Under the mizzen mast: A voyage round the world

Chapter 3: Preface to the Second Edition.

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About This Book

The narrative presents a first-person account of a round-the-world sailing voyage undertaken with family aboard a merchant ship, following passages around Cape Horn and across the Pacific to California, the Sandwich Islands, China ports, Singapore, Macao, and Manila, before returning home. It interweaves shipboard routine, weather and navigational detail, dockside sketches of ports and local life, and reflective asides on health, religion, and travel's restorative effects. Arranged in chronological chapters that mirror the outward, Cape Horn, Pacific, East Asian, and homeward stages, it blends practical maritime reportage with personal observation and descriptive travel writing.

Preface to the First Edition.

A narrative of this voyage was prepared for the ‘Congregationalist’ at the request of the editors, and appeared in successive numbers of that paper. On application of the present publisher for leave to issue it in a volume, it has assumed the form in which it now appears, revised and enlarged. The manner in which it originated explains its miscellaneous and somewhat desultory character.

Preface to the Second Edition.

So much interest in this narrative has been expressed that the author has been led to insert in a new edition things which it would have contained in the first, had the design been to give more than a brief sketch of the voyage.