Excerpt from The Story of a Sailor's Life I AM writing this to show the wonderful mercies the Lord has shown me in fifty years' life-time at sea, and I hope that whoever may have a chance to look at it, it will teach them not to despair, or give them selves up for lost for by perseverance, and a firm trust in the AI mighty, we can do anything that the Giver of all good will allow us to do; for there is a Sweet little cherub that sits up aloft, keeps a watch for the life of poor Jack. By accounts that I had from my friends, when I came to the years of' recollection, I was informed that I was born at sea, in the year of' our Lord 1777, on the 2otb of August my father being master of a brig belonging to Hull in Yorkshire, and when I was born, he was bound on a voyage from London to Hamburg. My mother being at sea along with her husband, and being at sea, and by contrary winds and bad weather being detained longer than what they expected, I was born on board of the J ane and Margaret, belonging to the port of Hull, when the brig was nearly abreast of' Heligoland, an island that lays at the entrance of Hamburg River; but my mother being very podrly, she and I were left at a place called Cuxhaven, at the entrance of the River Elbe. But my father being obliged to proceed upon his voyage, my mother and me were left at Hamburg at the consul's. And the winter setting in sooner and severer than B. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.