The Wrecker 



A brave fellow ! He keeps his tides well. 



— TiMON OF Athens. 



On a barren and desolate dune of four miles long and 

 a quarter of a mile broad — laid down on the old charts 

 as "Malabar" Island, but now, for some reason, I 

 know not what, called Monomoy Island — a number of 

 professional wreckers have pitched their lives to ply 

 their risky and speculative calling. 



Wreckers and pirates were once linked together in 

 my mind, for I thought the terms synonymous. This, 

 however, as the reader may surmise., was in 



"My salad days 

 When I was green in judgment." 



I soon discovered a wide difference. The wrecker 

 is a man who will, and does, risk his very life to save 

 property, whether it be vessel or cargo, as well as to 

 rescue the lives of those in peril. In the pursuit of 

 his calling he shows heroic bravery, great nerve and 

 the most stubborn hardihood. Moreover he displays 

 a goodly share of v/isdom and cunning in disposing of 

 his " flotsam and jetsam," and has other bits of mari- 

 time law-knoTvledge that have been rubbed into him 

 by his calling, and which crop out, when occasion de- 



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