TOM CRINGLE’S LOG
By Michael Scott
(1789—1835)
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.—The Launching of the Log.
CHAPTER II.—The Cruise of the Torch.
CHAPTER III.—The Quenching of the Torch.
CHAPTER IV.—Scenes on the Costa Firme.
CHAPTER VI.—The Cruise of the Spark
CHAPTER VII.—Scenes in Jamaica
CHAPTER VIII.—The Chase of the Smuggler
CHAPTER XI.—More Scenes in Jamaica.
CHAPTER XII.—The Cruise o the Firebrand
CHAPTER XIII.—The Pirate’s Leman
CHAPTER XV.—The Cruise of the Wave. The Action with the Slaver.
CHAPTER XVI.—The Second Cruise of the Wave
CHAPTER XVII.—The Third Cruise of the Wave
CHAPTER XVIII. Tropical High-links
CHAPTER XIX.—The Last of the Log—Tom Cringle’s Farewell.
CHAPTER I.—The Launching of the Log.
Dazzled by the glories of Trafalgar, I, Thomas Cringle, one fine morning in the merry month of May, in the year one thousand eight hundred and so and so, magnanimously determined in my own mind, that the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland should no longer languish under the want of a successor to the immortal Nelson, and being then of the great perpendicular altitude of four feet four inches, and of the mature age of thirteen years, I thereupon betook myself to the praiseworthy task of tormenting, to the full extent of my small ability, every man and woman who had the misfortune of being in any way connected with me, until they had agreed to exert all their interest, direct or indirect, and concentrate the same in one focus upon the head and heart of Sir Barnaby Blueblazes, vice-admiral of the red squadrons a Lord of the Admiralty, and one of the old plain K.B.‘s (for he flourished before the time when a gallant action or two tagged half of the letters of the alphabet to a man’s name, like the tail of a paper kite), in order that he might be graciously pleased to have me placed on the quarterdeck of one of his