The Project Gutenberg EBook of Masterman Ready, by Captain Frederick Marryat

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Title: Masterman Ready
The Wreck of the "Pacific"

Author: Captain Frederick Marryat

Release Date: May 21, 2007 [EBook #21552]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MASTERMAN READY ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

Masterman Ready, by Captain Marryat.

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Captain Frederick Marryat was born July 10 1792, and died August 8 1848.
He retired from the British navy in 1828 in order to devote himself to
writing. In the following 20 years he wrote 26 books, many of which are
among the very best of English literature, and some of which are still
in print.

Marryat had an extraordinary gift for the invention of episodes in his
stories. He says somewhere that when he sat down for the day's work, he
never knew what he was going to write. He certainly was a literary
genius.

"Masterman Ready" was published in 1841, the nineteenth book to flow
from Marryat's pen. It is simpler to read than most of Marryat's books,
since it was intended for children.

This e-text was transcribed in 1998 by Nick Hodson, and was reformatted
in 2003, and again in 2005.

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MASTERMAN READY, BY CAPTAIN FREDERICK MARRYAT.

CHAPTER ONE.

It was in the month of October, 18---, that the _Pacific_, a large ship,
was running before a heavy gale of wind in the middle of the vast
Atlantic Ocean. She had but little sail, for the wind was so strong,
that the canvas would have been split into pieces by the furious blasts
before which she was driven through the waves, which were very high, and
following her almost as fast as she darted through their boiling waters;
sometimes heaving up her stern and sinking her bows down so deep into
the hollow of the sea, that it appeared as if she would have dived down
underneath the waves; but she was a fine vessel, and the captain was a
good seaman, who did what he considered best for the safety of his
vessel, and then put his trust in that Provide