19 May 2013
The “Slapping Sal”
It was in the days when France’s power was already broken upon the seas, and when more of her three-deckers lay rotting in the Medway than were to be found in Brest harbour. But her frigates and corvettes still scoured the ocean, closely followed ever by those of her rival. At the uttermost ends of
16 May 2013
How Copley Banks Slew Captain Sharkey
The Buccaneers were something higher than a mere band of marauders. They were a floating republic, with laws, usages, and discipline of their own. In their endless and remorseless quarrel with the Spaniards they had some semblance of right upon their side. Their bloody harryings of the cities of the Main were not more barbarous
13 May 2013
The Blighting Of Sharkey
Sharkey, the abominable Sharkey, was out again. After two years of the Coromandel coast, his black barque of death, the Happy Delivery, was prowling off the Spanish Main, while trader and fisher flew for dear life at the menace of that patched fore-topsail, rising slowly over the violet rim of the tropical sea. As the
10 May 2013
The Dealings Of Captain Sharkey With Stephen Craddock
Careening was a very necessary operation for the old pirate. On his superior speed he depended both for overhauling the trader and escaping the man-of-war. But it was impossible to retain his sailing qualities unless he periodically—once a year, at the least—cleared his vessel’s bottom from the long, trailing plants and crusting barnacles which gather
07 May 2013
Captain Sharkey: How The Governor Of Saint Kitt’s Came Home
When the great wars of the Spanish Succession had been brought to an end by the Treaty of Utrecht, the vast number of privateers which had been fitted out by the contending parties found their occupation gone. Some took to the more peaceful but less lucrative ways of ordinary commerce, others were absorbed into the
01 May 2013
The Dealings of Captain Sharkey and Other Tales of Pirates
TALES OF PIRATES I. Captain Sharkey: How the Governor of Saint Kitt’s Came Home II. The Dealings of Captain Sharkey with Stephen Craddock III. The Blighting of Sharkey IV. How Copley Banks Slew Captain Sharkey V. The “Slapping Sal” VI. A Pirate of the Land (One Crowded Hour) TALES OF BLUE WATER VII. The Striped
27 Apr 2013
The Novels of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Welcome to our Novels section. You will find the novels of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle here. These are the novels we currently have for your reading pleasure: The Lost World This novel, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1912, tells of Professor Edward George Challenger’s quest for dinosaurs in a prehistoric lost world. The
23 Apr 2013
The Ring Of Thoth
Mr. John Vansittart Smith, F.R.S., of 147-A Gower Street, was a man whose energy of purpose and clearness of thought might have placed him in the very first rank of scientific observers. He was the victim, however, of a universal ambition which prompted him to aim at distinction in many subjects rather than preeminence in
20 Apr 2013
The Parson Of Jackman’s Gulch
He was known in the Gulch as the Reverend Elias B. Hopkins, but it was generally understood that the title was an honorary one, extorted by his many eminent qualities, and not borne out by any legal claim which he could adduce. “The Parson” was another of his sobriquets, which was sufficiently distinctive in a
17 Apr 2013
John Barrington Cowles
It might seem rash of me to say that I ascribe the death of my poor friend, John Barrington Cowles, to any preternatural agency. I am aware that in the present state of public feeling a chain of evidence would require to be strong indeed before the possibility of such a conclusion could be admitted.