A rather fanciful book by Captain Marryat, not about English people in various sea-faring situations, as most of his books are, but about a Turkish Pacha, and his interest in finding people who can tell him strange tales. And mighty strange some of them are, too!

Frederick Marryat was born in Great George Street, Westminster, London on 10th July 1792. His father, Joseph Marryat, was descended from Huguenots who had taken refuge in England following the St. Bartholemew’s Day massacres in 1572, two centuries previously, and his mother was an American from Boston, with the maiden name of Geyer. Frederick's grandfather was Dr. Thomas Marryat, an extremely eccentric physician, who had died, impoverished, in Bristol just before Frederick's birth.

Frederick's father Joseph, however, was very wealthy, partly by inheritance and marriage, and partly by his own endeavours. He was a Member of Parliament for Sandwich, the Chairman of Lloyd's, and Agent for Grenada in the West Indies. They lived in Wimbledon, and sent their second son – Frederick – to Mr. Freeman's private school at Ponders End, now a district of North London.

Frederick was very interested in the sea, and tried several times to run away to it. He relates in “The King's Own” how impresssed he was with Nelson's State funeral in 1806. In September of that year he joined the frigate Imperieuse, 38 guns, as a midshipman, where Lord Cochrane, later Earl of Dundonald, was Captain. During his time in Imperieuse the young Marryat saw a great deal of action, which is told more fully in an article by Mike Phillips. This period ended with an attack led by Lord Chatham on Antwerp which failed; Marryat caught a malarial fever from the marsh air, which affected his lungs, and which subsequently was to make him seriously ill on a number of occasions.

In 1818 he invented a Lifeboat, for which he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Humane Society.

About this time he wrote articles suggesting that the Navy could find a better way than impressment for recruiting its men, but these were badly received.

In January 1819 he married Catharine, second daughter of Sir Stephen Shairp, for many years Consul-General in Russia. They had four sons and seven daughters, but three of the sons died before Frederick did, and the last one died young in 1855.

He resigned from the Navy on the grounds of "private affairs" in 1830. He had already completed the manuscript of "The King's Own," and he now wrote and published "The Naval Officer, or Scenes and Adventures in the Life of Frank Mildmay," for which he was well paid, and which launched his literary career.

In 1830 he exchanged Sussex House, Hammersmith, for a property of a thousand acres at Langham near Blakeney in North Norfolk. This property was an expensive one to maintain, but he retained it till his death, and was buried just near the west door of Langham church.

Marryat enjoyed an expensive style of life, travelling between London, Brighton – the centre of Regency Buck Society – and Langham. He also stayed for a year or so in Brussels, and travelled extensively in America during 1837-38. He finally settled at Langham in 1843, where he died on 8th August 1848.

A PDF of scans and an HTML version of this book are provided. We also provide a plain TEXT version and full instructions for using this to make your own audiobook. To find these click on the PDF, HTML or TXT links on the left.

These transcriptions of books by various nineteenth century authors of instructive books for teenagers, were made during the period 1997 to the present day by Athelstane e-Books. Most of the books are concerned with the sea, but in any case all will give a good idea of life in the nineteenth century, and sometimes earlier than that. This of course includes attitudes prevalent at the time, but frowned upon nowadays.

We used a Hewlett-Packard scanner, a Plustek OpticBook 3600 scanner or a Nikkon Coolpix 5700 camera to scan the pages. We then made a pdf which we used to assist with editing the OCRed text.

To make a text version we used TextBridge Pro 98 or ABBYY Finereader 7 or 8 to produce a first draft of the text, and Athelstane software to find misreads and improve the text. We proof-read the chapters, and then made a CD with the book read aloud by either Fonix ISpeak or TextAloud MP3. The last step enables us to hear and correct most of the errors that may have been missed by the other steps, as well as entertaining us during the work of transcription.

The resulting text can be read either here at the Internet Archive or at www.athelstane.co.uk

This book from the pen of a famous nautical writer is quite land-based. Young Joseph Rushbrook has to "take the can" for a poaching accident in which his father had shot a man dead. The boy leaves his home and makes his way to London, where various misadventures and adventures befall him. There is a lurking devil throughout the story, the former schoolmaster, long discredited, of Joey's village, who recognises the boy wanted for murder. It is a good story, with all sorts of twists and turns, even including a very exciting carriage ride through a snowy forest in Russia, pursued by a pack of wolves. As always, the final outcome of the story is rather unexpected.

Frederick Marryat was born in Great George Street, Westminster, London on 10th July 1792. His father, Joseph Marryat, was descended from Huguenots who had taken refuge in England following the St. Bartholemew’s Day massacres in 1572, two centuries previously, and his mother was an American from Boston, with the maiden name of Geyer. Frederick's grandfather was Dr. Thomas Marryat, an extremely eccentric physician, who had died, impoverished, in Bristol just before Frederick's birth.

Frederick's father Joseph, however, was very wealthy, partly by inheritance and marriage, and partly by his own endeavours. He was a Member of Parliament for Sandwich, the Chairman of Lloyd's, and Agent for Grenada in the West Indies. They lived in Wimbledon, and sent their second son – Frederick – to Mr. Freeman's private school at Ponders End, now a district of North London.

Frederick was very interested in the sea, and tried several times to run away to it. He relates in “The King's Own” how impresssed he was with Nelson's State funeral in 1806. In September of that year he joined the frigate Imperieuse, 38 guns, as a midshipman, where Lord Cochrane, later Earl of Dundonald, was Captain. During his time in Imperieuse the young Marryat saw a great deal of action, which is told more fully in an article by Mike Phillips. This period ended with an attack led by Lord Chatham on Antwerp which failed; Marryat caught a malarial fever from the marsh air, which affected his lungs, and which subsequently was to make him seriously ill on a number of occasions.

In 1818 he invented a Lifeboat, for which he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Humane Society.

About this time he wrote articles suggesting that the Navy could find a better way than impressment for recruiting its men, but these were badly received.

In January 1819 he married Catharine, second daughter of Sir Stephen Shairp, for many years Consul-General in Russia. They had four sons and seven daughters, but three of the sons died before Frederick did, and the last one died young in 1855.

He resigned from the Navy on the grounds of "private affairs" in 1830. He had already completed the manuscript of "The King's Own," and he now wrote and published "The Naval Officer, or Scenes and Adventures in the Life of Frank Mildmay," for which he was well paid, and which launched his literary career.

In 1830 he exchanged Sussex House, Hammersmith, for a property of a thousand acres at Langham near Blakeney in North Norfolk. This property was an expensive one to maintain, but he retained it till his death, and was buried just near the west door of Langham church.

Marryat enjoyed an expensive style of life, travelling between London, Brighton – the centre of Regency Buck Society – and Langham. He also stayed for a year or so in Brussels, and travelled extensively in America during 1837-38. He finally settled at Langham in 1843, where he died on 8th August 1848.

A PDF of scans and an HTML version of this book are provided. We also provide a plain TEXT version and full instructions for using this to make your own audiobook. To find these click on the PDF, HTML or TXT links on the left.

These transcriptions of books by various nineteenth century authors of instructive books for teenagers, were made during the period 1997 to the present day by Athelstane e-Books. Most of the books are concerned with the sea, but in any case all will give a good idea of life in the nineteenth century, and sometimes earlier than that. This of course includes attitudes prevalent at the time, but frowned upon nowadays.

We used a Hewlett-Packard scanner, a Plustek OpticBook 3600 scanner or a Nikkon Coolpix 5700 camera to scan the pages. We then made a pdf which we used to assist with editing the OCRed text.

To make a text version we used TextBridge Pro 98 or ABBYY Finereader 7 or 8 to produce a first draft of the text, and Athelstane software to find misreads and improve the text. We proof-read the chapters, and then made a CD with the book read aloud by either Fonix ISpeak or TextAloud MP3. The last step enables us to hear and correct most of the errors that may have been missed by the other steps, as well as entertaining us during the work of transcription.

The resulting text can be read either here at the Internet Archive or at www.athelstane.co.uk

Frederick Marryat was born in Great George Street, Westminster, London on 10th July 1792. His father, Joseph Marryat, was descended from Huguenots who had taken refuge in England following the St. Bartholemew’s Day massacres in 1572, two centuries previously, and his mother was an American from Boston, with the maiden name of Geyer. Frederick's grandfather was Dr. Thomas Marryat, an extremely eccentric physician, who had died, impoverished, in Bristol just before Frederick's birth.

Frederick's father Joseph, however, was very wealthy, partly by inheritance and marriage, and partly by his own endeavours. He was a Member of Parliament for Sandwich, the Chairman of Lloyd's, and Agent for Grenada in the West Indies. They lived in Wimbledon, and sent their second son – Frederick – to Mr. Freeman's private school at Ponders End, now a district of North London.

Frederick was very interested in the sea, and tried several times to run away to it. He relates in “The King's Own” how impresssed he was with Nelson's State funeral in 1806. In September of that year he joined the frigate Imperieuse, 38 guns, as a midshipman, where Lord Cochrane, later Earl of Dundonald, was Captain. During his time in Imperieuse the young Marryat saw a great deal of action, which is told more fully in an article by Mike Phillips. This period ended with an attack led by Lord Chatham on Antwerp which failed; Marryat caught a malarial fever from the marsh air, which affected his lungs, and which subsequently was to make him seriously ill on a number of occasions.

In 1818 he invented a Lifeboat, for which he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Humane Society.

About this time he wrote articles suggesting that the Navy could find a better way than impressment for recruiting its men, but these were badly received.

In January 1819 he married Catharine, second daughter of Sir Stephen Shairp, for many years Consul-General in Russia. They had four sons and seven daughters, but three of the sons died before Frederick did, and the last one died young in 1855.

He resigned from the Navy on the grounds of "private affairs" in 1830. He had already completed the manuscript of "The King's Own," and he now wrote and published "The Naval Officer, or Scenes and Adventures in the Life of Frank Mildmay," for which he was well paid, and which launched his literary career.

In 1830 he exchanged Sussex House, Hammersmith, for a property of a thousand acres at Langham near Blakeney in North Norfolk. This property was an expensive one to maintain, but he retained it till his death, and was buried just near the west door of Langham church.

Marryat enjoyed an expensive style of life, travelling between London, Brighton – the centre of Regency Buck Society – and Langham. He also stayed for a year or so in Brussels, and travelled extensively in America during 1837-38. He finally settled at Langham in 1843, where he died on 8th August 1848.

A PDF of scans and an HTML version of this book are provided. We also provide a plain TEXT version and full instructions for using this to make your own audiobook. To find these click on the PDF, HTML or TXT links on the left.

These transcriptions of books by various nineteenth century authors of instructive books for teenagers, were made during the period 1997 to the present day by Athelstane e-Books. Most of the books are concerned with the sea, but in any case all will give a good idea of life in the nineteenth century, and sometimes earlier than that. This of course includes attitudes prevalent at the time, but frowned upon nowadays.

We used a Hewlett-Packard scanner, a Plustek OpticBook 3600 scanner or a Nikkon Coolpix 5700 camera to scan the pages. We then made a pdf which we used to assist with editing the OCRed text.

To make a text version we used TextBridge Pro 98 or ABBYY Finereader 7 or 8 to produce a first draft of the text, and Athelstane software to find misreads and improve the text. We proof-read the chapters, and then made a CD with the book read aloud by either Fonix ISpeak or TextAloud MP3. The last step enables us to hear and correct most of the errors that may have been missed by the other steps, as well as entertaining us during the work of transcription.

The resulting text can be read either here at the Internet Archive or at www.athelstane.co.uk

This remarkable book is one of those on which Marryat was working during his last few months. It was finished by his son. A young boy and a rather nasty old man have been marooned on a remote tropical island. The man is very unkind to the boy, and treats him like a slave. But the man is struck blind by lightning, just at the very moment when it appeared likely that they were to be rescued. The boy is able to force the man to behave better, and learns to read, using the letters in the Prayer Book, starting with the Our Father. Eventually, after a false start, rescue does occur, and the boy meets his own relatives.

Frederick Marryat was born in Great George Street, Westminster, London on 10th July 1792. His father, Joseph Marryat, was descended from Huguenots who had taken refuge in England following the St. Bartholemew’s Day massacres in 1572, two centuries previously, and his mother was an American from Boston, with the maiden name of Geyer. Frederick's grandfather was Dr. Thomas Marryat, an extremely eccentric physician, who had died, impoverished, in Bristol just before Frederick's birth.

Frederick's father Joseph, however, was very wealthy, partly by inheritance and marriage, and partly by his own endeavours. He was a Member of Parliament for Sandwich, the Chairman of Lloyd's, and Agent for Grenada in the West Indies. They lived in Wimbledon, and sent their second son – Frederick – to Mr. Freeman's private school at Ponders End, now a district of North London.

Frederick was very interested in the sea, and tried several times to run away to it. He relates in “The King's Own” how impresssed he was with Nelson's State funeral in 1806. In September of that year he joined the frigate Imperieuse, 38 guns, as a midshipman, where Lord Cochrane, later Earl of Dundonald, was Captain. During his time in Imperieuse the young Marryat saw a great deal of action, which is told more fully in an article by Mike Phillips. This period ended with an attack led by Lord Chatham on Antwerp which failed; Marryat caught a malarial fever from the marsh air, which affected his lungs, and which subsequently was to make him seriously ill on a number of occasions.

In 1818 he invented a Lifeboat, for which he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Humane Society.

About this time he wrote articles suggesting that the Navy could find a better way than impressment for recruiting its men, but these were badly received.

In January 1819 he married Catharine, second daughter of Sir Stephen Shairp, for many years Consul-General in Russia. They had four sons and seven daughters, but three of the sons died before Frederick did, and the last one died young in 1855.

He resigned from the Navy on the grounds of "private affairs" in 1830. He had already completed the manuscript of "The King's Own," and he now wrote and published "The Naval Officer, or Scenes and Adventures in the Life of Frank Mildmay," for which he was well paid, and which launched his literary career.

In 1830 he exchanged Sussex House, Hammersmith, for a property of a thousand acres at Langham near Blakeney in North Norfolk. This property was an expensive one to maintain, but he retained it till his death, and was buried just near the west door of Langham church.

Marryat enjoyed an expensive style of life, travelling between London, Brighton – the centre of Regency Buck Society – and Langham. He also stayed for a year or so in Brussels, and travelled extensively in America during 1837-38. He finally settled at Langham in 1843, where he died on 8th August 1848.

A PDF of scans and an HTML version of this book are provided. We also provide a plain TEXT version and full instructions for using this to make your own audiobook. To find these click on the PDF, HTML or TXT links on the left.

These transcriptions of books by various nineteenth century authors of instructive books for teenagers, were made during the period 1997 to the present day by Athelstane e-Books. Most of the books are concerned with the sea, but in any case all will give a good idea of life in the nineteenth century, and sometimes earlier than that. This of course includes attitudes prevalent at the time, but frowned upon nowadays.

We used a Hewlett-Packard scanner, a Plustek OpticBook 3600 scanner or a Nikkon Coolpix 5700 camera to scan the pages. We then made a pdf which we used to assist with editing the OCRed text.

To make a text version we used TextBridge Pro 98 or ABBYY Finereader 7 or 8 to produce a first draft of the text, and Athelstane software to find misreads and improve the text. We proof-read the chapters, and then made a CD with the book read aloud by either Fonix ISpeak or TextAloud MP3. The last step enables us to hear and correct most of the errors that may have been missed by the other steps, as well as entertaining us during the work of transcription.

The resulting text can be read either here at the Internet Archive or at www.athelstane.co.uk

The young hero of this book is soon seen to be the result of an unfortunate liaison between a rising star of a sea-captain, and the housekeeper's daughter at his aunt's mansion. The boy joins the navy and is given a good deal of covert help ny his (actual) father. On a couple of occasions the young officer is believed lost in some engagement, but after a series of adventures manages to make his way back to the ship, much to his father's relief. Eventually the whole situation turns out really well for our young hero.

Frederick Marryat was born in Great George Street, Westminster, London on 10th July 1792. His father, Joseph Marryat, was descended from Huguenots who had taken refuge in England following the St. Bartholemew’s Day massacres in 1572, two centuries previously, and his mother was an American from Boston, with the maiden name of Geyer. Frederick's grandfather was Dr. Thomas Marryat, an extremely eccentric physician, who had died, impoverished, in Bristol just before Frederick's birth.

Frederick's father Joseph, however, was very wealthy, partly by inheritance and marriage, and partly by his own endeavours. He was a Member of Parliament for Sandwich, the Chairman of Lloyd's, and Agent for Grenada in the West Indies. They lived in Wimbledon, and sent their second son – Frederick – to Mr. Freeman's private school at Ponders End, now a district of North London.

Frederick was very interested in the sea, and tried several times to run away to it. He relates in “The King's Own” how impresssed he was with Nelson's State funeral in 1806. In September of that year he joined the frigate Imperieuse, 38 guns, as a midshipman, where Lord Cochrane, later Earl of Dundonald, was Captain. During his time in Imperieuse the young Marryat saw a great deal of action, which is told more fully in an article by Mike Phillips. This period ended with an attack led by Lord Chatham on Antwerp which failed; Marryat caught a malarial fever from the marsh air, which affected his lungs, and which subsequently was to make him seriously ill on a number of occasions.

In 1818 he invented a Lifeboat, for which he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Humane Society.

About this time he wrote articles suggesting that the Navy could find a better way than impressment for recruiting its men, but these were badly received.

In January 1819 he married Catharine, second daughter of Sir Stephen Shairp, for many years Consul-General in Russia. They had four sons and seven daughters, but three of the sons died before Frederick did, and the last one died young in 1855.

He resigned from the Navy on the grounds of "private affairs" in 1830. He had already completed the manuscript of "The King's Own," and he now wrote and published "The Naval Officer, or Scenes and Adventures in the Life of Frank Mildmay," for which he was well paid, and which launched his literary career.

In 1830 he exchanged Sussex House, Hammersmith, for a property of a thousand acres at Langham near Blakeney in North Norfolk. This property was an expensive one to maintain, but he retained it till his death, and was buried just near the west door of Langham church.

Marryat enjoyed an expensive style of life, travelling between London, Brighton – the centre of Regency Buck Society – and Langham. He also stayed for a year or so in Brussels, and travelled extensively in America during 1837-38. He finally settled at Langham in 1843, where he died on 8th August 1848.

A PDF of scans and an HTML version of this book are provided. We also provide a plain TEXT version and full instructions for using this to make your own audiobook. To find these click on the PDF, HTML or TXT links on the left.

These transcriptions of books by various nineteenth century authors of instructive books for teenagers, were made during the period 1997 to the present day by Athelstane e-Books. Most of the books are concerned with the sea, but in any case all will give a good idea of life in the nineteenth century, and sometimes earlier than that. This of course includes attitudes prevalent at the time, but frowned upon nowadays.

We used a Hewlett-Packard scanner, a Plustek OpticBook 3600 scanner or a Nikkon Coolpix 5700 camera to scan the pages. We then made a pdf which we used to assist with editing the OCRed text.

To make a text version we used TextBridge Pro 98 or ABBYY Finereader 7 or 8 to produce a first draft of the text, and Athelstane software to find misreads and improve the text. We proof-read the chapters, and then made a CD with the book read aloud by either Fonix ISpeak or TextAloud MP3. The last step enables us to hear and correct most of the errors that may have been missed by the other steps, as well as entertaining us during the work of transcription.

The resulting text can be read either here at the Internet Archive or at www.athelstane.co.uk

More than half the book consists of a diary of a journey in Europe, not so detailed as the "Diary in America", but with plenty of lively comments on each place visited.

The rest of the book consists of amusing little essays, some in the form of realistic stories, and others rather more fanciful. One of the most amusing is "The London Town-House", which describes a situation that must have arisen in many families at that time of expansion of London. The house the family moves to, believing it to be a dream-house, turns out to be nothing like as good as the house they left behind them in which the family had lived for centuries.

Some of the stories are a bit silly, but most of them are well worth reading.

Frederick Marryat was born in Great George Street, Westminster, London on 10th July 1792. His father, Joseph Marryat, was descended from Huguenots who had taken refuge in England following the St. Bartholemew’s Day massacres in 1572, two centuries previously, and his mother was an American from Boston, with the maiden name of Geyer. Frederick's grandfather was Dr. Thomas Marryat, an extremely eccentric physician, who had died, impoverished, in Bristol just before Frederick's birth.

Frederick's father Joseph, however, was very wealthy, partly by inheritance and marriage, and partly by his own endeavours. He was a Member of Parliament for Sandwich, the Chairman of Lloyd's, and Agent for Grenada in the West Indies. They lived in Wimbledon, and sent their second son – Frederick – to Mr. Freeman's private school at Ponders End, now a district of North London.

Frederick was very interested in the sea, and tried several times to run away to it. He relates in “The King's Own” how impresssed he was with Nelson's State funeral in 1806. In September of that year he joined the frigate Imperieuse, 38 guns, as a midshipman, where Lord Cochrane, later Earl of Dundonald, was Captain. During his time in Imperieuse the young Marryat saw a great deal of action, which is told more fully in an article by Mike Phillips. This period ended with an attack led by Lord Chatham on Antwerp which failed; Marryat caught a malarial fever from the marsh air, which affected his lungs, and which subsequently was to make him seriously ill on a number of occasions.

In 1818 he invented a Lifeboat, for which he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Humane Society.

About this time he wrote articles suggesting that the Navy could find a better way than impressment for recruiting its men, but these were badly received.

In January 1819 he married Catharine, second daughter of Sir Stephen Shairp, for many years Consul-General in Russia. They had four sons and seven daughters, but three of the sons died before Frederick did, and the last one died young in 1855.

He resigned from the Navy on the grounds of "private affairs" in 1830. He had already completed the manuscript of "The King's Own," and he now wrote and published "The Naval Officer, or Scenes and Adventures in the Life of Frank Mildmay," for which he was well paid, and which launched his literary career.

In 1830 he exchanged Sussex House, Hammersmith, for a property of a thousand acres at Langham near Blakeney in North Norfolk. This property was an expensive one to maintain, but he retained it till his death, and was buried just near the west door of Langham church.

Marryat enjoyed an expensive style of life, travelling between London, Brighton – the centre of Regency Buck Society – and Langham. He also stayed for a year or so in Brussels, and travelled extensively in America during 1837-38. He finally settled at Langham in 1843, where he died on 8th August 1848.

A PDF of scans and an HTML version of this book are provided. We also provide a plain TEXT version and full instructions for using this to make your own audiobook. To find these click on the PDF, HTML or TXT links on the left.

These transcriptions of books by various nineteenth century authors of instructive books for teenagers, were made during the period 1997 to the present day by Athelstane e-Books. Most of the books are concerned with the sea, but in any case all will give a good idea of life in the nineteenth century, and sometimes earlier than that. This of course includes attitudes prevalent at the time, but frowned upon nowadays.

We used a Hewlett-Packard scanner, a Plustek OpticBook 3600 scanner or a Nikkon Coolpix 5700 camera to scan the pages. We then made a pdf which we used to assist with editing the OCRed text.

To make a text version we used TextBridge Pro 98 or ABBYY Finereader 7 or 8 to produce a first draft of the text, and Athelstane software to find misreads and improve the text. We proof-read the chapters, and then made a CD with the book read aloud by either Fonix ISpeak or TextAloud MP3. The last step enables us to hear and correct most of the errors that may have been missed by the other steps, as well as entertaining us during the work of transcription.

The resulting text can be read either here at the Internet Archive or at www.athelstane.co.uk

If this story is about a ghost ship, it certainly is a haunting one. So much happens in the book that just does not normally happen in books, such as a burning at the stake in an auto-da-fe. Uncanny characters keep turning up, in the form of a strange-eyed pilot, a local priest far from the diocese in which he should be working, and of course the Phantom Ship itself, each of its appearances presaging some fresh disaster. I have had people write to me to complain that this book is not suitable for children, which most of Marryat's books certainly are, so make up your own mind before letting your children see this book.

Frederick Marryat was born in Great George Street, Westminster, London on 10th July 1792. His father, Joseph Marryat, was descended from Huguenots who had taken refuge in England following the St. Bartholemew’s Day massacres in 1572, two centuries previously, and his mother was an American from Boston, with the maiden name of Geyer. Frederick's grandfather was Dr. Thomas Marryat, an extremely eccentric physician, who had died, impoverished, in Bristol just before Frederick's birth.

Frederick's father Joseph, however, was very wealthy, partly by inheritance and marriage, and partly by his own endeavours. He was a Member of Parliament for Sandwich, the Chairman of Lloyd's, and Agent for Grenada in the West Indies. They lived in Wimbledon, and sent their second son – Frederick – to Mr. Freeman's private school at Ponders End, now a district of North London.

Frederick was very interested in the sea, and tried several times to run away to it. He relates in “The King's Own” how impresssed he was with Nelson's State funeral in 1806. In September of that year he joined the frigate Imperieuse, 38 guns, as a midshipman, where Lord Cochrane, later Earl of Dundonald, was Captain. During his time in Imperieuse the young Marryat saw a great deal of action, which is told more fully in an article by Mike Phillips. This period ended with an attack led by Lord Chatham on Antwerp which failed; Marryat caught a malarial fever from the marsh air, which affected his lungs, and which subsequently was to make him seriously ill on a number of occasions.

In 1818 he invented a Lifeboat, for which he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Humane Society.

About this time he wrote articles suggesting that the Navy could find a better way than impressment for recruiting its men, but these were badly received.

In January 1819 he married Catharine, second daughter of Sir Stephen Shairp, for many years Consul-General in Russia. They had four sons and seven daughters, but three of the sons died before Frederick did, and the last one died young in 1855.

He resigned from the Navy on the grounds of "private affairs" in 1830. He had already completed the manuscript of "The King's Own," and he now wrote and published "The Naval Officer, or Scenes and Adventures in the Life of Frank Mildmay," for which he was well paid, and which launched his literary career.

In 1830 he exchanged Sussex House, Hammersmith, for a property of a thousand acres at Langham near Blakeney in North Norfolk. This property was an expensive one to maintain, but he retained it till his death, and was buried just near the west door of Langham church.

Marryat enjoyed an expensive style of life, travelling between London, Brighton – the centre of Regency Buck Society – and Langham. He also stayed for a year or so in Brussels, and travelled extensively in America during 1837-38. He finally settled at Langham in 1843, where he died on 8th August 1848.

A PDF of scans and an HTML version of this book are provided. We also provide a plain TEXT version and full instructions for using this to make your own audiobook. To find these click on the PDF, HTML or TXT links on the left.

These transcriptions of books by various nineteenth century authors of instructive books for teenagers, were made during the period 1997 to the present day by Athelstane e-Books. Most of the books are concerned with the sea, but in any case all will give a good idea of life in the nineteenth century, and sometimes earlier than that. This of course includes attitudes prevalent at the time, but frowned upon nowadays.

We used a Hewlett-Packard scanner, a Plustek OpticBook 3600 scanner or a Nikkon Coolpix 5700 camera to scan the pages. We then made a pdf which we used to assist with editing the OCRed text.

To make a text version we used TextBridge Pro 98 or ABBYY Finereader 7 or 8 to produce a first draft of the text, and Athelstane software to find misreads and improve the text. We proof-read the chapters, and then made a CD with the book read aloud by either Fonix ISpeak or TextAloud MP3. The last step enables us to hear and correct most of the errors that may have been missed by the other steps, as well as entertaining us during the work of transcription.

The resulting text can be read either here at the Internet Archive or at www.athelstane.co.uk

Marryat wrote this in his last years, when he was writing books for children. Unlike his "Settlers in Canada", where he knew a great deal about the country, he can't have known much about Africa, so he had to refer to other sources for his facts. This is pure supposition, but he must have supplemented his knowledge somehow. This warning apart, he did a good job of it, and gets the scenes well described, though in rather a lecturing tone, the same tone as he uses in "Masterman Ready".

Frederick Marryat was born in Great George Street, Westminster, London on 10th July 1792. His father, Joseph Marryat, was descended from Huguenots who had taken refuge in England following the St. Bartholemew’s Day massacres in 1572, two centuries previously, and his mother was an American from Boston, with the maiden name of Geyer. Frederick's grandfather was Dr. Thomas Marryat, an extremely eccentric physician, who had died, impoverished, in Bristol just before Frederick's birth.

Frederick's father Joseph, however, was very wealthy, partly by inheritance and marriage, and partly by his own endeavours. He was a Member of Parliament for Sandwich, the Chairman of Lloyd's, and Agent for Grenada in the West Indies. They lived in Wimbledon, and sent their second son – Frederick – to Mr. Freeman's private school at Ponders End, now a district of North London.

Frederick was very interested in the sea, and tried several times to run away to it. He relates in “The King's Own” how impresssed he was with Nelson's State funeral in 1806. In September of that year he joined the frigate Imperieuse, 38 guns, as a midshipman, where Lord Cochrane, later Earl of Dundonald, was Captain. During his time in Imperieuse the young Marryat saw a great deal of action, which is told more fully in an article by Mike Phillips. This period ended with an attack led by Lord Chatham on Antwerp which failed; Marryat caught a malarial fever from the marsh air, which affected his lungs, and which subsequently was to make him seriously ill on a number of occasions.

In 1818 he invented a Lifeboat, for which he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Humane Society.

About this time he wrote articles suggesting that the Navy could find a better way than impressment for recruiting its men, but these were badly received.

In January 1819 he married Catharine, second daughter of Sir Stephen Shairp, for many years Consul-General in Russia. They had four sons and seven daughters, but three of the sons died before Frederick did, and the last one died young in 1855.

He resigned from the Navy on the grounds of "private affairs" in 1830. He had already completed the manuscript of "The King's Own," and he now wrote and published "The Naval Officer, or Scenes and Adventures in the Life of Frank Mildmay," for which he was well paid, and which launched his literary career.

In 1830 he exchanged Sussex House, Hammersmith, for a property of a thousand acres at Langham near Blakeney in North Norfolk. This property was an expensive one to maintain, but he retained it till his death, and was buried just near the west door of Langham church.

Marryat enjoyed an expensive style of life, travelling between London, Brighton – the centre of Regency Buck Society – and Langham. He also stayed for a year or so in Brussels, and travelled extensively in America during 1837-38. He finally settled at Langham in 1843, where he died on 8th August 1848.

A PDF of scans and an HTML version of this book are provided. We also provide a plain TEXT version and full instructions for using this to make your own audiobook. To find these click on the PDF, HTML or TXT links on the left.

These transcriptions of books by various nineteenth century authors of instructive books for teenagers, were made during the period 1997 to the present day by Athelstane e-Books. Most of the books are concerned with the sea, but in any case all will give a good idea of life in the nineteenth century, and sometimes earlier than that. This of course includes attitudes prevalent at the time, but frowned upon nowadays.

We used a Hewlett-Packard scanner, a Plustek OpticBook 3600 scanner or a Nikkon Coolpix 5700 camera to scan the pages. We then made a pdf which we used to assist with editing the OCRed text.

To make a text version we used TextBridge Pro 98 or ABBYY Finereader 7 or 8 to produce a first draft of the text, and Athelstane software to find misreads and improve the text. We proof-read the chapters, and then made a CD with the book read aloud by either Fonix ISpeak or TextAloud MP3. The last step enables us to hear and correct most of the errors that may have been missed by the other steps, as well as entertaining us during the work of transcription.

The resulting text can be read either here at the Internet Archive or at www.athelstane.co.uk

Frederick Marryat was born in Great George Street, Westminster, London on 10th July 1792. His father, Joseph Marryat, was descended from Huguenots who had taken refuge in England following the St. Bartholemew’s Day massacres in 1572, two centuries previously, and his mother was an American from Boston, with the maiden name of Geyer. Frederick's grandfather was Dr. Thomas Marryat, an extremely eccentric physician, who had died, impoverished, in Bristol just before Frederick's birth.

Frederick's father Joseph, however, was very wealthy, partly by inheritance and marriage, and partly by his own endeavours. He was a Member of Parliament for Sandwich, the Chairman of Lloyd's, and Agent for Grenada in the West Indies. They lived in Wimbledon, and sent their second son – Frederick – to Mr. Freeman's private school at Ponders End, now a district of North London.

Frederick was very interested in the sea, and tried several times to run away to it. He relates in “The King's Own” how impresssed he was with Nelson's State funeral in 1806. In September of that year he joined the frigate Imperieuse, 38 guns, as a midshipman, where Lord Cochrane, later Earl of Dundonald, was Captain. During his time in Imperieuse the young Marryat saw a great deal of action, which is told more fully in an article by Mike Phillips. This period ended with an attack led by Lord Chatham on Antwerp which failed; Marryat caught a malarial fever from the marsh air, which affected his lungs, and which subsequently was to make him seriously ill on a number of occasions.

In 1818 he invented a Lifeboat, for which he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Humane Society.

About this time he wrote articles suggesting that the Navy could find a better way than impressment for recruiting its men, but these were badly received.

In January 1819 he married Catharine, second daughter of Sir Stephen Shairp, for many years Consul-General in Russia. They had four sons and seven daughters, but three of the sons died before Frederick did, and the last one died young in 1855.

He resigned from the Navy on the grounds of "private affairs" in 1830. He had already completed the manuscript of "The King's Own," and he now wrote and published "The Naval Officer, or Scenes and Adventures in the Life of Frank Mildmay," for which he was well paid, and which launched his literary career.

In 1830 he exchanged Sussex House, Hammersmith, for a property of a thousand acres at Langham near Blakeney in North Norfolk. This property was an expensive one to maintain, but he retained it till his death, and was buried just near the west door of Langham church.

Marryat enjoyed an expensive style of life, travelling between London, Brighton – the centre of Regency Buck Society – and Langham. He also stayed for a year or so in Brussels, and travelled extensively in America during 1837-38. He finally settled at Langham in 1843, where he died on 8th August 1848.

A PDF of scans and an HTML version of this book are provided. We also provide a plain TEXT version and full instructions for using this to make your own audiobook. To find these click on the PDF, HTML or TXT links on the left.

These transcriptions of books by various nineteenth century authors of instructive books for teenagers, were made during the period 1997 to the present day by Athelstane e-Books. Most of the books are concerned with the sea, but in any case all will give a good idea of life in the nineteenth century, and sometimes earlier than that. This of course includes attitudes prevalent at the time, but frowned upon nowadays.

We used a Hewlett-Packard scanner, a Plustek OpticBook 3600 scanner or a Nikkon Coolpix 5700 camera to scan the pages. We then made a pdf which we used to assist with editing the OCRed text.

To make a text version we used TextBridge Pro 98 or ABBYY Finereader 7 or 8 to produce a first draft of the text, and Athelstane software to find misreads and improve the text. We proof-read the chapters, and then made a CD with the book read aloud by either Fonix ISpeak or TextAloud MP3. The last step enables us to hear and correct most of the errors that may have been missed by the other steps, as well as entertaining us during the work of transcription.

The resulting text can be read either here at the Internet Archive or at www.athelstane.co.uk

Frederick Marryat was born in Great George Street, Westminster, London on 10th July 1792. His father, Joseph Marryat, was descended from Huguenots who had taken refuge in England following the St. Bartholemew’s Day massacres in 1572, two centuries previously, and his mother was an American from Boston, with the maiden name of Geyer. Frederick's grandfather was Dr. Thomas Marryat, an extremely eccentric physician, who had died, impoverished, in Bristol just before Frederick's birth.

Frederick's father Joseph, however, was very wealthy, partly by inheritance and marriage, and partly by his own endeavours. He was a Member of Parliament for Sandwich, the Chairman of Lloyd's, and Agent for Grenada in the West Indies. They lived in Wimbledon, and sent their second son – Frederick – to Mr. Freeman's private school at Ponders End, now a district of North London.

Frederick was very interested in the sea, and tried several times to run away to it. He relates in “The King's Own” how impresssed he was with Nelson's State funeral in 1806. In September of that year he joined the frigate Imperieuse, 38 guns, as a midshipman, where Lord Cochrane, later Earl of Dundonald, was Captain. During his time in Imperieuse the young Marryat saw a great deal of action, which is told more fully in an article by Mike Phillips. This period ended with an attack led by Lord Chatham on Antwerp which failed; Marryat caught a malarial fever from the marsh air, which affected his lungs, and which subsequently was to make him seriously ill on a number of occasions.

In 1818 he invented a Lifeboat, for which he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Humane Society.

About this time he wrote articles suggesting that the Navy could find a better way than impressment for recruiting its men, but these were badly received.

In January 1819 he married Catharine, second daughter of Sir Stephen Shairp, for many years Consul-General in Russia. They had four sons and seven daughters, but three of the sons died before Frederick did, and the last one died young in 1855.

He resigned from the Navy on the grounds of "private affairs" in 1830. He had already completed the manuscript of "The King's Own," and he now wrote and published "The Naval Officer, or Scenes and Adventures in the Life of Frank Mildmay," for which he was well paid, and which launched his literary career.

In 1830 he exchanged Sussex House, Hammersmith, for a property of a thousand acres at Langham near Blakeney in North Norfolk. This property was an expensive one to maintain, but he retained it till his death, and was buried just near the west door of Langham church.

Marryat enjoyed an expensive style of life, travelling between London, Brighton – the centre of Regency Buck Society – and Langham. He also stayed for a year or so in Brussels, and travelled extensively in America during 1837-38. He finally settled at Langham in 1843, where he died on 8th August 1848.

A PDF of scans and an HTML version of this book are provided. We also provide a plain TEXT version and full instructions for using this to make your own audiobook. To find these click on the PDF, HTML or TXT links on the left.

These transcriptions of books by various nineteenth century authors of instructive books for teenagers, were made during the period 1997 to the present day by Athelstane e-Books. Most of the books are concerned with the sea, but in any case all will give a good idea of life in the nineteenth century, and sometimes earlier than that. This of course includes attitudes prevalent at the time, but frowned upon nowadays.

We used a Hewlett-Packard scanner, a Plustek OpticBook 3600 scanner or a Nikkon Coolpix 5700 camera to scan the pages. We then made a pdf which we used to assist with editing the OCRed text.

To make a text version we used TextBridge Pro 98 or ABBYY Finereader 7 or 8 to produce a first draft of the text, and Athelstane software to find misreads and improve the text. We proof-read the chapters, and then made a CD with the book read aloud by either Fonix ISpeak or TextAloud MP3. The last step enables us to hear and correct most of the errors that may have been missed by the other steps, as well as entertaining us during the work of transcription.

The resulting text can be read either here at the Internet Archive or at www.athelstane.co.uk

In this book the nautical component is provoded by the Merchant Service, or Merchant Navy, as we would call it these days. The hero is the sole survivor of a wreck, being rescued and brought ashore by a Newfoundland dog. He is adopted and brought up by an absent-minded old watch-maker, whose dog found him, and whose brother is an eminent and well-to-do lawyer in London.

Some of the story takes place on an East Indiaman, as we watch our hero's career develop. But the absent-minded old watch-maker forgets to make any money, and is on the point of starving when our hero comes home on leave and finds out that things are not well. Eventually, with the grudging help of the old lawyer he is put on his feet again.

Of course the great question is, who is our hero? His rescue from a wreckked vessel did not provide much clue, except for initials embroidered on his clothes. Needless to say, this too is brought to a successful conclusion.

Frederick Marryat was born in Great George Street, Westminster, London on 10th July 1792. His father, Joseph Marryat, was descended from Huguenots who had taken refuge in England following the St. Bartholemew’s Day massacres in 1572, two centuries previously, and his mother was an American from Boston, with the maiden name of Geyer. Frederick's grandfather was Dr. Thomas Marryat, an extremely eccentric physician, who had died, impoverished, in Bristol just before Frederick's birth.

Frederick's father Joseph, however, was very wealthy, partly by inheritance and marriage, and partly by his own endeavours. He was a Member of Parliament for Sandwich, the Chairman of Lloyd's, and Agent for Grenada in the West Indies. They lived in Wimbledon, and sent their second son – Frederick – to Mr. Freeman's private school at Ponders End, now a district of North London.

Frederick was very interested in the sea, and tried several times to run away to it. He relates in “The King's Own” how impresssed he was with Nelson's State funeral in 1806. In September of that year he joined the frigate Imperieuse, 38 guns, as a midshipman, where Lord Cochrane, later Earl of Dundonald, was Captain. During his time in Imperieuse the young Marryat saw a great deal of action, which is told more fully in an article by Mike Phillips. This period ended with an attack led by Lord Chatham on Antwerp which failed; Marryat caught a malarial fever from the marsh air, which affected his lungs, and which subsequently was to make him seriously ill on a number of occasions.

In 1818 he invented a Lifeboat, for which he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Humane Society.

About this time he wrote articles suggesting that the Navy could find a better way than impressment for recruiting its men, but these were badly received.

In January 1819 he married Catharine, second daughter of Sir Stephen Shairp, for many years Consul-General in Russia. They had four sons and seven daughters, but three of the sons died before Frederick did, and the last one died young in 1855.

He resigned from the Navy on the grounds of "private affairs" in 1830. He had already completed the manuscript of "The King's Own," and he now wrote and published "The Naval Officer, or Scenes and Adventures in the Life of Frank Mildmay," for which he was well paid, and which launched his literary career.

In 1830 he exchanged Sussex House, Hammersmith, for a property of a thousand acres at Langham near Blakeney in North Norfolk. This property was an expensive one to maintain, but he retained it till his death, and was buried just near the west door of Langham church.

Marryat enjoyed an expensive style of life, travelling between London, Brighton – the centre of Regency Buck Society – and Langham. He also stayed for a year or so in Brussels, and travelled extensively in America during 1837-38. He finally settled at Langham in 1843, where he died on 8th August 1848.

A PDF of scans and an HTML version of this book are provided. We also provide a plain TEXT version and full instructions for using this to make your own audiobook. To find these click on the PDF, HTML or TXT links on the left.

These transcriptions of books by various nineteenth century authors of instructive books for teenagers, were made during the period 1997 to the present day by Athelstane e-Books. Most of the books are concerned with the sea, but in any case all will give a good idea of life in the nineteenth century, and sometimes earlier than that. This of course includes attitudes prevalent at the time, but frowned upon nowadays.

We used a Hewlett-Packard scanner, a Plustek OpticBook 3600 scanner or a Nikkon Coolpix 5700 camera to scan the pages. We then made a pdf which we used to assist with editing the OCRed text.

To make a text version we used TextBridge Pro 98 or ABBYY Finereader 7 or 8 to produce a first draft of the text, and Athelstane software to find misreads and improve the text. We proof-read the chapters, and then made a CD with the book read aloud by either Fonix ISpeak or TextAloud MP3. The last step enables us to hear and correct most of the errors that may have been missed by the other steps, as well as entertaining us during the work of transcription.

The resulting text can be read either here at the Internet Archive or at www.athelstane.co.uk

This is one of the books that Marryat wrote to interest and instruct children. After his tour of North America in 1837, he had good first-hand information about Canada to give them.

It is 1794. A relatively well-to-do family had inherited the family estates, and were doing their best to administer them wisely and well. Suddenly a long-lost relation, for years thought to be dead, arrives back in Britain, and successfully claims the estate, thus putting an end to the family's plans for University education for one of the boys, and, for another of the boys, the career of a naval officer.

They just have enough to make their way to Canada, and take up a settlement offer that was available. Every member of the family buckles to, and the farm is successful, but of course there are setbacks, such as trouble with the Indians, but on the whole all goes well.

Eventually a letter arrives to say that the relative who had re-appeared, and thus taken their property from them, had died, and the property in England was now once again theirs, so back they go to England, and the story ends just about where we began with it.

Frederick Marryat was born in Great George Street, Westminster, London on 10th July 1792. His father, Joseph Marryat, was descended from Huguenots who had taken refuge in England following the St. Bartholemew’s Day massacres in 1572, two centuries previously, and his mother was an American from Boston, with the maiden name of Geyer. Frederick's grandfather was Dr. Thomas Marryat, an extremely eccentric physician, who had died, impoverished, in Bristol just before Frederick's birth.

Frederick's father Joseph, however, was very wealthy, partly by inheritance and marriage, and partly by his own endeavours. He was a Member of Parliament for Sandwich, the Chairman of Lloyd's, and Agent for Grenada in the West Indies. They lived in Wimbledon, and sent their second son – Frederick – to Mr. Freeman's private school at Ponders End, now a district of North London.

Frederick was very interested in the sea, and tried several times to run away to it. He relates in “The King's Own” how impresssed he was with Nelson's State funeral in 1806. In September of that year he joined the frigate Imperieuse, 38 guns, as a midshipman, where Lord Cochrane, later Earl of Dundonald, was Captain. During his time in Imperieuse the young Marryat saw a great deal of action, which is told more fully in an article by Mike Phillips. This period ended with an attack led by Lord Chatham on Antwerp which failed; Marryat caught a malarial fever from the marsh air, which affected his lungs, and which subsequently was to make him seriously ill on a number of occasions.

In 1818 he invented a Lifeboat, for which he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Humane Society.

About this time he wrote articles suggesting that the Navy could find a better way than impressment for recruiting its men, but these were badly received.

In January 1819 he married Catharine, second daughter of Sir Stephen Shairp, for many years Consul-General in Russia. They had four sons and seven daughters, but three of the sons died before Frederick did, and the last one died young in 1855.

He resigned from the Navy on the grounds of "private affairs" in 1830. He had already completed the manuscript of "The King's Own," and he now wrote and published "The Naval Officer, or Scenes and Adventures in the Life of Frank Mildmay," for which he was well paid, and which launched his literary career.

In 1830 he exchanged Sussex House, Hammersmith, for a property of a thousand acres at Langham near Blakeney in North Norfolk. This property was an expensive one to maintain, but he retained it till his death, and was buried just near the west door of Langham church.

Marryat enjoyed an expensive style of life, travelling between London, Brighton – the centre of Regency Buck Society – and Langham. He also stayed for a year or so in Brussels, and travelled extensively in America during 1837-38. He finally settled at Langham in 1843, where he died on 8th August 1848.

A PDF of scans and an HTML version of this book are provided. We also provide a plain TEXT version and full instructions for using this to make your own audiobook. To find these click on the PDF, HTML or TXT links on the left.

These transcriptions of books by various nineteenth century authors of instructive books for teenagers, were made during the period 1997 to the present day by Athelstane e-Books. Most of the books are concerned with the sea, but in any case all will give a good idea of life in the nineteenth century, and sometimes earlier than that. This of course includes attitudes prevalent at the time, but frowned upon nowadays.

We used a Hewlett-Packard scanner, a Plustek OpticBook 3600 scanner or a Nikkon Coolpix 5700 camera to scan the pages. We then made a pdf which we used to assist with editing the OCRed text.

To make a text version we used TextBridge Pro 98 or ABBYY Finereader 7 or 8 to produce a first draft of the text, and Athelstane software to find misreads and improve the text. We proof-read the chapters, and then made a CD with the book read aloud by either Fonix ISpeak or TextAloud MP3. The last step enables us to hear and correct most of the errors that may have been missed by the other steps, as well as entertaining us during the work of transcription.

The resulting text can be read either here at the Internet Archive or at www.athelstane.co.uk

In this nautical book Marryat leads us much more closely into the horrors of naval warfare. The story opens with the hanging of a man who had been a ring-leader in the Mutiny of the Nore, which had affected practically all of the fleet. The way in which the prisoner is tortured before the hanging is pretty gruesome.

Later on, we are taken into the cock-pit during a battle, the place where the ship's surgeon performed amputations of severely wounded limbs, with no anaesthetic, of course; and we peep over the side where a shark is so gorged with human flesh that it can scarcely move.

Yet the hanged man, whose wife's soul also fled at the moment of the hanging, left a child on board the ship. This child was branded with the same mark as are all the King's articles aboard a ship, a broad anchor. Now we are let into a secret: the hanged man had been the estranged son of a very highly born gentleman. For the rest of the book we, the readers, know about this, but it takes a long time for the true facts to become apparent to the old seaman who was bringing the boy up. In fact the only person to catch on is the vicar of the noble lord's home parish. This is surely a very unusual situation, yet throughout, the mark of the brand on the young boy, later a fully-grown young man, is what distinguishes him so that people can be sure that he is indeed the son of the hanged man.

Frederick Marryat was born in Great George Street, Westminster, London on 10th July 1792. His father, Joseph Marryat, was descended from Huguenots who had taken refuge in England following the St. Bartholemew’s Day massacres in 1572, two centuries previously, and his mother was an American from Boston, with the maiden name of Geyer. Frederick's grandfather was Dr. Thomas Marryat, an extremely eccentric physician, who had died, impoverished, in Bristol just before Frederick's birth.

Frederick's father Joseph, however, was very wealthy, partly by inheritance and marriage, and partly by his own endeavours. He was a Member of Parliament for Sandwich, the Chairman of Lloyd's, and Agent for Grenada in the West Indies. They lived in Wimbledon, and sent their second son – Frederick – to Mr. Freeman's private school at Ponders End, now a district of North London.

Frederick was very interested in the sea, and tried several times to run away to it. He relates in “The King's Own” how impresssed he was with Nelson's State funeral in 1806. In September of that year he joined the frigate Imperieuse, 38 guns, as a midshipman, where Lord Cochrane, later Earl of Dundonald, was Captain. During his time in Imperieuse the young Marryat saw a great deal of action, which is told more fully in an article by Mike Phillips. This period ended with an attack led by Lord Chatham on Antwerp which failed; Marryat caught a malarial fever from the marsh air, which affected his lungs, and which subsequently was to make him seriously ill on a number of occasions.

In 1818 he invented a Lifeboat, for which he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Humane Society.

About this time he wrote articles suggesting that the Navy could find a better way than impressment for recruiting its men, but these were badly received.

In January 1819 he married Catharine, second daughter of Sir Stephen Shairp, for many years Consul-General in Russia. They had four sons and seven daughters, but three of the sons died before Frederick did, and the last one died young in 1855.

He resigned from the Navy on the grounds of "private affairs" in 1830. He had already completed the manuscript of "The King's Own," and he now wrote and published "The Naval Officer, or Scenes and Adventures in the Life of Frank Mildmay," for which he was well paid, and which launched his literary career.

In 1830 he exchanged Sussex House, Hammersmith, for a property of a thousand acres at Langham near Blakeney in North Norfolk. This property was an expensive one to maintain, but he retained it till his death, and was buried just near the west door of Langham church.

Marryat enjoyed an expensive style of life, travelling between London, Brighton – the centre of Regency Buck Society – and Langham. He also stayed for a year or so in Brussels, and travelled extensively in America during 1837-38. He finally settled at Langham in 1843, where he died on 8th August 1848.

A PDF of scans and an HTML version of this book are provided. We also provide a plain TEXT version and full instructions for using this to make your own audiobook. To find these click on the PDF, HTML or TXT links on the left.

These transcriptions of books by various nineteenth century authors of instructive books for teenagers, were made during the period 1997 to the present day by Athelstane e-Books. Most of the books are concerned with the sea, but in any case all will give a good idea of life in the nineteenth century, and sometimes earlier than that. This of course includes attitudes prevalent at the time, but frowned upon nowadays.

We used a Hewlett-Packard scanner, a Plustek OpticBook 3600 scanner or a Nikkon Coolpix 5700 camera to scan the pages. We then made a pdf which we used to assist with editing the OCRed text.

To make a text version we used TextBridge Pro 98 or ABBYY Finereader 7 or 8 to produce a first draft of the text, and Athelstane software to find misreads and improve the text. We proof-read the chapters, and then made a CD with the book read aloud by either Fonix ISpeak or TextAloud MP3. The last step enables us to hear and correct most of the errors that may have been missed by the other steps, as well as entertaining us during the work of transcription.

The resulting text can be read either here at the Internet Archive or at www.athelstane.co.uk

This book is one of the most well known in English literature, having been written by Marryat in his later phase, when he wrote mostly for children.

The Seagrave family (how aptly named) are on a stout ship en route for Australia. In a storm the ship is struck by lightning, set on fire, and dismasted. The crew make off in the ship's boats. and the family are abandoned on board the sinking ship, along with an elderly seaman, Masterman Ready. But she doesn't sink, instead drifting to the shelter of an uninhabited island, where they scramble ashore, and set up a habitation. How they get on, what ordeals they have to endure, and how they are eventually rescued, is the substance of the book.

Frederick Marryat was born in Great George Street, Westminster, London on 10th July 1792. His father, Joseph Marryat, was descended from Huguenots who had taken refuge in England following the St. Bartholemew’s Day massacres in 1572, two centuries previously, and his mother was an American from Boston, with the maiden name of Geyer. Frederick's grandfather was Dr. Thomas Marryat, an extremely eccentric physician, who had died, impoverished, in Bristol just before Frederick's birth.

Frederick's father Joseph, however, was very wealthy, partly by inheritance and marriage, and partly by his own endeavours. He was a Member of Parliament for Sandwich, the Chairman of Lloyd's, and Agent for Grenada in the West Indies. They lived in Wimbledon, and sent their second son – Frederick – to Mr. Freeman's private school at Ponders End, now a district of North London.

Frederick was very interested in the sea, and tried several times to run away to it. He relates in “The King's Own” how impresssed he was with Nelson's State funeral in 1806. In September of that year he joined the frigate Imperieuse, 38 guns, as a midshipman, where Lord Cochrane, later Earl of Dundonald, was Captain. During his time in Imperieuse the young Marryat saw a great deal of action, which is told more fully in an article by Mike Phillips. This period ended with an attack led by Lord Chatham on Antwerp which failed; Marryat caught a malarial fever from the marsh air, which affected his lungs, and which subsequently was to make him seriously ill on a number of occasions.

In 1818 he invented a Lifeboat, for which he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Humane Society.

About this time he wrote articles suggesting that the Navy could find a better way than impressment for recruiting its men, but these were badly received.

In January 1819 he married Catharine, second daughter of Sir Stephen Shairp, for many years Consul-General in Russia. They had four sons and seven daughters, but three of the sons died before Frederick did, and the last one died young in 1855.

He resigned from the Navy on the grounds of "private affairs" in 1830. He had already completed the manuscript of "The King's Own," and he now wrote and published "The Naval Officer, or Scenes and Adventures in the Life of Frank Mildmay," for which he was well paid, and which launched his literary career.

In 1830 he exchanged Sussex House, Hammersmith, for a property of a thousand acres at Langham near Blakeney in North Norfolk. This property was an expensive one to maintain, but he retained it till his death, and was buried just near the west door of Langham church.

Marryat enjoyed an expensive style of life, travelling between London, Brighton – the centre of Regency Buck Society – and Langham. He also stayed for a year or so in Brussels, and travelled extensively in America during 1837-38. He finally settled at Langham in 1843, where he died on 8th August 1848.

A PDF of scans and an HTML version of this book are provided. We also provide a plain TEXT version and full instructions for using this to make your own audiobook. To find these click on the PDF, HTML or TXT links on the left.

These transcriptions of books by various nineteenth century authors of instructive books for teenagers, were made during the period 1997 to the present day by Athelstane e-Books. Most of the books are concerned with the sea, but in any case all will give a good idea of life in the nineteenth century, and sometimes earlier than that. This of course includes attitudes prevalent at the time, but frowned upon nowadays.

We used a Hewlett-Packard scanner, a Plustek OpticBook 3600 scanner or a Nikkon Coolpix 5700 camera to scan the pages. We then made a pdf which we used to assist with editing the OCRed text.

To make a text version we used TextBridge Pro 98 or ABBYY Finereader 7 or 8 to produce a first draft of the text, and Athelstane software to find misreads and improve the text. We proof-read the chapters, and then made a CD with the book read aloud by either Fonix ISpeak or TextAloud MP3. The last step enables us to hear and correct most of the errors that may have been missed by the other steps, as well as entertaining us during the work of transcription.

The resulting text can be read either here at the Internet Archive or at www.athelstane.co.uk

This gripping sea-story by the master of English literature is set in about 1730. A privateer is a vessel that takes the side of the nation whose flag it flies, but which is not an official warship. It is however not a pirate, though to ships of the other side it might as well be one, For the most part it acts on its own, financing activities by the prize money derived from its captures.

Frederick Marryat was born in Great George Street, Westminster, London on 10th July 1792. His father, Joseph Marryat, was descended from Huguenots who had taken refuge in England following the St. Bartholemew’s Day massacres in 1572, two centuries previously, and his mother was an American from Boston, with the maiden name of Geyer. Frederick's grandfather was Dr. Thomas Marryat, an extremely eccentric physician, who had died, impoverished, in Bristol just before Frederick's birth.

Frederick's father Joseph, however, was very wealthy, partly by inheritance and marriage, and partly by his own endeavours. He was a Member of Parliament for Sandwich, the Chairman of Lloyd's, and Agent for Grenada in the West Indies. They lived in Wimbledon, and sent their second son – Frederick – to Mr. Freeman's private school at Ponders End, now a district of North London.

Frederick was very interested in the sea, and tried several times to run away to it. He relates in “The King's Own” how impresssed he was with Nelson's State funeral in 1806. In September of that year he joined the frigate Imperieuse, 38 guns, as a midshipman, where Lord Cochrane, later Earl of Dundonald, was Captain. During his time in Imperieuse the young Marryat saw a great deal of action, which is told more fully in an article by Mike Phillips. This period ended with an attack led by Lord Chatham on Antwerp which failed; Marryat caught a malarial fever from the marsh air, which affected his lungs, and which subsequently was to make him seriously ill on a number of occasions.

In 1818 he invented a Lifeboat, for which he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Humane Society.

About this time he wrote articles suggesting that the Navy could find a better way than impressment for recruiting its men, but these were badly received.

In January 1819 he married Catharine, second daughter of Sir Stephen Shairp, for many years Consul-General in Russia. They had four sons and seven daughters, but three of the sons died before Frederick did, and the last one died young in 1855.

He resigned from the Navy on the grounds of "private affairs" in 1830. He had already completed the manuscript of "The King's Own," and he now wrote and published "The Naval Officer, or Scenes and Adventures in the Life of Frank Mildmay," for which he was well paid, and which launched his literary career.

In 1830 he exchanged Sussex House, Hammersmith, for a property of a thousand acres at Langham near Blakeney in North Norfolk. This property was an expensive one to maintain, but he retained it till his death, and was buried just near the west door of Langham church.

Marryat enjoyed an expensive style of life, travelling between London, Brighton – the centre of Regency Buck Society – and Langham. He also stayed for a year or so in Brussels, and travelled extensively in America during 1837-38. He finally settled at Langham in 1843, where he died on 8th August 1848.

A PDF of scans and an HTML version of this book are provided. We also provide a plain TEXT version and full instructions for using this to make your own audiobook. To find these click on the PDF, HTML or TXT links on the left.

These transcriptions of books by various nineteenth century authors of instructive books for teenagers, were made during the period 1997 to the present day by Athelstane e-Books. Most of the books are concerned with the sea, but in any case all will give a good idea of life in the nineteenth century, and sometimes earlier than that. This of course includes attitudes prevalent at the time, but frowned upon nowadays.

We used a Hewlett-Packard scanner, a Plustek OpticBook 3600 scanner or a Nikkon Coolpix 5700 camera to scan the pages. We then made a pdf which we used to assist with editing the OCRed text.

To make a text version we used TextBridge Pro 98 or ABBYY Finereader 7 or 8 to produce a first draft of the text, and Athelstane software to find misreads and improve the text. We proof-read the chapters, and then made a CD with the book read aloud by either Fonix ISpeak or TextAloud MP3. The last step enables us to hear and correct most of the errors that may have been missed by the other steps, as well as entertaining us during the work of transcription.

The resulting text can be read either here at the Internet Archive or at www.athelstane.co.uk

One of the most well-read and most enjoyed of Marryat's works, this tells the story of a young boy, the son of a North Country parson, who is sent to sea, to fulfil a family tradition. All sorts of amusing incidents occur, and there is a Captain in command at one point, who simply cannot tell the truth, or at least cannot help embellishing the truth with very fanciful and sometimes contradictory details. Very probably Marryat had someone in mind when he invented this character.

Our hero ends the story having succeeded to the family peerage, which most of the time during the story seemed pretty unlikely to happen.

Frederick Marryat was born in Great George Street, Westminster, London on 10th July 1792. His father, Joseph Marryat, was descended from Huguenots who had taken refuge in England following the St. Bartholemew’s Day massacres in 1572, two centuries previously, and his mother was an American from Boston, with the maiden name of Geyer. Frederick's grandfather was Dr. Thomas Marryat, an extremely eccentric physician, who had died, impoverished, in Bristol just before Frederick's birth.

Frederick's father Joseph, however, was very wealthy, partly by inheritance and marriage, and partly by his own endeavours. He was a Member of Parliament for Sandwich, the Chairman of Lloyd's, and Agent for Grenada in the West Indies. They lived in Wimbledon, and sent their second son – Frederick – to Mr. Freeman's private school at Ponders End, now a district of North London.

Frederick was very interested in the sea, and tried several times to run away to it. He relates in “The King's Own” how impresssed he was with Nelson's State funeral in 1806. In September of that year he joined the frigate Imperieuse, 38 guns, as a midshipman, where Lord Cochrane, later Earl of Dundonald, was Captain. During his time in Imperieuse the young Marryat saw a great deal of action, which is told more fully in an article by Mike Phillips. This period ended with an attack led by Lord Chatham on Antwerp which failed; Marryat caught a malarial fever from the marsh air, which affected his lungs, and which subsequently was to make him seriously ill on a number of occasions.

In 1818 he invented a Lifeboat, for which he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Humane Society.

About this time he wrote articles suggesting that the Navy could find a better way than impressment for recruiting its men, but these were badly received.

In January 1819 he married Catharine, second daughter of Sir Stephen Shairp, for many years Consul-General in Russia. They had four sons and seven daughters, but three of the sons died before Frederick did, and the last one died young in 1855.

He resigned from the Navy on the grounds of "private affairs" in 1830. He had already completed the manuscript of "The King's Own," and he now wrote and published "The Naval Officer, or Scenes and Adventures in the Life of Frank Mildmay," for which he was well paid, and which launched his literary career.

In 1830 he exchanged Sussex House, Hammersmith, for a property of a thousand acres at Langham near Blakeney in North Norfolk. This property was an expensive one to maintain, but he retained it till his death, and was buried just near the west door of Langham church.

Marryat enjoyed an expensive style of life, travelling between London, Brighton – the centre of Regency Buck Society – and Langham. He also stayed for a year or so in Brussels, and travelled extensively in America during 1837-38. He finally settled at Langham in 1843, where he died on 8th August 1848.

A PDF of scans and an HTML version of this book are provided. We also provide a plain TEXT version and full instructions for using this to make your own audiobook. To find these click on the PDF, HTML or TXT links on the left.

These transcriptions of books by various nineteenth century authors of instructive books for teenagers, were made during the period 1997 to the present day by Athelstane e-Books. Most of the books are concerned with the sea, but in any case all will give a good idea of life in the nineteenth century, and sometimes earlier than that. This of course includes attitudes prevalent at the time, but frowned upon nowadays.

We used a Hewlett-Packard scanner, a Plustek OpticBook 3600 scanner or a Nikkon Coolpix 5700 camera to scan the pages. We then made a pdf which we used to assist with editing the OCRed text.

To make a text version we used TextBridge Pro 98 or ABBYY Finereader 7 or 8 to produce a first draft of the text, and Athelstane software to find misreads and improve the text. We proof-read the chapters, and then made a CD with the book read aloud by either Fonix ISpeak or TextAloud MP3. The last step enables us to hear and correct most of the errors that may have been missed by the other steps, as well as entertaining us during the work of transcription.

The resulting text can be read either here at the Internet Archive or at www.athelstane.co.uk