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The First Mate The Story of a Strange Cruise By: Harry Collingwood (1851-1922) |
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The hero of this story is Walter Leigh, who takes a job as second mate
aboard a gasoline powered yacht owned by a Mrs Vansittart, whose
husband is an American industrialist. Julius Vansittart is a rather
nasty 12 year old, who, despite his life being saved by Leigh, when he
had fallen overboard, hates the English, and never misses an opportunity
of being as unpleasant as possible, even to the point of stupidity. There are numerous disasters in this story, with the First Mate's death
occurring soon after the start of the book, and Leigh's promotion to the
position. After that there are an attack by pirates, a shipwreck, an
attack by hostile natives, all of which Leigh does his best to cope
with. Eventually even the dreadful Julius becomes a bit more civilised,
and apologises for his bad behaviour hitherto. They drop a large number of floating messages asking for help, into the
sea, and eventually they are rescued. This is not a very long book,
taking only 8.5 hours to read as an audiobook.
THE FIRST MATE, BY HARRY COLLINGWOOD. CHAPTER ONE. THE "STELLA MARIS" AND MRS VANSITTART. "Well, young man, what do you think of her?" 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 wee bit startled. I had not had the
ghost of a suspicion that anyone was nearer me than the gang of
labourers who were busily engaged in unloading a big delivery wagon and
transferring the contents, in the shape of numerous packing cases, to
the deck of the vessel which I was scrutinising. It was afternoon of a
grey day in the latter part of October three years ago; and the scene
was one of the wharves of the east basin of the London Docks, round
which I had been prowling in search of a ship. I had been thus engaged
ever since nine o'clock that morning, interviewing skippers and mates,
so far unsuccessfully, when I was "brought up all standing" by finding
myself in close proximity to a white hulled, ship rigged craft of, I
estimated, some two thousand five hundred tons measurement. She was steel built, with steel lower masts, bowsprit, and lower and
topsail yards; and even if she had not been sporting the ensign of the
New York Yacht Club at her ensign staff and its burgee at her main
royal mast head, I should still have known her for a yacht from the
perfection of her lines, the dainty and exquisite beauty of her shape,
the whiteness of her decks (notwithstanding their somewhat littered
condition), the beautiful modelling of her boats, her polished teak
rails, and generally the high finish and perfect cleanliness of her deck
fittings. She was as heavily rigged as a frigate; moreover, although no
guns were visible, I observed that her main deck bulwarks were pierced
with six ports of a side, in the wake of which steel racers were bolted
to the deck; also she sported hammock rails, which I had never seen
before except in pictures of old fashioned wooden men o' war. A gilt
cable moulding ornamented her sheer strake; a beautifully carved and
gilded full length figure of a woman wearing a star of cut glass facets
on her forehead formed her figurehead; and her quarters were adorned
with a considerable amount of gilded scroll work. Her elliptical stern
bore, in large gilded block letters, the words: Stella Maris. New York. As the enquiry with which I have opened this story reached my ears, I
wheeled round and found myself face to face with a little lady. She was
very richly dressed in silk and furs, quite colourless as to complexion,
but with a fine pair of deep violet eyes and a quantity of dark chestnut
hair loosely coiled under an immense hat rigged with black ostrich
plumes. I put her down in my own mind as being something over
thirty six years of age, and I subsequently learned that I was not very
far out... Continue reading book >>
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Genres for this book |
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Fiction |
Sea stories |
Teen/Young adult |
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Wikipedia – Harry Collingwood |
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