carrying out his destiny he lashed about him with something
of the elemental aimlessness of his mother the sea. The next
chapter will show how the captain of to-day grew up and,
literally, got licked into his present form at the rough and
cruel hands of the old-time skipper.




CHAPTER III

A CABIN-BOY'S START AT SEA


During recent years I have had the opportunity of listening
to many speeches on nautical subjects. Some of them have not
only been instructive but interesting, inasmuch as they have
often enabled me to get a glimpse into the layman's manner
of thinking on these questions. It invariably happens,
however, that gentlemen, in their zeal to display maritime
knowledge, commit the error of dealing with a phase of it
that carries them into deep water; their vocabulary becomes
exhausted, and they speedily breathe their last in the
oft-repeated tale that the "old-fashioned sailor is an
extinct creature," and, judging from the earnest vehemence
that is thrown into it, they convey the impression that
their dictum is to be understood as emphatically original.
Well, I will let that go, and will merely observe how
distressingly superficial the knowledge is as to the
rearing, training, and treatment which enabled those