The Log of a Privateersman

the crew, and that he was determined to have the vessel strongly manned enough to enable her to keep at sea even after sending away a prize crew or two. He was therefore anxious to secure as many good men as possible, and he suggested that I could not better employ my spare time than in looking about for such, and sending to him as many as I could find. This I did; and as the skipper and Mr Lovell, the chief mate, were both industriously engaged in the same manner, we contrived, by the time that the schooner was ready for sea, to scrape together a crew of ninety men, all told--a large proportion of whom were Portlanders,--as fine fellows, for the most part, as ever trod a plank.

The schooner was launched a fortnight from the day upon which I had first visited her, and as she slid off the ways Joe Martin's youngest daughter christened her, giving her the name of the Dolphin. She was launched with her two lower-masts in, and was at once taken up the harbour and moored opposite Mr White's wareho