For the freedom of the seas

The three-masted schooner _Jonas Clinton_ was loafing along in a six-knot breeze some five hundred miles off the coast of France. For the time of year, the middle of October, th...

The U. S. S. _Wanderer_ plunged her nose into the blue-green waters of Nantucket Sound, tossed them high in glittering spray that rattled against the slanting glass of the littl...

The _Wanderer_ slid into New Bedford shortly after one o’clock, fluttered a greeting to the torpedo boat _Hollis_, lying off Fort Point, and dropped anchor in the inner harbor....

“We want those chaps,” he said in low tones. “They’ve got a hiding place of some sort over there; probably a hut. There are six of us. Have you all got watches?”

Many of the subsequent details Nelson failed to see, for he was put aboard the _Wanderer_ and consigned to his bunk, after which Sawyer, machinist’s mate and the nearest thing t...

Those on the _Wanderer_ were all so glad to see him back, and showed it so positively, that he felt almost disloyal in wanting to leave the boat. Ensign Stowell, although he onl...

“You’re in luck only to have heard of it,” grumbled the other. “Mostly you feel it! We’re getting into it now. This is the roughest stretch between Cape Cod and the Florida Keys...

Two days later, in sight of Mariguana Island, they found the Chilian bark _San Felipe_, or what was left of her. She had a cargo of rough lumber aboard and although little remai...

The captured steamship proved to be the _Mahlow_, before the war a French passenger ship plying between Marseilles and Spanish ports under the name of the _Golfe du Lion_. She w...

Some twenty-five hundred miles lay before them, which meant from five to six days at sea, depending on weather and other fortunes. On the _Gyandotte_ it was pretty unanimously t...

He knew then that Providence had guided him to the side of one of the other ships, that, could he but make himself heard above the roar of the elements, he might yet be saved. T...

Nelson couldn’t remember having ever been so glad to see anyone as he was to see the lad who, his surprise turning to pleasure, thrust a brown and not over-clean hand toward the...

Dinner was not very tempting to Nelson, probably because he still felt the effects of his adventure of the night before. Besides, he had eaten nearly a pint of Cookie’s remarkab...

The _Q-4_ slid down a long foam-patterned wave that hid the horizon behind, wallowed a moment in the green hollow and began her climb once more. Those seas were awe-inspiring, a...

An hour later they found themselves getting ashore on the farther side of the harbor in a dense mist. By now they had acquired a comfortable philosophy that took no account of d...

“Give ’em their heads, old scout: that’s the only way. Every nag knows how to get home. All we’ve got to do is hold on and――――” Just then a wheel struck a rock and nearly threw...

Just as the sun broke forth from the bank of mist that trailed its gray banners along the hillsides to the east a squeaking wagon, drawn by a pair of thin, decrepit looking whit...

The next day Nelson went sight-seeing. He started out with a liberty party that filled several boats, but lost them somewhere ashore and presently found himself wandering along...

The _Gyandotte_ steamed out of Queenstown one October twilight in company with four destroyers and headed southeast, a departure from the usual proceeding that excited comment a...

Nelson reached the deck confused, half-awake. In his ears was the terrific wailing sound that had sent him instinctively tumbling from his hammock. For an instant he blinked and...

Nelson didn’t find the Executive Officer where the orderly said, perhaps because he didn’t look for him there. Instead, he went aft and paused before a door opening from the war...

After that Tip and Nelson managed to be together a good deal, for although visiting the officers’ quarters was something Nelson didn’t attempt again, there was nothing to keep T...

Nelson and Tip and Martin leaned beside Number Four gun and explained to each other at great length and with much vehemence just why there wasn’t the ghost of a chance of the _G...