Thrilling Narratives of Mutiny, Murder and Piracy: A weird series of tales of shipwreck and disaster, from the earliest part of the century to the present time, with accounts of providential escapes and heart-rending fatalities.Anonymous
History
Thrilling Narratives of Mutiny, Murder and Piracy: A weird series of tales of shipwreck and disaster, from the earliest part of the century to the present time, with accounts of providential escapes and heart-rending fatalities.
Anonymous
Mutiny; Pirates; Seafaring life; Shipwrecks
There is scarce any one, we apprehend, who is in any considerable
degree conversant with the shifting scenes of human existence, who
does not know that many of the plain narratives of common life possess
an indescribable charm. These unvarnished details of human weal and
human wo, coming right from the mint of nature, decline the
superfluous embellishments of art, and, in the absence of all borrowed
lustre, clearly demonstrate that they are "adorned the most when
unadorned." They bear a most diametrical contrast to those figments of
diseased fancy, that nauseating romance about virgins betrothed and
lady love, which in so many instances elbow decency and common sense
from the pages of our periodical literature as "unwelcome guests."
It has frequently been said that sailors, above every other class of
men, have irrepressible hankerings after the wild and wonderful.
Certain it is, that he who will sit on a ship's forecastle of a bright
moonlight evening, will hear of "hair-breadth escapes," and perilous
adventures no less chivalrous and incredible than those which
Cervantes and the biographer of Baron Munchausen have attributed to
their respective heroes. Although the following incidents may excite
no very thrilling interest, they have at least the merit of truth. The
actors in this short drama are still on the stage, ready to testify to
this narrative of facts.
On the morning of the 14th of April, 1828, the ship Gold Hunter glided
majestically out of the Liverpool docks, with fair wind and tide. The
Mersey, from Liverpool to Black Rock, a distance of about three miles,
was literally covered with vessels of every character and nation,
which had taken advantage of the fair wind to clear the harbor. Here
might be seen the little French lugger, carrying back to Bordeaux what
its fruit and brandy had bought, as frisky in its motions as the
nervous monsieur who commanded it. At a little distance, the
square-shouldered Antwerper, sitting on the elevated poop of his
galliot, was enjoying, with his crew, a glorious smoke. You could
almost see them (and that, too, without very keen optics) put care
into their tobacco-pipes, anxiety curled in fume over their heads. A
not unfrequent sight was the star-spangled banner floating in beauty
over the bosom of the wave. The serenity of the atmosphere, the
ever-changing brilliancy of the scene, the tout ensemble, were well
calculated to excite the most pleasurable emotions. Every thing seemed
to give the most flattering assurances of a voyage of unruffled
peacefulness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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