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An exciting tale of nautical adventure on the waters of colonial New York Harbor.
Chiefly set on the waters and islands of New York Harbor in the early years of the 1700s, James Fenimore Cooper's novel The Water-Witch (1830) paints a vivid picture of life in the little colonial port. It was familiar territory for Cooper, who a century later had served as a junior officer on board an eighteen-gun sloop-of-war stationed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. That experience acquainted him with the navigational intricacies and dangers with which his characters must deal as they carry out the central action of the novel, the repeated attempts by a British naval cruiser to capture the brigantine commanded by a notorious smuggler known as the Skimmer of the Seas. As in all of Cooper's nautical novels, the scenes of ship-handling and naval combat in The Water-Witch are rendered with absolute authenticity, but here he envelops them in a cloud of mystery and magic that is dispersed only in the chaotic climax of the book. This scholarly edition includes an informative historical introduction and thorough explanatory notes. It also serves as an example of the processes by which an authoritative text is established.
Chiefly set on the waters and islands of New York Harbor in the early years of the 1700s, James Fenimore Cooper's novel The Water-Witch (1830) paints a vivid picture of life in the little colonial port. It was familiar territory for Cooper, who a century later had served as a junior officer on board an eighteen-gun sloop-of-war stationed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. That experience acquainted him with the navigational intricacies and dangers with which his characters must deal as they carry out the central action of the novel, the repeated attempts by a British naval cruiser to capture the brigantine commanded by a notorious smuggler known as the Skimmer of the Seas. As in all of Cooper's nautical novels, the scenes of ship-handling and naval combat in The Water-Witch are rendered with absolute authenticity, but here he envelops them in a cloud of mystery and magic that is dispersed only in the chaotic climax of the book. This scholarly edition includes an informative historical introduction and thorough explanatory notes. It also serves as an example of the processes by which an authoritative text is established.