ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION,

PUBLISHED BY A. MILLAR, IN OCTAVO, 1764.

With a CHART of the SHIP'S PATH from CANDIA, to CAPE COLONNA.

Ir is perhaps necessary to acquaint the Public, that

the Author of this Poem designed not at first to enlarge the Work with so many Notes, and, to avoid this, proposed to refer his readers to any one of the modern Dictionaries, which should be thought most proper for explaining the technical terms occasionally mentioned in the Poem; but, after strict examination of them all, including a silly inadequate performance that has lately appeared by a Sea-Officer,* he could by no means recommend their explanations, without forfeiting his claim to the character assumed in the Title-Page, of which he is much more tenacious than of his reputation as a Poet.

Although it is so frequent a practice to take the advantage of public approbation, and raise the price of performances that have been much encouraged,

*Can a Sea-officer be so ignorant as to mistake the names of the most common things in a ship?

iv

the Author chooses to steer in a quite different channel: it being a considerable time since the first Edition sold off, (notwithstanding the high price, and the singularity of the subject,) he might very justly continue the price; but as it deterred a number of the inferior Officers of the sea from purchasing it, at their repeated requests it has been printed now in a smaller Edition: at the same time, the Author is sorry to observe, that the gentlemen of the sea, for whose entertainment it was chiefly calculated, have hardly made one-tenth of the purchasers.

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE THIRD EDITION.

Dated from Somerset House, October 1, 1769, the Year in which FALCONER sailed for INDIA.

THE favourable reception which this performance has hitherto met with from the Public, has encouraged the Author to give it a strict and thorough revision; in the course of which he flatters himself, it will be found to have received very considerable improvements.

of the Ship, as seen by the Inhabitants

of Candia, on her leaving the Harbour

18

20

25

26

39

42

44

Guns thrown overboard

page

75

....

Speeches of the Master, and his Mates, on their

*

* *The EGEAN SEA, or ARCHIPELAGO, has been
divided into seven parts: 1. The Sea of Crete. 2. The
Myrtoan Sea, before Peloponnesus and Attica. 3. The
Sea of Greece, along the Coast of Greece. 4. The Sea
of Macedonia. 5. The Ægean Sea, properly so called,
between Euboea and Lemnos. 6. The Icarian Sea,
towards the Island of Icarus. 7. The Carpathian Sea,
and that of Rhodes, lying between this Island and that
of Crete. The Archipelago contains fifty-three Islands.

DESCRIPTION OF THE VIGNETTES AND

PLATES IN THIS VOLUME.

ENGRAVED BY J. FITTLER, R. A. S.

Marine Engraver to his Majesty;

FROM PAINTINGS BY N. POCOCK, ESQ.

FIRST VIGNETTE

REPRESENTS the BRITANNIA Merchantman as just launched at DEPTFORD, with a distant view of GREENWICH.-When a Ship is launched, the Ensign, Jack, and Pendant, are always hoisted; the last being displayed from a Staff erected in the middle of the Ship. Mr. Pocock's design in this View, was to give an exact Portrait of a Merchant Vessel employed in the Levant Trade when FALCONER wrote.*

SECOND VIGNETTE.

The Ship unmooring by Moonlight, as described in the First Canto, page 41:

"All hands unmoor! proclaims a boisterous cry,

All hands unmoor! the caverned rocks reply."

*The Vessels then trading to the Levant, were not limited as to Burthen, or Guns, except a certain number of about 300 tons, and 18 Guns, that were called Act Ships. FALCONER has described the BRITANNIA more like a Frigate.