Great Britain -- History -- George III, 1760-1820 -- Juvenile fiction; Great Britain. Royal Navy -- Juvenile fiction
One day he was standing on the quay at the foot of the town, when a
stout sailor lad stopped near him, and putting out his hand exclaimed:
"Well, Master Harry! I did not know you at first: you are grown so.
You're looking out for a sail down the river, I'll warrant?"
"You are right, Jacob," answered Harry, shaking the proffered hand. "I
have not had a sniff of salt water for the last week. But where have
you been all this time?"
"I have been to sea, Master Harry--to foreign lands--and if you are so
minded I will help you to take a trip there, too."
"You have not been away long enough to go to any foreign lands that I
know of, except perhaps the coast of France or to Holland," observed
Harry.
"That's just where I have been, Master Harry, and if you like to come
down along the quay I will show you the craft I went in. She's not one
a seaman need be ashamed of, let me tell you."
Harry accompanied his friend. Jacob Tuttle had been one of Harry's
first companions in a boat, and he indeed taught him to row. As he was
six or eight years older than Harry, the latter looked at him with great
respect, and considered him an accomplished seaman. He was, indeed, a
good specimen of the British sailor of those days, brave, open-hearted,
and generous, but with the smallest possible amount of judgment or
discretion. Harry accompanied him along the bank of the river for some
distance.
"There! what do you think of her?" asked Jacob, pointing to a
wonderfully long, narrow lugger which lay alongside the wooden quay or
jetty. "She measures 120 feet from the tip of her bowsprit to the end
of her outrigger, and she sails like the wind. We pull forty oars, and
there is no revenue cutter can come near us, blow high or blow low."
The vessel at which Harry and his companion were looking was indeed a
beautiful craft. She had fore and aft cuddies for sleeping berths, and
was open amid-ships "for the stowage of 2,000 kegs of spirits," Jacob
whispered in Harry's ear. "Would you not like to take a trip in her,
Master Harry?"
Harry confessed that he should like it very much.
Lady Tryon was on the point of starting for London. Probably the "Saucy
Sally" would not sail for two or three days. He might make the trip and
be back again without anybody knowing anything about it. Tuttle would
introduce Harry to the skipper. He was a first-rate fellow, whether an
Englishman or a foreigner he could not tell, but his equal was not
easily to be found. It was a pleasure to be with him in a gale of wind,
and to hear him issue his orders. Captain Falwasser was his name. The
"Saucy Sally" carried fifty hands, officers and crew, all told, and had
guns too, but they were kept stowed away below, unless wanted.
"But, Harry, come on board."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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