A Book For The Hammock PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 edition. Excerpt: ... WHO IS VANDERDECKENt A Scientific American gentleman has been endeavouring to determine the paternity of the grisly and spectral commander of the Flying Dutchman. I wish he had been successful, for ever since I read the " Cruise of the Bacchante" I have been bewildering my brains with the same problem. The princely word of the Eoyal midshipmen must be taken, and it is plainly stated that at four o'clock a.m. on July 11, 1881, "the Flying Dutchman crossed our bows." Nothing can be clearer than that; and, besides, there is the additional testimony of the reverend gentleman who accompanied the Princes and edited their interesting observations. "A strange red light as of a phantom ship all aglow, in the midst of which light the masts, spars, and sails of a brig two hundred yards distant stood out in strong relief as she came up." This appearance is in strict correspondence with the tradition, but I wish the vessel had not been a brig. I should not like to put my hand to it that such a rig as that of the brig was known in Vanderdecken's days. You had four-masted craft in plenty, the fourth mast being called the bonaventure; also abundance of three-masted vessels, the third mast rigged with a lateen sail; but no fabric answering to what we term a brig. There was a kind of vessel called brigandines, but they carried the rig of neither the brig nor the brigantine as we understand the term. That Vanderdecken ever shifts his flag is not to be supposed. Yet there could be no mistake, for mark what follows: "Thirteen persons altogether saw her, but whether it was Van Dieman or the Flying Dutchman, or who else, must remain unknown." The ships in company flashed to know if the people of the Bacchante had seen the strange red light, so that probably...