The Pirate

Captain Marryat (1792 - 1848) was a contemporary of Charles Dickens noted for his sea stories. Marryat began writing after a distinguished career in the British Navy. His time and personal experience in the Navy enhance his stories. The Pirate was published in 1836. The adventure begins, "It was in the latter part of the month of June, of the year seventeen hundred and ninety something, that the angry waves of the Bay of Biscay were gradually subsiding, after a gale of wind as violent as it was unusual during that period of the year. Still they rolled heavily; and, at times, the wind blew up in fitful, angry gusts, as if it would fain renew the elemental combat; but each effort was more feeble, and the dark clouds which had been summoned to the storm, now fled in every quarter before the powerful rays of the sun."