and bloodthirsty pirates, the smaller craft was often the better, for it was wiser to brave nature’s moods in a cockle-shell than to attract men’s notice in a great ship.  Captain Cleveland’s voyages from Havre to the Cape of Good Hope, in a 45-ton cutter; from Calcutta to the Isle of France, in a 25-ton sloop; and Captain Coggeshall’s voyage around Cape Horn in an unseaworthy pilot-boat are typical exploits of Yankee seamanship.  We see the same spirit manifested occasionally nowadays when some New Englander crosses the ocean in a dory, or circumnavigates the world alone in a 30-foot sloop.  But these adventures are apt to end ignominiously in a dime museum.

A noted sailor in his time was Captain Benjamin I. Trask, master of many ships, ruler of many deeps, who died in harness in 1871, and for whom the flags on the shipping in New York Bay were set at half-mast.  An appreciative writer, Mr. George W. Sheldon, in Harper’s Magazine, tells this story to show what manner of man he was; it was on the ship “Saratoga,” from Havre to New York, with a crew among whom were several recently liberated French convicts: 

“The first day out the new crew were very troublesome, owing in part, doubtless, to the absence of the mate, who was ill in bed and who died after a few hours.  Suddenly the second mate, son of the commander, heard his father call out, ’Take hold of the wheel,’ and going forward, saw him holding a sailor at arm’s length.  The mutineer was soon lodged in the cockpit; but all hands—­the watch below and the watch on deck—­came aft as if obeying a signal, with threatening faces and clenched fists.  The captain, methodical and cool, ordered his son to run a line across the deck between him and the rebellious crew, and to arm the steward and the third mate.

“‘Now go forward and get to work’, he said to the gang, who immediately made a demonstration to break the line.  ’The first man who passes that rope,’ added the captain, ’I will shoot.  I am going to call you one by one; if two come at a time I will shoot both.’

“The first to come forward was a big fellow in a red shirt.  He had hesitated to advance when called; but the ’I will give you one more invitation, sir,’ of the captain furnished him with the requisite resolution.  So large were his wrists that ordinary shackles were too small to go around them, and ankle-shackles took their place.  Escorted by the second and third mates to the cabin, he was made to lie flat on his stomach, while staples were driven through the chains of his handcuffs to pin him down.  After eighteen of the mutineers had been similarly treated, the captain himself withdrew to the cabin and lay on a sofa, telling the second mate to call him in an hour.  The next minute he was asleep with the stapled ruffians all around him.”

As the ocean routes became more clearly defined, and the limitations and character of international trade