That the best of sailors might do worse than even I alone was borne in upon me not a league from Boston docks, where a great steamship, fully manned, officered, and piloted, lay stranded and broken.

This was the _Venetian._ She was broken completely in two over a ledge.

So in the first hour of my lone voyage I had proof that the _Spray_ could at least do better than this full-handed steamship, for I was already farther on my voyage than she.

"Take warning, _Spray,_ and have a care," I uttered aloud to my bark, passing fairylike silently down the bay.
The wind freshened, and the _Spray_ rounded Deer Island light at the rate of seven knots.
Passing it, she squared away direct for Gloucester to procure there some fishermen's stores.

Waves dancing joyously across Massachusetts Bay met her coming out of the harbor to dash them into myriads of sparkling gems that hung about her at every surge.