Jack Derringer

JACK DERRINGER
A TALE OF DEEP WATER
By BASIL LUBBOCK
AUTHOR OF ROUND THE HORN BEFORE THE MAST
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.
1906
PRINTED BY HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD., LONDON AND AYLESBURY.
I have endeavoured in this book to paint sea life as it really is, as it can be seen on any deep-water sailing-ship of the present day, without glossing over the hardships, the hard knocks, the hard words, and the continual struggle and strife of it all. At the same time I have tried to hint at the glamour and fascination which the sea breathes into such souls as respond to its mighty call.
As to the queer collection of flotsam which found itself in the down-easter's foc's'le, I can assure my readers that this mixed crowd is in no way unusual; in fact, I am quite certain that the greater number of sailing ships bound deep water at the present moment are manned by crews of an even worse mixture of nationalities, trades, and creeds than formed the complement of the Higgins , which, for a ship sailing out of San Francisco, when seamen were scarce, was singularly lucky in finding so many bona-fide sailormen amongst her crew.
My reader may ask if the brutality described still goes on on American ships. All I can say is that several of the Yankee Cape Horn fleet are still notorious for it, their officers excusing themselves on the plea that only by the harshest measures can they preserve discipline amongst the hard-cut citizens of all nations who form American crews.
Many of the episodes in this book, including the cowpuncher's frontier yarns, I have taken from fact, and the treatment of the knifing dago by the bucko mate in Chapter IV. actually occurred in every detail.