Tough yarns, vol. 1 (of 2)

Once more I present myself before the Public in a Book; and whatever all hands may think of it, I can assure them it is no joke to keep one’s brains like a winch, continually sp...

The hoary tar turned round and stared me full in the face: a storm was gathering in his heart, or rather, like a vessel taken aback in a sudden squall, he stood perplexed as to...

“It was, indeed,” replied the old pensioner, “till it got to be a kind of Solomon’s proverb, that ‘a king’s ship and the gallows refused nobody,’ and the tars that had always do...

“The sail was now distinctly visible about two points on the larboard beam, her hull rising from the water, and her masts showing she was a ship, whilst their position indicated...

“Well, every soul fore-and-aft mustered in the twinkling of a hand-spike, and they all crowded together as if they’d been stowed with a jack-screw for a long voyage; and then th...

“It isn’t for men without larning or edecation such as me to say their say positively,” answered the pensioner, “but--[giving his quid a severe turn]--if I am to speak my mind,...

“It warn’t Tom’s head,” he replied, laughing, “it was the sheep’s head; for Tom kept the ould chap dodging about till he saw the cask of dollars was in the boat, and she with he...

“Away went Bill with his brace of pistols in his belt, and cartridge-box and cutlash by his side, along the main-yard, entirely concealed by the folds of the enemy’s main-sail,...

Before the earth had closed over the remains of his parent,--before she had become mingled with the clods of the valley, the press-gangs were actively on the alert, and poor Tom...

As soon as the door was closed, and I was once more seated on my grandfather’s knee, he commenced his usual practice of holding converse with himself. “What can have brought him...