The Flying Bo'sun: A Mystery of the Sea

The narrator signs on to a South Seas voyage and sketches shipboard life through episodic adventures, from shark hunts and short-handed storms to the captain’s injury, death, and a burial at sea. Sailors' personalities, superstitions and rough camaraderie shape daily scenes while a spooky boatswain-like apparition and discussions of astral influence challenge the crew's materialist views. Visits ashore in Pacific ports bring local color, tavern characters and encounters with a stowaway and a mysterious shore visitor. The voyage culminates in a hurricane and the ship's homeward passage, closing a tale of hardship, loyalty and seafaring tradition.