Opening material

OUTWARD BOUND;

OR,

YOUNG AMERICA AFLOAT.

A STORY OF TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE.

BY

WILLIAM T. ADAMS

(_OLIVER OPTIC_).

TO GEORGE WEBSTER TERRILL

_This Volume_

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.

PREFACE.

Outward Bound is the first volume of "A Library of Travel and Adventure in Foreign Lands," and contains the voyage of the Academy Ship "Young America" across the Atlantic. The origin and progress of this aquatic institution are incidentally developed, and the plan is respectfully submitted to the consideration of those who are interested in the education and moral training of the class of young men who are the characters in the scenes described in this work. Besides a full description of the routine and discipline of the ship, as an educational and reformatory institution, the volume contains a rather free _exposé_ of the follies and frailties of youth, but their vices are revealed to suggest the remedy.

The story includes the experience of the officers and crew of the Young America, eighty-seven in number, though, of course, only a few of them can appear as prominent actors. As the ship has a little world, with all the elements of good and evil, within her wooden walls, the story of the individual will necessarily be interwoven with that of the mass; and the history of "The Chain League," in the present volume, of which Shuffles is the hero, will, it is hoped, convey an instructive lesson to young men who are disposed to rebel against reasonable discipline and authority. In the succeeding volumes of this series, the adventures, travels, and "sight-seeing," as well as the individual and collective experience of the juvenile crew of the Academy Ship, will be narrated. They will visit the principal ports of Europe, as well as penetrate to the interior; but they will always be American boys, wherever they are.

The author hopes that the volumes of the series will not only be instructive as a description of foreign lands, and interesting as a record of juvenile exploits, but that they will convey correct views of moral and social duties, and stimulate the young reader to their faithful performance.

HARRISON SQUARE, MASS., November 2, 1866.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE