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Cover of Outward Bound Or, Young America Afloat: A Story of Travel and Adventure

Outward Bound Or, Young America Afloat: A Story of Travel and Adventure

by Oliver Optic (1822–1897)

  • Free to read
  • 5 hours to read
  • 21 chapters
  • Reading level: 6th grade

"Outward Bound; Or, Young America Afloat: A Story of Travel and Adventure" by William T. Adams (Oliver Optic) is a novel written in the late 19th century. This engaging adventure takes readers on a journey with the juvenile crew of the Academy Ship "Young America" as they prepare for life at sea, focusing on themes of discipline, education, and the mischief of youth. The story introduces several key characters, including Robert Shuffles, the impulsive instigator, and Harry Martyn, who works to uphold discipline among his fellow classmates. The opening of the narrative introduces readers to Robert Shuffles and Isaac Monroe, two boarding students from Brockway Academy engaging in a petty theft of peaches from a local garden. This act of rebellion sets up a backdrop where discipline is a pressing issue at the academy, leading to the suggestion of reformatory education aboard a ship. Mr. Lowington, the academy's principal, reflects on his own troubled youth while preparing to turn the ship into an institution for moral and educational development. With the main boys gathered on board, anticipation builds for their eventual adventures, academic pursuits, and the lessons—both harsh and humorous—they will learn while sailing the open seas.

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  • Children's stories
  • Schools
  • Adventure stories
  • Seafaring life
  • Sailors
  • Young men
  • Ships

Read the opening

Chapter I

THE IDEA SUGGESTED.

"There are no such peaches this side of New Jersey; and you can't get them, for love or money, at the stores. All we have to do is, to fill our pockets, and keep our mouths closed—till the peaches are ripe enough to eat," said Robert Shuffles, the older and the larger of two boys, who had just climbed over the high fence that surrounded the fine garden of Mr. Lowington.

"What will Baird say if he finds it out?" replied Isaac Monroe, his companion.

"Baird," the gentleman thus irreverently alluded to, was the principal of the Brockway Academy, of which Shuffles and Monroe were pupils in the boarding department.

"What will he say when he finds out that the King of the Tonga Islands picks his teeth with a pitchfork?" added Shuffles, contemptuously. "I don't intend that he shall find it out? and he won't, unless you tell him."

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Contents

  1. Preface
  2. Chapter I
  3. Chapter II
  4. Chapter III
  5. Chapter IV
  6. Chapter V
  7. Chapter VI
  8. Chapter VII
  9. Chapter VIII
  10. Chapter IX
  11. Chapter X
  12. Chapter XI
  13. Chapter XII
  14. Chapter XIII
  15. Chapter XIV
  16. Chapter XV
  17. Chapter XVI
  18. Chapter XVII
  19. Chapter XVIII
  20. Chapter XIX
  21. Chapter XX

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About this edition

This free edition of Outward Bound Or, Young America Afloat: A Story of Travel and Adventure by Oliver Optic comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #15920, released 2005-05-27. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Children & Young Adult Reading, Adventure, Novels.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

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