Off on a Comet by Jules Verne — Read

The _Dobryna_, a strong craft of 200 tons burden, had been built in the / famous shipbuilding yards in the Isle of Wight. Her sea going qualities / were excellent, and would have amply sufficed for a circumnavigation of / the globe. Count Timascheff was himself no sailor, but had the / greatest confidence in leaving the command of his yacht in the hands of / Lieutenant Procope, a man of about thirty years of age, and an excellent / seaman. Born on the count's estates, the son of a serf who had been / emancipated long before the famous edict of the Emperor Alexander, / Procope was sincerely attached, by a tie of gratitude as well as of duty / and affection, to his patron's service. After an apprenticeship on a / merchant ship he had entered the imperial navy, and had already reached / the rank of lieutenant when the count appointed him to the charge of / his own private yacht, in which he was accustomed to spend by far the / greater part of his time, throughout the winter generally cruising in / the Mediterranean, whilst in the summer he visited more northern waters.

The ship could not have been in better hands. The lieutenant was well / informed in many matters outside the pale of his profession, and his / attainments were alike creditable to himself and to the liberal friend / who had given him his education. He had an excellent crew, consisting / of Tiglew the engineer, four sailors named Niegoch, Tolstoy, Etkef, and / Panofka, and Mochel the cook. These men, without exception, were all / sons of the count's tenants, and so tenaciously, even out at sea, did / they cling to their old traditions, that it mattered little to them what / physical disorganization ensued, so long as they felt they were sharing / the experiences of their lord and master. The late astounding events, / however, had rendered Procope manifestly uneasy, and not the less / so from his consciousness that the count secretly partook of his own / anxiety.