Frederick Marryat (1792–1848)

Captain Marryat wrote in the 1840s, so of course his captains will not be engaging in extramarital affairs like Hornblower or court-martialing a seaman for sodomy with the ship’s goat like Aubrey; instead both the officers and sailors are prone to erudite and demure speech and impeccable on- and off-shore behavior. However, when it comes to battle or storm the descriptions are just as exciting as anything narrated by Forester or O’Brian.


Marryat displays a social consciousness perhaps a show more little in advance of his time. His protagonists are often illegitimate or orphans who make their way in the world by talent and determination rather than wealth or blood. He shows sympathy with those of less than perfect morals – smugglers always end up having a Heart of Gold and are True Sons of England despite their dubious relationship with Customs Officers, and in Percival Keene one of the main characters is an escaped American slave who has turned to piracy but who nevertheless has a sense of honor (although he roasts captured slavers alive now and then, Marryat seems to concur that they had it coming).


Captain Marryat isn’t the caliber of Dickens, but his works do have a similar feel – a sort of pleasant literary archaeology. They’re quick and fun reads and are recommended. show less

The Settlers in Canada are an upper-class British family who are rendered less than prosperous in a way familiar to Jane Austen's readers by the appearance of an unknown heir with a better claim upon Mr Campbell's inherited estate, into which he had poured all the proceeds of said estate to improve the property and the well-being of his tenants. The only thing to do rather than live "destitute" in England is to emigrate. The children, especially the young adults, rise to the challenge; the show more second son gives up his naval career temporarily. However, the deeply favourable impression he has made upon his superiors opens many doors to the family. Upon arrival in Canada, they receive a surprising amount of help from the governor and from the military garrison near which they take up land. Marryat, a naval captain himself, probably has a very good grasp of the politicking and the favours that can be given and received among comrades in uniform. He also has an excellent grasp of history and the short precis of the story of North America from the time of the French and Indian Wars through the Napoleonic Wars is probably the most concise and insightful I've ever read. He also has a general grasp of conditions in the backwoods, although his colonial-born characters hired as servants are so deferential as to completely contradict the accounts of Susanna Moodie and Catherine Parr Traill, who actually lived among them. The treatment of the indigenous peoples ("Indians") is more problematic; the whites pronounce upon The Character of the Indian, The Religion of the Indian, and have nothing useful to say on the topic, at length. There are some glaring errors in the course of the seasons as well, collecting maple sap in April (!) and stockpiling the sap until there is enough to boil it down all at once to make two or three hundred pounds of sugar. ... Assuming 200 pounds of syrup (not sugar), they needed to find enough containers to stockpile 1000 gallons of sap to boil down; for that weight of sugar of course they'd need more sap. And it spoils very fast in April weather. After over 50 years of syrup-making, I find errors this egregious hard to ignore, especially when they take up pages of the story. The kidnapped-by-Indians plot was sort of tedious and cringe-worthy. And when the family's fortunes take another turn and they head back to take up their Responsibilities in England, poor Percival -- shortchanged throughout the story, first forced to stick close to home and tend animals when he wants to learn hunting, then kidnapped by "Indians", is stated as wanting to remain in Canada but there's no discussion of this -- has to come home and become a successful lawyer while his younger brother stays behind on the farm and hunts. Not a really satisfying novel, but historically interesting. show less

I read most 'Children's Classics' in my youth, but never seemed to get a copy of this one... It's actually (even as an adult reader) a pretty good read, even if, being older and more cynical, we might feel the efforts of the young protagonists are quite astonishingly successful!
It's the story of the four Beverley children, during the English Civil War. The orphaned offspring of a well-to-do Cavalier, they are being brought up by a sour old aunt in their family home, until the arrival of show more Roundheads, the burning down of the property and seizure of old Cousin Judith (whom they take to be Charles I in disguise)...
Then follow years of adventure as the four are taken in by a sympathetic forester. Edward, the eldest, soon becomes an adroit deer hunter, while practical brother Humphrey starts a technically impressive farm, and the girls master homecraft. But there's a Roundhead 'Intendant' (with a lovely daughter) supervising the forest; an obliging gypsy who falls into Humphrey's trap; and tantalising news of Charles II returning to re-take the throne...
Pretty good!! show less

This is indeed the first time I have read a book from this author and I learned quite a lot about the seafaring life from the early 1800's London. I have read quite a few British novels from this time period, but they were always aimed at upper middle class people clawing their way into the highest social class by marriage with wealthy third daughters of lofty lords. Books in which even a governess was hailed as someone ill fit for the rich and powerful.

So indeed reading a book about show more ordinary working class families in the docks of southern London was most eye opening, written by a naval officer who likely mingled with all sorts of folk during his career. Yes, there were industrious women that made a good fortune with hard work. Apparently being the personal maid of an elderly lady was a huge honor and countless young women would fighting over such eye watering 7 day a week jobs cleaning calluses and spoon feeding breakfast to their charge.

This is pretty much a coming of age story of Thomas Saunders, the unwanted son product of a mismatched marriage between a humble (but drop dead handsome in a scruffy way) boatswain and a prepotent lady's maid who were probably not thinking things through when they ended up marrying each other and ultimately regretting it every step of the way.

After Thomas's dad (also named Thomas Saunders) is tricked into getting pressed into forced service of a royal vessel from his wife for the sake of getting rid of him, she gets into a fight with her employer and forced to suck her pride and live in a lower working class neighborhood near the docks offering tea, bacon and ale to the sailors while she treats Thomas with the utter worst of scorn for no reason whatsoever and pampering her daughter Virginia.

Thomas pretty much hates his abusive mother and prefers to spend most of his free time working as a mudlark hewing the boats to the dock for a copper under the nickname "Poor Jack". I believe the moral of the story revolves a lot on how Thomas was both a level headed mixture between ambition and kindness. He worked very hard and might have even scuffed with his competition, and yet he was always polite to the sailors and honest. His pleasant personality attracted the interest of a semi-retired officer named Anderson of the nearby Naval hospital for retired injured sailors who teaches him how to read & write and guides the boy during his childhood.

Thomas eventually meets his father who ended up as a permanent resident of the hospital after losing a leg in a battle (much to his mother's annoyance). While abusive to his wife at first due to equal horrible things she did to him (one of them getting pressed into service which ultimately left him crippled), he is otherwise likeable and envious Thomas has a closer relationship to Anderson.

We also get to meet other characters from the town, including fellow hospital retirees Ben and a former pirate with a sketchy past Slider who both taking a liking to the boy, a pleasant tobacco seller from Ireland named Miss St. Felix and a tragic past she keeps hidden, the village doctor and an old crone who buys driftwood and other trinkets Thomas sometimes salvages from the river and borrows him cash early into the story to purchase decent clothes to go to church (and ultimately entices the mother to start tolerating her son and treat him better).

As a way to offer Thomas an honorable job working in a boat without the constant fear of getting pressed into military service, his father and Anderson find him an apprenticeship as a boat pilot with a kind man named Mr. Bramble who also ends up acting like a father figure to the teenager. I have never heard of this profession and would like to see more of it in other books. They are basically a sort of guide who know the terrains of the estuaries surrounding London and hitch rides on all sorts of vessels and steer the vessel in and out of the city safely. Bramble has an adoptive daughter named Bessie who was salvaged from a Dutch shipwreck.

Contrary to what I expected, Virginia never ends up spoiled or petulant from her mother's upbringing. She is actually a perfectly sweet person and gets along well with Thomas. And yes, her mother worked very hard in a successful clothing factory she opened with Thomas's help to give Virginia a good education in the hopes of marrying her off to the highest suitor, much to her annoyance.

I think if there was anything annoying about the book's finale; it would be how it worked too hard to give everyone a super duper happy ending with a bow on top. It seems hardly credible a newly licensed 21 year old pilot would end up so damn wealthy at that age with so much ridiculous ease. I won't spoil how it happened, but it does seem quite incoherent. In today's money, he would have ended up 100 million USD rich. Yeah, seriously.

One other huge qualm I have with the book which is probably just a reflection of the era in which it was written is the portrayal of black and mulatto characters. They are universally either hot-headed trigger happy idiots, blood thirsty (literally) cannibals or a vestige of absolute buffoonery like the crippled sailor of the hospital who at one point of the story drank too much grog and after his peg leg got stuck in a hole, he hops around in circles around and around singing nonsense. Those scenes are very cringey and knocked an additional half star from the book.

For the most part, I did enjoy the story despite its shortcomings and might read additional books from the author. 3 1/2 stars. show less