Preface

It is probable a true history of human events would show that a far
larger proportion of our acts are the results of sudden impulses and
accident, than of that reason of which we so much boast. However true,
or false, this opinion may be in more important matters, it is certainly
and strictly correct as relates to the conception and execution of this
book.

The Pilot was published in 1823. This was not long after the appearance
of "The PIRATE," a work which, it is hardly necessary to remind the
reader, has a direct connection with the sea. In a conversation with a
friend, a man of polished taste and extensive reading, the authorship of
the Scottish novels came under discussion. The claims of Sir Walter were
a little distrusted, on account of the peculiar and minute information
that the romances were then very generally thought to display. The
Pirate was cited as a very marked instance of this universal knowledge,
and it was wondered where a man of Scott's habits and associations could
have become so familiar with the sea. The writer had frequently observed
that there was much looseness in this universal knowledge, and that the
secret of its success was to be traced to the power of creating that
_resemblance_, which is so remarkably exhibited in those world-
renowned fictions, rather than to any very accurate information on the
part of their author. It would have been hypercritical to object to the
Pirate, that it was not strictly nautical, or true in its details; but,
when the reverse was urged as a proof of what, considering the character
of other portions of the work, would have been most extraordinary
attainments, it was a sort of provocation to dispute the seamanship of
the Pirate, a quality to which the book has certainly very little just
pretension. The result of this conversation was a sudden determination
to produce a work which, if it had no other merit, might present truer
pictures of the ocean and ships than any that are to be found in the
Pirate. To this unpremeditated decision, purely an impulse, is not only
the Pilot due, but a tolerably numerous school of nautical romances that
have succeeded it.

The author had many misgivings concerning the success of the
undertaking, after he had made some progress in the work; the opinions
of his different friends being anything but encouraging. One would
declare that the sea could not be made interesting; that it was tame,
monotonous, and without any other movement than unpleasant storms, and
that, for his part, the less he got of it the better. The women very
generally protested that such a book would have the odor of bilge water,
and that it would give them the _maladie de mer_. Not a single
individual among all those who discussed the