Project Gutenberg's Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean, by E. Hamilton Currey

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Title: Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean

Author: E. Hamilton Currey

Release Date: October 10, 2004 [EBook #13689]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEA-WOLVES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN ***

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SEA-WOLVES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN

[Illustration: KHEYR-ED-DIN BARBAROSSA--CORSAIR, ADMIRAL, AND KING.]

SEA-WOLVES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN

THE GRAND PERIOD OF THE MOSLEM CORSAIRS

BY COMMANDER E. HAMILTON CURREY, R.N.

WITH PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

"Ships be but boards, sailors but men:
There be land rats and water rats, land thieves and water thieves,
I mean pirates."

_Merchant of Venice_.

LONDON

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W

1910

TO THAT GRACIOUS LADY TO WHOSE COUNSEL AND ENCOURAGEMENT I OWE SO MUCH MORE
THAN ANY ONE--SAVE I--CAN IMAGINE...

TO MY WIFE

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK

PREFACE

When the ship is ready for launching there comes a moment of tense
excitement before the dogshores are knocked away and she slides down the
ways. In the case of a ship this excitement is shared by many thousands,
who have assembled to acclaim the birth of a perfected product of the
industry of man; the emotion is shared by all those who are present. It is
very different when a book has been completed. The launching has been
arranged for and completed by expert hands; she like the ship gathers way
and slides forth into an ocean: but, unlike the ship which is certain to
float, the waters may close over and engulf her, or perchance she may be
towed back to that haven of obscurity from which she emerged, to rust there
in silence and neglect. There is excitement in the breast of one man
alone--to wit, the author. If his book possesses one supreme qualification
she will escape the fate mentioned, and this qualification is--interest. As
the weeks lengthened into months, and these multiplied themselves to the
tale of something like twenty-four, the c