The famous Captain Marryat has taught us more, probably, about the sea, the navy and fighting ships than any other writer of stories of adventure. Frederick Marryat was born in England of Huguenot ancestry in the year 1792. He belonged to a family of fifteen children and seems always to have been of a stirring, restless disposition. More than once, he ran away from home or school to go to sea, giving as an excuse that he had to wear his elder brother's old clothes. He was not a particularly attentive student, although a story is told that he was once discovered standing on his head, in order, he explained, to see if he could learn one of his lessons better in that position. He had tried, so he said, for three hours to learn the lesson in the more usual attitude. This of course was one of young Frederick Marryat's little jokes. He entered the King's Navy in 1806 as a midshipman when he was fourteen years old. It was his good fortune to be under a very fine type of Captain, Lord Cochrane, the Earl of Dundonald, an able, fearless and upright person. In many of Marryat's stories, we find that his captains are like the Earl of Dundonald. Marryat's promotion in the Navy was rapid. These were the years of the great Napoleonic Wars. He had reached the rank of Commander by the end of the war in 1815 when he was only twenty-three, having seen much smart service. Later, he was given the responsible task of mounting guard over Napoleon. Two of Marryat's best known and most interesting {73} stories are _Midshipman Easy_ and _Peter Simple_. These give interesting, authentic, and exciting accounts of life at sea from the point of view first of a midshipman, and then of a young officer in command. Farce, fun, reality and strange adventure are so blended that we can almost imagine we hear the splash of waves, smell the salt tang of the sea, and experience the nerve-racking excitement of going into action. There is occasionally a quality of coarseness in Marryat's stories, but they are honest, straightforward and brave. We learn from them with unmistakable clearness that the world is not a place where people are pampered and made much of, but a scene of discipline and hard work, as well as of fun and adventure.