CHAPTER I

A blue-nose ancestry with Yankee proclivities--Youthful fondness for the sea--Master of the ship _Northern Light_--Loss of the _Aquidneck_--Return home from Brazil in the canoe _Liberdade_--The gift of a "ship"--The rebuilding of the _Spray_--Conundrums in regard to finance and calking--The launching of the _Spray_.

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