The Project Gutenberg EBook of Salt Water, by W. H. G. Kingston

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Title: Salt Water
The Sea Life and Adventures of Neil D'Arcy the Midshipman

Author: W. H. G. Kingston

Illustrator: C. J. de Lacey

Release Date: May 15, 2007 [EBook #21476]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SALT WATER ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

Salt Water, The Sea Life and Adventures of Neil D'Arcy the Midshipman,
By W H G Kingston.

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One interesting feature of this book is that it must have been one of
the earliest to be written by Kingston. It does not appear that there
was another edition for sixty years, by which time the author had been
dead for 35 years.

It is also a very good book of his genre, with lots of battle, murder,
and sudden death. It deals with the adventures of a young boy who joins
the Royal Navy as a midshipman in the care of his uncle. Most of the
action takes place in the Mediterranean, even so far as the Ionian sea,
where he visits Zante (now called Zakynthos), Cephalonia, and even
Corfu.

Of course practically everybody appearing in the book is slain, except
the young hero, who survives all.

If you want to read, or listen to, a rattling good yarn, try this one.

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SALT WATER, THE SEA LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF NEIL D'ARCY THE MIDSHIPMAN,
BY W H G KINGSTON.

CHAPTER ONE.

NEIL D'ARCY'S LIFE AT SEA.

MY ANCESTORS--LARRY HARRIGAN, AND MY EARLY EDUCATION--CHOICE OF A
PROFESSION--FIRST START IN LIFE.

"The sea, the sea," if not my mother, has been my nurse (and anything
but a dry one) from the earliest days of my recollection. I was born
within the sound of old ocean's surges; I dabbled in salt water before I
could run; and I have floated on salt water, and have been well
sprinkled with it too, from that time to the present. It never occurred
to me, indeed, that I could be anything but a sailor. In my innocence,
I pictured a life on the ocean wave as the happiest allowed to mortals;
and little did I wot of all the