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Sailor and beachcomber / Confessions of a life at sea, in Australia, and amid the islands of the Pacific

Chapter 1: SAILOR AND BEACHCOMBER
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About This Book

A first-person maritime memoir traces the author's early years abroad, detailing life aboard sailing ships and tramp steamers, episodes ashore in Australia and in South Sea island communities, and the hardships of working passages. The narrative combines vivid travel anecdotes, sketches of bush and island life, reflections on lost comrades, and musical pieces and marches, presenting rough humor and camaraderie alongside moments of loss. Rather than moralizing, it offers candid, atmospheric recollections of drifting, labor, and the rewards and costs of a roving life.

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Sailor and beachcomber

This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Sailor and beachcomber

Author: A. Safroni-Middleton

Release date: January 6, 2019 [eBook #58624]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Chris Whitehead, Linda Cantoni, Barry
Abrahamsen, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
generously made available by The Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAILOR AND BEACHCOMBER ***

 

  • Transcriber’s Notes:
    • MIDI and MP3 files have been provided for both music examples. Click on the links to the right of “Listen” to hear the music. Whether this works depends on your browser. If you don't hear the music, you will probably find the music file in your downloads folder. ePub and Kindle readers don't currently support embedded music.
    • Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected.
    • Typographical errors were silently corrected.
    • Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only when a predominant form was found in this book.

 


MUSICAL COMPOSITIONS
By A. SAFRONI-MIDDLETON

March—

“Our Fleet” War March of the Allied Sailors and Soldiers. Dedicated by special permission of Lady Jellicoe to Admiral Sir John Jellicoe and the British Fleet, 1915. Pianoforte and Military Band.

Entr’acte—

“The Monk’s Dream” (Full Military)

Romanza—

“Song of the Night” (Full Military)

Waltz—

“Firenze” (Military)

Regimental Marches—

  “By Order of the King” Also Pianoforte Solo
  “Imperial Echoes” Also Pianoforte Solo
  “The Colours” Also Pianoforte Solo
  “Salute the Standard” Also Pianoforte Solo
  “Under the Old Flag” Also Pianoforte Solo
  “Our Fleet” Also Pianoforte Solo
  “Sierra Leone” Also Pianoforte Solo
  “The Relief” Also Pianoforte Solo
  “The Night Riders” Also Pianoforte Solo
  “Rough Diamonds” Also Pianoforte Solo
  “The Stronghold” Also Pianoforte Solo
  “Half Seas Over” Also Pianoforte Solo
  “House of Hanover” Also Pianoforte Solo
  “Light of the Regiment” Also Pianoforte Solo
  “The Dashing British” Also Pianoforte Solo
  “The Scottish Chief” Also Pianoforte Solo
  “The Dandy Fifth” Also Pianoforte Solo
  “Cashmere”  
  “The Long Bright Line”  
  “Paramatta”  
  “Carrara”  
  “Old Castille”  
  “Bohemia”  
  “Il Cavaliere”  
  “The Military Call” Also Pianoforte Solo
  “The Boundary Riders” Also Pianoforte Solo
Etc.

Songs—

“Samoan Love Song and Waltz”
“A Soldier’s Dream”
“By the Delawar”
“South Sea Melodies”
“Alabama Way”
Etc., etc.

Published by BOOSEY & Co., London, Aldershot and New York
Played by Military Regimental Bands throughout the World

Lieutenant J. Ord Hume, L. F., the distinguished Composer, Bandmaster and Contest Adjudicator of the British Empire, says: “I consider Safroni-Middleton’s rousing Military Marches the finest of recent years, and unique productions, coming as they do from the pen of a sailor.”


SAILOR AND BEACHCOMBER


Tree Climbing


SAILOR AND BEACHCOMBER
CONFESSIONS OF A LIFE AT SEA, IN AUSTRALIA
AND AMID THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC
BY
A. SAFRONI-MIDDLETON
WITH TWENTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON
GRANT RICHARDS LTD.
ST MARTIN’S STREET
LEICESTER SQUARE
MDCCCCXV

PRINTED BY THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITED
EDINBURGH

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK
TO THE MEMORY OF
MY BROTHER
MORTIMER HUGH MIDDLETON
AGED SIXTEEN YEARS
Lost overboard in mid-ocean while serving
before the mast of a sailing
ship outbound for
Australia
ALSO TO THE MEMORY OF
CAPTAIN POPPY
Of the sailing ship Aristides, lost
with all hands
AND TO THE MEMORY OF
MY COMRADES
Of the Australian Bush and
the South Sea Islands
Old comrades, by my fire in dreams
Your hands I clasp to-night;
Heaven starlit o’er the forest gleams
As ’neath the blood-wood’s height
You lie with folded hands asleep
By shores of tumbling waves,
As I creep up each silent steep
To kiss forgotten graves.
The soul of all the songs I sing,
Whatever sounds most true,
I dedicate each wild true ring,
Inspired, old chums, by you.
The world grieves not that you are dead—
Brave, reckless men who died,
Crept from their camp-fires back to bed
Along the wild hill-side.
But, comrades, ’neath the hills or waves,
Could one sad song of mine
Reveal dead souls of far-off graves,
’Twould be a song divine.
As pure and sweet as flowers that grow
Where once with wild delight
You sang, where bush-flowers, bursting, blow
Thro’ dead fire-ash to-night.
And so in dreams I take your hands,
In long-dead eyes I gaze,
And half in tears from other lands
Bring back the dear old days.
In other lands ’neath greyer skies
Wild rides again recall,
Your songs, your laughing, manly eyes—
The boy who loved you all.
Lies in my sea-chest ’neath my bed
The fiddle, stringless, still;
Old chums, since all of you are dead,
’Neath forest steep and hill,
I cannot play the songs you loved;
But with tired eyes and pen
I strive to tell the truth, who roved,
And found you—God’s best men.