Everything must have a beginning, and, however right and proper things may appear to those who begin them, they generally wear a strange, sometimes absurd, aspect to those who beho...
The following particulars of the loss of this vessel are copied from a letter dated Boulogne-sur-mer, Sept. 1, 1833. The shocking event which is announced by the title to this lett...
On the Western Coast of Africa. By MADAME DARD, one of the Sufferers. In the year 1816, an expedition was fitted out by the French to go and resume possession of Senegal, which had...
Rafts, as we have already remarked, must undoubtedly have been the beginning of navigation. But they have not, like many other species of ancient craft, been altogether superseded...
When our noble Lifeboat Institution was in its infancy, a deed was performed by a young woman which at once illustrates the extreme danger to which those who attempt to rescue the...
During one of the former wars, between France and England, in which the then Colonies bore an active part, a respectable individual, a member of the society of Friends, of the name...
Having in the previous chapters treated of the subjects of ancient navigation and ships, and given some account of the boats of the present time, we now proceed to write about mode...
The Litchfield, Captain Barton, left Ireland on the 11th of November, 1758, in company with several other men of war and transports, under the command of Commodore Keppel, intended...
We had refitted, and been four days at sea, on our voyage to Jamaica, when the gun-room officers gave our mess a blow out. The increased motion and rushing of the vessel through th...
Leaving the subject of ancient ships and navigation, we shall now turn our attention to the more recent doings of man on the ocean, and, before entering into the details of ships a...
Like a great shudder, a gust of wind rose from the sea, and at the same time something fell like rain upon the roof above. It was only the dead leaves, though;--many were blown in...
The coasting-trade of the British Islands is replete with danger, yet it is carried on with the utmost vigour; and there are always plenty of “hands,” as seamen are called when spo...
The climb had been a stiff one. The day was very hot, and, rather purple about the face and breathing heavily, the sailor relapsed on the springy, scented turf close to the cliff's...
All that night it blew terribly hard, and raised as wild and raging a sea as ever I remember hearing or seeing described. During my watch--that is, from midnight until four o'clock...
I The _Heart of Ireland_ was spreading her wings to the north-west trades, making a good seven knots, with the coast of California a vague line on the horizon to port and all the b...
“Many men, many minds,” runs the proverb. “Many nations, many ships,” is almost equally true. A nation may show its individuality in the fashion of its marine architecture as much...
On Friday the 15th of June 1722, after being out some time in a schooner with four men and a boy, off Cape Sable, I stood in for Port Rossaway, designing to lie there all Sunday. H...
La Tribune was one of the finest frigates in his Majesty's navy, mounted 44 guns, and had recently been taken from the French by Captain Williams in the Unicorn frigate.--She was c...
"Tempest? It is blowing half a gale of wind; that is all." "Half a gale! Ah, that is the way you always talk to us ladies. Oh, pray give me my light, and send me a clergyman!" Dodd...
Sailors are men of rough habits, but their feelings are not by any means so coarse: if they possess little prudence or worldly consideration, they are likewise very free from selfi...
The night had fallen over the harbour before the winch began to rattle. The stars came out, calm and golden, shaking little tracks in the sea. In the tiers of ships shone the ridin...
In the year 1791, Woodward sailed from Boston in the ship Robert Morris, Captain Hay, for the East Indies. On his arrival there he was employed in making country voyages until the...
On the morning of the 5th of August, 1833, during a severe gale in lat. 46, lon. 31, Capt. Dempsey, of the ship Kingston, discovered at a short distance to leeward, a brig lying on...
The catastrophe which is now about to be related made a deep impression on the public mind. The circumstances attending it were too aggravating not to excite the highest degree of...
In the year 1818 the British Government fitted out two expeditions to the North Pole. Captain Buchan, commanding the Trent and the Dorothy was directed to attempt a passage between...
Denis was a pig, a very special sort of pig, a pig of German origin, and perhaps the only animal of his species in whose favour a special dispensation was made by the Board of Agri...
The Icelanders were all returning now. Two ships came in the second day, four the next, and twelve during the following week. And all through the country joy returned with them; an...
“What is the compass?” every philosophical youth of inquiring disposition will naturally ask. We do not say that all youths will make this inquiry. Many there are who will at once...
Lost at Sea
The Phoenix of 44 guns, Capt. Sir Hyde Parker was lost in a hurricane, off Cuba, in the West Indies, in the year 1780. The same hurricane destroyed the Thunderer, 74; Stirling Cast...