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The Eventful History of the Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of H.m.s. Bounty [by Sir J. Barrow]. by J. Barrow
The Eventful History of the Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of Hms Bounty by J Barrow - by Sir J. Barrow Author:John Barrow General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1883 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER IV. THE OPEN-BOAT NAVIGATION. " The boat is lowered with all the haste of hate, With its slight plank between thee and thy fate ; Her only cargo such a scant supply As promises the death their hands deny ; And just enough of water and of bread To keep, some days, the dying from the dead : Some cordage, canvas, sails, and lines, and twine, But treasures all to hermits of the brine, Were added after, to the earnest prayer Of those who saw no hope save sea and air ; And last, that trembling vassal of the Pole, The feeling compass, Navigation's soul. The launch is crowded with the faithful few That wait their Chief -- a melancholy crew : But some remained reluctant on the deck Of that proud vessel, now a moral wreck -- And viewed their captain's fate with piteous eyes; While others scoff'd his augur'd miseries, Sneer'd at the prospect of his pigmy sail, And the slight bark, so laden and so frail." HRISTIAN had intended to send away his captain and associates in the cutter, and ordered that it should be hoisted out for thatpurpose, which was done: a small wretched boat, that could hold but eight or ten men at the most, with a very small additional weight; and what was still worse, she was so worm-eaten and decayed, especially in the bottom planks, that the probability was, she would have gone down before she had proceeded a mile from the ship. In this " rotten carcass of a boat," not unlike that into which Prospero and his lovely daughter were " hoist," " not rigg'd, Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats Instinctively had quit it," did Christian in...« less