Chapter I: Preface

These pages were the last ever written by the brave and true-hearted sailor of whose life they are a simple record.

A few months before his death, some of his friends made the fortunate suggestion that he should put on paper a detailed account of his sporting adventures, and this idea gradually developed itself until the work took the present form of an autobiography, written roughly, it is true, and put together without much method, part of it being dictated at the Riviera during the last days of the author's fatal illness. Such as it is, however, we are convinced that the many devoted friends of Hobart Pasha who now lament his death will be glad to recall in these 'Sketches' the adventures and sports which some of them shared with him, and the genial disposition and manly qualities which endeared him to them all.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. A ROUGH START IN LIFE 1

II. PERILS BY SEA AND LAND 14

III. A TRAGICAL AFFAIR 27

IV. RIO DE JANEIRO 36

V. SLAVER HUNTING 43

VI. SLAVER HUNTING (_continued_) 53

VII. LOVE AND MURDER 62

VIII. THE QUEEN'S YACHT 71

IX. IN THE BALTIC 78

X. BLOCKADE-RUNNING 87

XI. EXCITING ADVENTURES 103

XII. A VISIT TO CHARLESTON 120

XIII. NEVER CAUGHT! 133

XIV. LAST DAYS ON THE 'D----N' 147

CHAPTER PAGE

XV. RICHMOND DURING THE SIEGE 159

XVI. THE LAND BLOCKADE 175

XVII. I ENTER THE TURKISH NAVY 186

XVIII. THE WAR WITH RUSSIA 201

XIX. THE TURKISH FLEET DURING THE WAR 217

XX. SPORT IN TURKEY 235

XXI. SPORT AND SOCIETY 253

EXTRACT FROM THE 'DAILY TELEGRAPH' 277

SKETCHES FROM MY LIFE.