The Inchcape Rock

James Baldwin (1841 – 1925) was born in United States, in Indiana. For eighteen years he served as the superintendent of Indiana's school system. Afterwards, he went on to become a well-known and widely published textbook editor and children's author. Main subjects of his writings were mythology, biography, literature. He wrote more than fifty pieces of work.

The Inchcape Rock is a short story included in Fifty Famous Stories Retold. It follows an abbot, living at the seaside near the rock called the Inchcape rock for being covered with water most of the time. Many vessels wrecked on that rock, so the abbot decided to make the passage safer and placed a buoy over it. But not only the fair sailors were keen to use abbot’s kindness, and one day a ship with a black flag came passing by.