A Sailor's Tale: Miss Judith 1888-1893 Miss Molly

In 1888 a US Navy sailor begins writing letters to his niece. The letters tell her where he is and what ventures he has gotten himself into. His sailor letters are retrospective written after things happen. He also must tell her how he got to the place in time he started writing. He is educated for the time trained as a naval navigator lighthouse repairman and watch repairman. His language is as he would speak to his fellow crew-clipped as sailors use few G sounds and an apostrophe is used to indicate the word is shortened as they do. He is honest and kind. He is well trained in sword fighting. His enlistment contract is not the standard form. His mothers attorney wrote it. The fleet admiral approved it as he had served with the sailors uncle. His uncle was a noted ship navigator shipmaster an author of navy lore and now provided ocean metrological data to the naval observatory. He has carried this on. His early experiences involve train travel to San Francisco. The ship charts the then Northwest Territory and the Alaskan coast. His group verifies charts of the Missouri River. Mostly his ship supplies food provisions to navy frigates in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean.