The Crater, Or, Vulcan's Peak; A Tale of the Pacific (Paperback)

General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1871 Original Publisher: Hurd and Houghton Subjects: Fiction / Classics Fiction / Literary History / General History / Oceania Literary Criticism / General Literary Criticism / American / General Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: 36 -; 11 r.; l; T i: K CHAPTER III. " God of the dark and heavy deep The waves lie sleeping on the sands, Till the fierce trumpet of the storm Hath summon'd up their thundering bands; Then the white sails are dashed like foam, Or hurry trembling o'er the seas, Till calmed by thee, the sinking gale Serenely breathes, Depart in peace." Pkabodt. The day that preceded the night of which we are about to speak, was misty, with the wind fresh at east-southeast. The Rancocus was running off, south-west, and consequently was going with the wind free. Captain Crutch- ely had one failing, and it was a very bad one for a shipmaster; he would drink rather too much grog, at his dinner. At all other times he might have been called a sober man; out, at dinner, he would gulp down three or four glasses of rum and water. In that day rum was much used in America far more than brandy; and every dinner-table, that had the smallest pretension to be above that of the mere labouring man, had at least a bottle of one of these liquors on it. Wine was not commonly seen at the cabin- table; or, if seen, it was in those vessels that had recently been in the vine-growing countries, and on special occasions. Captain Crutchely was fond of the pleasures of the table in another sense. His eating was on a level with his drinking; and for pigs, and poultry, and vegetables that would keep at sea, his ship was always a litt...