THRILLING NARRATIVES OF MUTINY, MURDER AND PIRACYTales of Shipwreck and Disaster, with accounts of Providential Escapes and heart-rending fatalities.Shipwreck may be ranked among the greatest evils which man can experience. It is never void of danger, frequently of fatal issue, and invariably productive of regret. It is one against which there is the least resource, where patience, fortitude and ingenuity are in most cases, unavailing, except to protract a struggle with destiny, which, at length, proves irresistible.But amidst the myriads unceasingly swallowed up by the deep, it is not by the numbers that we are to judge of the miseries endured. Hundreds may at once meet an instantaneous fate, hardly conscious of its approach, while a few individuals may linger out existence, daily in hope of succor, and at length be compelled to the horrible alternative of preying on each other for the support of life. Neither is it by the Narratives about to be given that we are to calculate on the frequency of shipwreck. It is an event that has been of constant occurrence since a period long anterior to what the earliest records can reach. In England it is calculated that about 5000 natives of the British Isles yearly perish at sea.This perpetual exposure to peril, however, materially contributes to the formation of character, and hence are sailors preeminently distinguished by courage, endurance, and ready invention. Habituated to the instability of the ocean, they make little account of danger, and are invariably the first in matters of the most daring enterprise. Incessantly subjected to toil, they labor long and patiently without murmur, and the prompt and vigorous measures which are indispensable to their security, teach them the immediate application of whatever means are within their power.A natural desire to know the fate of their fellow creatures seems implanted in the breast of mankind, and the most powerful sympathies are excited by listening to the misfortunes of the innocent. To record some impressive examples of calamity, or unlooked for deliverance, is the object of these pages; and it will be seen of what astonishing advantage are the virtues of decision, temperance, perseverance and unwavering hope in moments of extreme peril and despairAdventures of Capt. Woodward and Five Seamen in the island of Celebes,An Occurrence at sea,Loss of H. B. M ship Phoenix, off Cuba,An account of the Whale Fishery, with anecdotes.Loss of the Brig Tyrrel,Loss of the Peggy,Loss of H. B. M. ship Litchfield,Wreck of the Rothsay Castle Steamer,Loss of the French ship Droits de L'Homme,Loss of H. B. M. ship Queen Charlotte,A Scene on the Atlantic Ocean,Wreck of the French Frigate Medusa, on the Arguin Bank,Loss of the Royal George,Loss of the Æneas, transport,The Absent Ship,Loss of the Halsewell, East Indiaman,An account of Four Russians, abandoned on the Island of East Spitzbergen,Loss of the Amphitrite, Female Convict Ship,The Mutineers, a Tale of the Sea,Fate of Seven Sailors, left on the island of St. Maurice,Seamen wintering in Spitzbergen,A Man Overboard,An Escape through the Cabin-Windows,Tom Cringle's Log,Loss of the Nautilus, Sloop of War,Wreck of a Slave Ship,The Wrecked Seamen,Adventures of Philip Ashton,Explosion of H. B. M. ship Amphion,Loss of H. B. M. ship La Tribune,Burning of the Prince, a French East Indiaman,Wreck of the Schooner Betsey,Early American Heroism,Fingal's Cave,Loss of H. B. M. ship Ramillies,Preservation of Nine Seamen,Capt. Ross's Expedition,Loss of the Catharine, Venus, and Piedmont, transports, and three Merchant Ships,Wreck of the Ship Sidney,Loss of the Duke William, transport,Commodore Barney,Naval Battles of the United States,Address to the Ocean,