Book Description

Excerpt from The Merchant Vessel: A Sailor Boy's Voyages to See the World In the present volume, it has been the aim of the writer to draw an intelligible picture of a Merchant Seaman's life. Were the Merchant Service such as youth are most apt to imagine it, it would undoubtedly have great charms for one of an adventurous turn of mind. Could the Merchant Sailor always have his choice of voyages - could he obtain a situation when he wished, and to go whither it pleased him - were he not continually at the mercy of tyrannical officers, and grasping shoresmen - and finally, but not by any means of least importance, were his average income sufficient to meet even his most moderate wants, such a life, with all its hardships, would form a not unpleasing experience. But the direct reverse is the fact. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.