The adventures of Harry Marline; or, Notes from an American midshipman's lucky bag

THE following " adventures" were written thirty years ago for the amusement of my boys. They were loaned about in the navy, in manuscript, with ac- companying illustrations, which latter were very well executed, and I am sorry they are lost. The manuscript disappeared for some twenty years, and, about ten years ago, was returned to me in a bundle, minus the illustra- tions. I don't know how many cruises they have made in the mean time. One day Mr. D. R. Hamersly, editor of the "United Service Magazine," asked me to write something for his monthly, and I told him he might have the bundle of manuscript, hardly recollect- ing what it was all about. Mr. Hamersly published it, people were amused over Harry Marline's adventures, and, as I think it better for people to laugh than to cry, I thought I would have the adventures published in book-form. They will amuse the middies of the present day, as showing the life of midshipmen in the olden times.