"Carefully he lowered away" 79 "'Stay here no longer--though I would have you with me'" 104 "Everything was done that good seamanship could direct" 120 "There was a figure crawling up below him" 141 "She came about like a peg top" 167 "Over fence and hedge" 190 "A discussion that grew more heated every moment" 212 "'I observed it,' said the Lieutenant" 225 "The deadly volley" 258 "'Now we have him, lads!'" 268 ALLEN, OF THE _CHESAPEAKE_ Give a ship an unlucky name, and it will last throughout the whole of her career. A sailor is proverbially superstitious, and he clings jealously to tradition. It is told that when the frigate _Chesapeake_ was launched she stuck fast on the ways, and did not reach the water until the following day, which was Friday. Although she was a fine vessel to look at, she grounded upon the bar upon her first attempt to sail, and, when once free, behaved herself in such a lubberly fashion that those who witnessed her starting out declared she was bewitched. Even after many changes had been made in the length of her masts, in the weight of spars, and the cut of sails, still she was considered by many a failure. And, although her sailing qualities improved as time went on, yet her bad name stuck to her, as bad names will. Given this drawback, the unlucky captain of such a craft finds it difficult to recruit a proper crew, and must often be content with green hands, or the riffraff disdained by other ships' masters. Commodore James Barron, who had been ordered to the _Chesapeake_, was a brave officer. He had succeeded the peppery Commodore Preble in command of the fleet that had so successfully negotiated the operations before Tripoli, and there he had won for himself a name and reputation. Nevertheless, he was not entirely popular with his officers. They failed to find in him the graciousness of manner and deportment, the strict adherence to the lines of duty, and yet the kindliness of thought and conduct that distinguished young Captain Bainbridge; and they missed, strange to say, the iron hand and stern rule of Preble, the martinet.