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I hope you can, I bought part of a set of the
collected works may years ago at a book sale,
don’t have them all but some great sea yarns.
In The Crater, two New England Merchantmen are
stranded on an uncharted volcanic isle. Their
ship is land locked by reefs so they set in to
survive, they release the few pigs and fowl they
have and the island begins to grow and bloom,
eventually they build a smaller craft and manage
to sail back to New England where they recruit
family and friends to move back and live on the
island, well the next thing you know they have
newspaper men, lawyers and assorted folk going
with them, trouble ensues to the point where
the origonal families are driven off the island.
Eventually they return but the island isn’t there
it has subsided back under the sea.

There is a great scene where the two men are discussing
the national debt of some 270,000 dollars and how it
is leading the nation to ruin.

Hope you can find it, also Miles Wallingford is a young
ship captain hoping to make a profit by running cargos
to France through the British blockade, he is stopped
by a British man of war, some of his crew are impressed
and a prize crew is put aboard to take his ship to
England, he manages to regain control, sets the prize
crew off in a boat, but then his ship is sunk and
he is adrift on the wreckage, picked up by the French
he is thrown in prison where he meets up with some of
his crew, they steal a ship and escape only to come in
contact with the British ship which stopped them in the
first place. Eventually he returns to America, gets the
girl and every thing is all right. There is much commentary
on how the American vision of freedom feels about Britain
and maritime commerce.
Written at a time when sail was the jet travel of the age
a glossary of nautical terms is a big help. Still the plot
and the turns are timeless.
hope you can find it.
t.