Lost Ships and Lonely Seas

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Lost Ships and Lonely Seas (1921)
by Ralph D. Paine, illustrated by George Avison
I. The Brig Polly
→
(excepting for the attributed paintings.) First published as individual short stories in Century magazine, 1920-21

"It is hard to astonish a deep-water sailor, because nothing is too strange to happen at sea," writes the author of this first volume. Perhaps that is why no sea fiction has been written that is as thrilling as some of the actualities when those happenings are set down with sufficient verisimilitude to make them live. Hence Ralph D. Paine has done a service in rummaging among old logs and diaries and chronicles, retrieving ind revivifying some of the great sea adventures of 100 to 200 years ago—a period when the sailing ship was beginning that world commerce which is now so accepted a fact; when there were stupendous dangers and privations to be faced; when Yankee-built vessels and American-born sailors loomed large in the romance of ocean trade. . . . —from the review in The Nation, Feb 1922

Ralph D. PaineGeorge Avison2881115Lost Ships and Lonely Seas1921
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​

LOST SHIPS
AND
LONELY SEAS

​

THE WRECK OF THE "POLLY"

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LOST SHIPS
AND
LONELY SEAS


BY
RALPH D. PAINE


ILLUSTRATED



NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.

​

Copyright, 1920. 1921, by
The Century Co.

PRINTED IN U. S. A.

​
Contents
  1. chapterpage
  2. I The Singular Fate of the Brig Polly 3
  3. II How the Schooner Exertion Fell among Thieves 25
  4. III The Tragedy of the Frigate Medusa 51
  5. IV The Wreck of the Blenden Hall, East Indiaman 76
  6. V The Adventures of David Woodard, Chief Mate 107
  7. VI Captain Paddock on the Coast of Barbary 131
  8. VII Four Thousand Miles in an Open Boat 160
  9. VIII The Frigates That Vanished in the South Seas 189
  10. IX When H. M. S. Phoenix Drove Ashore 212
  11. X The Roaring Days of Piracy 232
  12. XI The Loss of the Wager Man-of-War 259
  13. XII The Cruise of the Wager's Long-Boat 288
  14. XIII The Grim Tale of the Nottingham Galley 309
  15. XIV The Storm-Swept Fleet of Admiral Graves 330
  16. XV The Brisk Yarn of the Speedwell Privateer 350
  17. XVI Luckless Seamen Long in Exile 367
  18. XVII The Noble King of the Pelew Islands 393

​

ILLUSTRATIONS

  1. The wreck of the Polly Frontispiece
  2. facing page
  3. Seamanship was helpless to ward off the attack of the storm that left the brig a sodden hulk 8
  4. Fresh water trickled from the end of the pistol-barrel, and they caught it in a tin cup 16
  5. Volusia off Salem, built at Falmouth, Mass., in 1801, and Wrecked at Cape Cod in 1802 20
  6. The pirate captain boarding the captured Exertion 29
  7. Armed with as many of the aforementioned weapons as they could well sling about their bodies 33
  8. Boats were filled with men whose only thought was to save their skins 56
  9. The brig, which had made a long tack and was now steering straight toward the raft 64
  10. Governor Glass and his residence 97
  11. Woodard raised his empty hands to ask for peace and mercy 112
  12. Wreck of the Grosvenor on the coast of Caffraria 144
  13. Early American ship of the 18th Century 176
  14. Perilous situation of the ship 224
  15. The Charlemagne, a New York packet ship 272
  16. Brig Topaz of Newburyport, built in 1807 305
  17. The brig Olinda of Salem, built in 1825 352
  18. Taking on the pilot in the 18th Century 384

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.

The longest-living author of this work died in 1925, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 98 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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