_William Clark Russell, the son of Henry Russell, the composer of
"Cheer, Boys, Cheer" and other songs, was born in New York in 1844.
At the age of thirteen he entered the British merchant service and
followed the sea till twenty-one, after which he devoted himself to
story-writing. It is a common-place of criticism to say that no one
writes better sea stories than the author of the famous "Wreck of the
Grosvenor." Since 1890 he has lived at Bath, in the west of England.
The present story is taken from a volume entitled "On the Fo'k'sle
Head."_