: The First of the English: A Novel by Gunter Archibald Clavering - Historical fiction; Netherlands History Eighty Years' War 1568-1648 Fiction

@FreeBooksThu 08 Jun, 2023

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THE FIRST OF THE ENGLISH.

A STRANGE TRIP TO ANTWERP.

THE FLOOD IN THE SCHELDE.

"First officer, where's the boatswain?"

"Forward, sir, seeing the best bower cleared," returns Harry Dalton, the ranking lieutenant of the Dover Lass.

"Very well, pass the word for the boatswain. He has the best nose on board this ship," shouts Captain Guy Stanhope Chester.

"Aye, aye, sir!"

This being done, the young skipper, for he is hardly twenty-five, shaking the spray and sea water out of his tarpaulin, gropes his way to the binnacle, the lantern of which is shaded, partly to protect it from the weather and partly to prevent its light giving indication of the vessel's whereabouts through the darkness of the night.

Taking the course of the vessel he glances at the two men lashed by the tiller to prevent their being washed overboard by the waves that have been chasing the ship ever since she left the white cliffs of England, and remarks: "Better cast yourselves loose lads, we are in quieter water now. There's a bit of Flanders between us and the worst of the gale."

A moment after the boatswain makes his appearance, a weather-beaten old tar of England; one of the new class of deep-water sailors that are being made by Drake and Frobisher in voyages to the Spanish Main and far Pacific. Plucking a grisly lock, this worthy, who would be all sea dog did he not wear a battered, steel breast-plate, salutes his captain, who says:

"How long since we passed Flushing, Martin Corker?"

"About four bells, your honor."

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