The Life of a Ship from the Launch to the Wreck

The Life of a Ship, by R.M. Ballantyne

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Title: The Life of a Ship
Author: R.M. Ballantyne
Release Date: June 7, 2007 [EBook #21745]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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The Life of a Ship from the Launch to the Wreck
by R.M. Ballantyne.
CHAPTER ONE.
THE LIFE OF A SHIP FROM THE LAUNCH TO THE WRECK.
SONG OF THE SAILOR BOY.
Oh! I love the great blue ocean,
I love the whistling breeze,
When the gallant ship sweeps lightly
Across the surging seas.
I watched my first ship building;
I saw her timbers rise,
Until her masts were towering
Up in the bright blue skies.

I heard the cheers ascending,
I saw her kiss the foam,
When first her hull went plunging
Into her ocean home.
Her flags were gaily streaming,
And her sails were full and round,
When the shout from shore came ringing,
"Hurrah! for the Outward-bound!"

But, alas! ere long a tempest
Came down with awful roar
And dashed our ship in pieces
Upon a foreign shore.
But He who holds the waters
In His almighty hand,
Brought all the sailors safely
Back to their native land.
Davy was a fisher boy; and Davy was a very active little boy; and Davy wanted to go to sea. His father was a fisherman, his grandfather had been a fisherman, and his great-grandfather had been a fisherman: so we need not wonder much that little Davy took to the salt water like a fish. When he was very little he used to wade in it, and catch crabs in it, and gather shells on the shore, or build castles on the sands. Sometimes, too, he fell into the water neck and heels, and ran home to his mother, who used to whip him and set him to dry before the fire; but, as he grew older, he went with his father in the boat to fish, and from that time forward he began to wish to go to sea in one of the large ships that were constantly sailing away from the harbour near his father's cottage.
One day Davy sat on a rock beside the sea, leaning on his father's boathook, and gazing with longing eyes out upon the clear calm ocean, on which several ships and boats were floating idly, for there was not a breath of wind to fill their sails.
"Oh, how I wish my father would let me go to sea!" said Davy, with a deep sigh. "I wonder if I shall ever sail away beyond that line yonder, far, far away, where the sky seems to sink into the sea!" The line that he spoke of was the horizon.
Davy heaved another sigh, and smiled; for, just at that moment, his eyes fell on a small crab that stood before him with its claws up as if it were listening to what he said.
"Oh, crab, crab," cried the little boy, "you're a happy beast!"
At that moment he moved the boathook, and the crab ran away in such a desperate hurry that Davy opened his eyes wide and said, "Humph! maybe ye're not a happy beast after all!" While he sat thus, a stout fisherman came up and asked him what he was thinking about. On being told, he said, "Will you come with me, boy, to the building-yard, and I'll show you a ship on the `stocks.' I'm goin' as one of her crew when she's ready for sea, and perhaps by that time your father will let you go too." You may be sure that Davy did not refuse such a good offer; so the man and the boy went hand in hand to the yard where ships were built. Davy had never been there before, and great was his surprise when he saw a huge thing standing on dry land, with great pieces of wood of all shapes sticking round it, like the skeleton of a whale; but greater still was his surprise when the fisherman said, "There, lad, that's the ship."
"Well," exclaimed Davy, opening his large eyes to their widest, "it don't look like one just now!"
The fisherman laughed. "That's true, lad; but come--I'll explain;" and taking Davy by the hand, he led him nearer to the "skeleton" of the ship, and began to explain the names and uses of the different parts.
"You see that long thick timber," he said, "that runs from this end, which is the `stern,' to that end, which is the `bow'--well, that is the `keel.' This post or beam that rises out of it here is the `stern-post,'