Salt Water - The Sea Life and Adventures of Neil D'Arcy the Midshipman

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Salt Water, by W. H. G. Kingston This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Salt Water The Sea Life and Adventures of Neil D'Arcy the Midshipman Author: W. H. G. Kingston Illustrator: C. J. de Lacey Release Date: May 15, 2007 [EBook #21476] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SALT WATER *** Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England W H G Kingston "Salt Water" Chapter One. Neil D’Arcy’s Life at Sea. My Ancestors—Larry Harrigan, and my Early Education—Choice of a Profession—First Start in Life. “The sea, the sea,” if not my mother, has been my nurse (and anything but a dry one) from the earliest days of my recollection. I was born within the sound of old ocean’s surges; I dabbled in salt water before I could run; and I have floated on salt water, and have been well sprinkled with it too, from that time to the present. It never occurred to me, indeed, that I could be anything but a sailor. In my innocence, I pictured a life on the ocean wave as the happiest allowed to mortals; and little did I wot of all the bumpings and thumpings, the blows and the buffetings, I was destined to endure in the course of it.