“Their want of practice will make them unskilful, and their want of skill timid. Maritime skill is like skill of other kinds, not a thing to be cultivated by the way or at chance times.”—Thucydides, i, 142.
I
Sail ho!” comes a long, tense cry from the masthead of the United States sloop of war Hornet. Men hurry across the deck to have a look. A magnificent viking of an officer, tall, majestic, commanding even in his walk, shades his eyes with his hand. Longing ambition and confidence flood his face as he stares eagerly across the blue vastness at the cloud of white on the horizon. Is it his chance at last? . . . long has he waited.
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