two voyages round the world with him, and was presently going a third. My father sat beside the fire reading a newspaper. His name was Sir Mortimer Otway; he was fourth baronet and a colonel; had seen service in India, though he had long left the army to settle down upon his little seaside estate. He was a man of small fortune. Having said this, I need not trouble you with more of his family history.