Jack in the Forecastle

I was born towards the close of the last century, in a village pleasantly situated on the banks of the Merrimack, in Massachusetts. For the satisfaction of the curious, and the edification of the genealogist, I will state that my ancestors came to this country from England in the middle of the seventeenth century.
1860 work of John Sherburne Sleeper (1794-1878), an American sailor, ship master, novelist, who wrote under the pen mane of Hawser Martingale; journalist and politician. His is the stor