The Project Gutenberg EBook of Battles with the Sea, by R.M. Ballantyne

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Title: Battles with the Sea

Author: R.M. Ballantyne

Release Date: June 7, 2007 [EBook #21717]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BATTLES WITH THE SEA ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

BATTLES WITH THE SEA, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE.

CHAPTER ONE.

HEROES OF THE LIFEBOAT AND ROCKET.

SKIRMISHES WITH THE SUBJECT GENERALLY.

It ought to be known to all English boys that there is a terrible and
costly war in which the British nation is at all times engaged. No
intervals of peace mark the course of this war. Cessations of
hostilities there are for brief periods, but no treaties of peace. "War
to the knife" is its character. Quarter is neither given nor sought.
Our foe is unfeeling, unrelenting. He wastes no time in diplomatic
preliminaries; he scorns the courtesies of national life. No
ambassadors are recalled, no declarations of war made. Like the Red
Savage he steals upon us unawares, and, with a roar of wrathful fury,
settles down to his deadly work.

How does this war progress? It is needful to put and reiterate this
question from time to time, because new generations of boys are always
growing up, who, so far from being familiar with the stirring episodes
of this war, and the daring deeds of valour performed, scarcely realise
the fact that such a war is being carried on at all, much less that it
costs hundreds of lives and millions of money every year.

It may be styled a naval war, being waged chiefly in boats upon the sea.
It is a war which will never cease, because our foe is invincible, and
we will never give in; a war which, unlike much ordinary warfare, is
never unjust or unnecessary; which cannot be avoided, which is conducted
on the most barbarous principles of deathless enmity, but which,
nevertheless, brings true glory and honour to those heroes who are ever
ready, night and day, to take their lives in their hands and rush into
the thick of the furious fray.

Although this great war began--at least in a systematic manner--only
little more than fifty years ago, it will not end until