Explore "The Major's Commission" by W. Clark Russell on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
My name is Henry Adams, and in 1854 I was mate of a ship of 1200 tons named the _Jessamy Bride_. June of that year found her at Calcutta with cargo to the hatches, and ready to sail for England in three or four days.
I was walking up and down the ship's long quarter-deck, sheltered by the awning, when a young apprentice came aft and said a gentleman wished to speak to me. I saw a man standing in the gangway; he was a tall, soldierly person, about forty years of age, with iron-grey hair and spiked moustache, and an aquiline nose. His eyes were singularly bright and penetrating. He immediately said-