120 LITERARY PILGRIMAGES 



famous on all seas, her exploits woven into sea 

 chanteys and ringing in hoarse chorus round the 

 capstan in many a distant port while the men bent 

 to the capstan bars, the pawl clicked, and ponder- 

 ous anchors strained upward out of the ooze. 

 That was the clipper-built Liverpool packet 

 Dreadnaught. She was known as "The Wild 

 Boat of the Atlantic " and " The Flying Dutch- 

 man." Twice she carried the latest American 

 news to Europe, slipping in between steamers. 

 Once in 1860 she crossed the wind-swept western 

 ocean in nine days and thirteen hours, from 

 Sandy Hook to Queenstown, a pace which many 

 an ocean-going steamship does not better to-day. 

 She was conspicuous on all seas for the red cross 

 painted on her foretopsail. " The Port " was 

 proud indeed of this vessel, and as I stood on the 

 top deck of the gray old custom house, looking 

 down on the empty harbor on the one hand and up 

 the ridge at the great square houses of the old sea 

 captains and ship-builders on the other, I thought 

 the wind crooned a snatch or two of deep sea 

 chantey in memory of it round the gray stone 

 cornices at my feet : 



