The First Mate: The Story of a Strange Cruise

The question was addressed to me in a very pleasantly modulated female voice, carrying just the slightest suspicion of an American accent. For the fraction of a second I was a w...

It was past nine o'clock, and a cold, dreary night, with a drizzle of rain, when at length I quitted the hospitable wardroom of the yacht and wended my way back to my rather fro...

I am not writing this story as a mere diary of travel, and will therefore push on as rapidly as possible to the point where the real living interest of the voyage began, content...

When, shortly before eight bells, I was called by the wardroom steward, I at once became aware that a change of some sort had occurred in the weather. For, on the one hand, the...

That evening, short though it was--for Harper insisted that we should all retire early--was the most delightful that I had ever spent, although everybody would persist in talkin...

It was shortly after noon, on our fifth day out from Moulmein, and we were just within the Malacca Strait, when the wind began to fail us; and by two bells in the first dog-watc...

"Well, I can scarcely say," was the low-spoken reply. "As a matter of fact, I am not sure that I heard anything. I am beginning to think that Kennedy's stupid talk must have aff...

The untimely death of poor Kennedy resulted in my being promoted to the position of first mate of the _Stella Maris_, young as I was; while the boatswain, who knew nothing of na...

How long I slept I have no means of knowing. All I can remember is that from a sound, dreamless sleep, I was startled into sudden wakefulness by experiencing a shock of such tre...

To ward off the enquiries that sprang to Mrs Vansittart's lips the moment I appeared was a little difficult, but I managed it by simply declining to say a word until after break...

As I have already hinted, I was no boat builder. I knew a good boat when I saw her, and I had a very fair notion of the correct proportions of such a craft; but when it came to...

When I went down to breakfast, Anthea and Lizette were already in the dining-room. The former had quite recovered her composure, although her eyelids were still a trifle red and...

We had finished luncheon, and were all on deck watching the junk, when, about half-past two o'clock--she having by that time arrived within about a mile of the lagoon entrance--...

Another week elapsed before I could convince Mrs Vansittart that I was strong enough to be permitted to rise from my bunk and sit in a chair for a short time; but after that my...

For perhaps half a dozen seconds I stood there motionless in the cockpit of the dancing boat, paralysed with dismay. There we were, six people, adrift in a contraption of a craf...

It was a night of great discomfort, a storm of wind and rain arising, and the day which followed was little if any better, the same weather conditions prevailing throughout. I c...

Some twenty minutes later the boat slid in between two cliffs, about seventy feet high, and we found ourselves in a channel a quarter of a mile wide, trending south-east for nea...

Our breakfast that morning consisted of bananas, mangoes, and coconuts, all of which the island seemed to produce in profusion, as well, no doubt, as many other fruits, when we...

Never in my life, I think, had I run so fast as I did that afternoon, while covering the mile and a half of ground that lay between the base of the Peak and the nearest point at...