The Pilot

The Pilot

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Title: The Pilot
Author: J. Fenimore Cooper
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THE PILOT
A Tale of the Sea.

BY
J. FENIMORE COOPER

TO
WILLIAM BRANFORD SHUBRICK, ESQ.,
U. S. NAVY.
MY DEAR SHUBRICK,
Each year brings some new and melancholy chasm in what is now the
brief list of my naval friends and former associates. War, disease, and
the casualties of a hazardous profession have made fearful inroads in
the limited number; while the places of the dead are supplied by names
that to me are those of strangers. With the consequences of these sad
changes before me, I cherish the recollection of those with whom I
once lived in close familiarity with peculiar interest, and feel a triumph
in their growing reputations, that is but little short of their own honest
pride.
But neither time nor separation has shaken our intimacy: and I know
that in dedicating to you this volume, I tell you nothing new, when I
add that it is a tribute paid to an enduring friendship, by
Your old Messmate,
THE AUTHOR.
* * * * *

PREFACE.
* * * * *
It is probable a true history of human events would show that a far
larger proportion of our acts are the results of sudden impulses and
accident, than of that reason of which we so much boast. However true,
or false, this opinion may be in more important matters, it is certainly
and strictly correct as relates to the conception and execution of this
book.
The Pilot was published in 1823. This was not long after the
appearance of "The PIRATE," a work which, it is hardly necessary to
remind the reader, has a direct connection with the sea. In a
conversation with a friend, a man of polished taste and extensive
reading, the authorship of the Scottish novels came under discussion.
The claims of Sir Walter were a little distrusted, on account of the
peculiar and minute information that the romances were then very
generally thought to display. The Pirate was cited as a very marked
instance of this universal knowledge, and it was wondered where a man
of Scott's habits and associations could have become so familiar with
the sea. The writer had frequently observed that there was much
looseness in this universal knowledge, and that the secret of its success
was to be traced to the power of creating that resemblance, which is so
remarkably exhibited in those world- renowned fictions, rather than to
any very accurate information on the part of their author. It would have
been hypercritical to object to the Pirate, that it was not strictly nautical,
or true in its details; but, when the reverse was urged as a proof of what,
considering the character of other portions of the work, would have
been most extraordinary attainments, it was a sort of provocation to
dispute the seamanship of the Pirate, a quality to which the book has
certainly very little just pretension. The result of this conversation was
a sudden determination to produce a work which, if it had no other
merit, might present truer pictures of the ocean and ships than any that
are to be found in the Pirate. To this unpremeditated decision, purely an
impulse, is not only the Pilot due, but a tolerably numerous school of
nautical romances that have succeeded it.
The author had many misgivings concerning the success of the
undertaking, after he had made some progress