Episode 3

The departure - The sea - My companions - Some account of the wonderful sights we saw on the great deep - A dreadful storm and a frightful wreck.

IT was a bright, beautiful, warm day when our ship spread her canvass to the breeze, and sailed for the regions of the south.

Oh, how my heart bounded with delight as I listened to the merry chorus of the sailors, while they hauled at the ropes and got in the anchor! The captain shouted - the men ran to obey - the noble ship bent over to the breeze, and the shore gradually faded from my view, while I stood looking on with a kind of feeling that the whole was a delightful dream.

The first thing that struck me as being different from anything Ihad yet seen during my short career on the sea, was the hoisting of the anchor on deck, and lashing it firmly down with ropes, as if we had now bid adieu to the land for ever, and would require its services no more.

"There, lass," cried a broad-shouldered jack-tar, giving the fluke of the anchor a hearty slap with his hand after the housing was completed - "there, lass, take a good nap now, for we shan't ask you to kiss the mud again for many a long day to come!"And so it was.That anchor did not "kiss the mud" for many long days afterwards; and when at last it did, it was for the last time!

There were a number of boys in the ship, but two of them were my special favourites.Jack Martin was a tall, strapping, broad-shouldered youth of eighteen, with a handsome, good-humoured, firm face.He had had a good education, was clever and hearty and lion-like in his actions, but mild and quiet in disposition.Jack was a general favourite, and had a peculiar fondness for me.My other companion was Peterkin Gay.He was little, quick, funny, decidedly mischievous, and about fourteen years old.But Peterkin's mischief was almost always harmless, else he could not have been so much beloved as he was.

"Hallo! youngster," cried Jack Martin, giving me a slap on the shoulder, the day I joined the ship, "come below and I'll show you your berth.You and I are to be mess-mates, and I think we shall be good friends, for I like the look o' you."Jack was right.He and I and Peterkin afterwards became the best and stanchest friends that ever tossed together on the stormy waves.

I shall say little about the first part of our voyage.We had the usual amount of rough weather and calm; also we saw many strange fish rolling in the sea, and I was greatly delighted one day by seeing a shoal of flying fish dart out of the water and skim through the air about a foot above the surface.They were pursued by dolphins, which feed on them, and one flying-fish in its terror flew over the ship, struck on the rigging, and fell upon the deck.

Its wings were just fins elongated, and we found that they could never fly far at a time, and never mounted into the air like birds, but skimmed along the surface of the sea.Jack and I had it for dinner, and found it remarkably good.

When we approached Cape Horn, at the southern extremity of America, the weather became very cold and stormy, and the sailors began to tell stories about the furious gales and the dangers of that terrible cape.

"Cape Horn," said one, "is the most horrible headland I ever doubled.I've sailed round it twice already, and both times the ship was a'most blow'd out o' the water.""An' I've been round it once," said another, "an' that time the sails were split, and the ropes frozen in the blocks, so that they wouldn't work, and we wos all but lost.""An' I've been round it five times," cried a third, "an' every time wos wuss than another, the gales wos so tree-mendous!""And I've been round it no times at all," cried Peterkin, with an impudent wink of his eye, "an' THAT time I wos blow'd inside out!"Nevertheless, we passed the dreaded cape without much rough weather, and, in the course of a few weeks afterwards, were sailing gently, before a warm tropical breeze, over the Pacific Ocean.

Episodes
1 Episode 1
2 Episode 2
3 Episode 3
4 Episode 4
5 Episode 5
6 Episode 6
7 Episode 7
8 Episode 8
9 Episode 9
10 Episode 10
11 Episode 11
12 Episode 12
13 Episode 13
14 Episode 14
15 Episode 15
16 Episode 16
17 Episode 17
18 Episode 18
19 Episode 19
20 Episode 20
21 Episode 21
22 Episode 22
23 Episode 23
24 Episode 24
25 Episode 25
26 Episode 26
27 Episode 27
28 Episode 28
29 Episode 29
30 Episode 30
31 Episode 31
32 Episode 32
33 Episode 33
34 Episode 34
35 Episode 35
36 Episode 36
37 Episode 37
38 Episode 38
39 Episode 39
40 Episode 40
41 Episode 41
42 Episode 42
43 Episode 43
44 Episode 44
45 Episode 45
46 Episode 46
47 Episode 47
48 Episode 48
49 Episode 49
50 Episode 50
51 Episode 51
52 Episode 52
53 Episode 53
54 Episode 54
55 Episode 55
56 Episode 56
57 Episode 57
58 Episode 58
59 Episode 59
60 Episode 60
61 Episode 61
62 Episode 62
63 Episode 63
64 Episode 64
65 Episode 65
66 Episode 66
67 Episode 67
68 Episode 68
69 Episode 69
70 Episode 70
71 Episode 71
72 Episode 72
73 Episode 73
74 Episode 74
75 Episode 75
76 Episode 76
77 Episode 77
78 Episode 78
79 Episode 79
80 Episode 80
81 Episode 81
82 Episode 82
83 Episode 83
84 Episode 84
85 Episode 85
86 Episode 86
87 Episode 87
88 Episode 88
89 Episode 89
90 Episode 90
91 Episode 91
92 Episode 92
93 Episode 93
94 Episode 94
95 Episode 95
96 Episode 96
97 Episode 97
98 Episode 98
99 Episode 99
100 Episode 100
101 Episode 101
102 Episode 102
103 Episode 103
104 Episode 104
105 Episode 105
106 Episode 106
Episodes

Updated 106 Episodes

1
Episode 1
2
Episode 2
3
Episode 3
4
Episode 4
5
Episode 5
6
Episode 6
7
Episode 7
8
Episode 8
9
Episode 9
10
Episode 10
11
Episode 11
12
Episode 12
13
Episode 13
14
Episode 14
15
Episode 15
16
Episode 16
17
Episode 17
18
Episode 18
19
Episode 19
20
Episode 20
21
Episode 21
22
Episode 22
23
Episode 23
24
Episode 24
25
Episode 25
26
Episode 26
27
Episode 27
28
Episode 28
29
Episode 29
30
Episode 30
31
Episode 31
32
Episode 32
33
Episode 33
34
Episode 34
35
Episode 35
36
Episode 36
37
Episode 37
38
Episode 38
39
Episode 39
40
Episode 40
41
Episode 41
42
Episode 42
43
Episode 43
44
Episode 44
45
Episode 45
46
Episode 46
47
Episode 47
48
Episode 48
49
Episode 49
50
Episode 50
51
Episode 51
52
Episode 52
53
Episode 53
54
Episode 54
55
Episode 55
56
Episode 56
57
Episode 57
58
Episode 58
59
Episode 59
60
Episode 60
61
Episode 61
62
Episode 62
63
Episode 63
64
Episode 64
65
Episode 65
66
Episode 66
67
Episode 67
68
Episode 68
69
Episode 69
70
Episode 70
71
Episode 71
72
Episode 72
73
Episode 73
74
Episode 74
75
Episode 75
76
Episode 76
77
Episode 77
78
Episode 78
79
Episode 79
80
Episode 80
81
Episode 81
82
Episode 82
83
Episode 83
84
Episode 84
85
Episode 85
86
Episode 86
87
Episode 87
88
Episode 88
89
Episode 89
90
Episode 90
91
Episode 91
92
Episode 92
93
Episode 93
94
Episode 94
95
Episode 95
96
Episode 96
97
Episode 97
98
Episode 98
99
Episode 99
100
Episode 100
101
Episode 101
102
Episode 102
103
Episode 103
104
Episode 104
105
Episode 105
106
Episode 106

Download

Like this story? Download the app to keep your reading history.
Download

Bonus

New users downloading the APP can read 10 episodes for free

Receive
NovelToon
Step Into A Different WORLD!
Download MangaToon APP on App Store and Google Play