The Pilot
READING AGE 16+
A Tale of the Sea
(1823)
DEDICATED TO WILLIAM BRANFORD SHUBRICK, ESQ., U. S. NAVY.
--MY DEAR SHUBRICK, Each year brings some new and melancholy chasm in what is now the brief list of my naval friends and former associates. War, disease, and the casualties of a hazardous profession have made fearful inroads in the limited number; while the places of the dead are supplied by names that to me are those of strangers. With the consequences of these sad changes before me, I cherish the recollection of those with whom I once lived in close familiarity with peculiar interest, and feel a triumph in their growing reputations, that is but little short of their own honest pride. But neither time nor separation has shaken our intimacy: and I know that in dedicating to you this volume, I tell you nothing new, when I add that it is a tribute paid to an enduring friendship, by Your old Messmate, THE AUTHOR.
Unfold
"Come, all you kindred chieftains of the deep,
In mighty phalanx round your brother bend;
Hush every murmur that invades his sleep--
And guard the laurels that o'ershade your friend."
_Lines on Tripp_.
Here, perhaps, it would be wise to suffer the curtain of our imperfect
drama to fall before the reader, ……
Waiting for the first comment……