1、Charles DickensThe WreckI was apprenticed to the Sea when I was twelve years old, and I have encountered a great deal of rough weather, both literal and metaphorical. It has always been my opinion since I first possessed such a thing as an opinion, that the man who knows only one subject is next tir
2、esome to the man who knows no subject. Therefore, in the course of my life I have taught myself whatever I could, and although I am not an educated man, I am able, I am thankful to say, to have an intelligent interest in most things.A person might suppose, from reading the above, that I am in the ha
3、bit of holding forth about number one. That is not the case. Just as if I was to come into a room among strangers, and must either be introduced or introduce myself, so I have taken the liberty of passing these few remarks, simply and plainly that it may be known who and what I am. I will add no mor
4、e of the sort than that my name is William George Ravender, that I was born at Penrith half a year after my own father was drowned, and that I am on the second day of this present blessed Christmas week of one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, fifty-six years of age.When the rumour first went fl
5、ying up and down that there was gold in Californiawhich, as most people know, was before it was discovered in the British colony of AustraliaI was in the West Indies, trading among the Islands. Being in command and likewise part-owner of a smart schooner, I had my work cut out for me, and I was doin
6、g it. Consequently, gold in California was no business of mine.But, by the time when I came home to England again, the thing was as clear as your hand held up before you at noon-day. There was Californian gold in the museums and in the goldsmiths shops, and the very first time I went upon Change, I
7、met a friend of mine （a seafaring man like myself）, with a Californian nugget hanging to his watch-chain. I handled it. It was as like a peeled walnut with bits unevenly broken off here and there, and then electrotyped all over, as ever I saw anything in my life.I am a single man （she was too good f
8、or this world and for me, and she died six weeks before our marriage-day）, so when I am ashore, I live in my house at Poplar. My house at Poplar is taken care of and kept ship-shape by an old lady who was my mothers maid before I was born. She is as handsome and as upright as any old lady in the wor
9、ld. She is as fond of me as if she had ever had an only son, and I was he. Well do I know wherever I sail that she never lays down her head at night without having said, “Merciful Lord! bless and preserve William George Ravender, and send him safe home, through Christ our Saviour!” I have thought of
10、 it in many a dangerous moment, when it has done me no harm, I am sure.In my house at Poplar, along with this old lady, I lived quiet for best part of a year: having had a long spell of it among the Islands, and having （which was very uncommon in me） taken the fever rather badly. At last, being stro
11、ng and hearty, and having read every book I could lay hold of, right out, I was walking down Leadenhall Street in the City of London, thinking of turning-to again, when I met what I call Smithick and Watersby of Liverpool. I chanced to lift up my eyes from looking in at a ships chronometer in a wind
12、ow, and I saw him bearing down upon me, head on.It is, personally, neither Smithick, nor Watersby, that I here mention, nor was I ever acquainted with any man of either of those names, nor do I think that there has been any one of either of those names in that Liverpool House for years back. But, it
13、 is in reality the House itself that I refer to; and a wiser merchant or a truer gentleman never stepped.“My dear Captain Ravender,” says he. “Of all the men on earth, I wanted to see you most. I was on my way to you.”“Well!” says I. “That looks as if you were to see me, dont it?” With that I put my
14、 arm in his, and we walked on towards the Royal Exchange, and when we got there, walked up and down at the back of it where the Clock-Tower is. We walked an hour and more, for he had much to say to me. He had a scheme for chartering a new ship of their own to take out cargo to the diggers and emigra
15、nts in California, and to buy and bring back gold. Into the particulars of that scheme I will not enter, and I have no right to enter. All I say of it is, that it was a very original one, a very fine one, a very sound one, and a very lucrative one beyond doubt.He imparted it to me as freely as if I
16、had been a part of himself. After doing so, he made me the handsomest sharing offer that ever was made to me, boy or manor I believe to any other captain in the Merchant Navyand he took this round turn to finish with:“Ravender, you are well aware that the lawlessness of that coast and country at present, is as special as the circumstances in which it is placed. Crews of vess
