Frank Mildmay goes to sea as a boy in the Royal Navy during the wars with France and learns the trade, and every vice, of a midshipman’s berth. Battles, boat actions, storms, courts of inquiry and love affairs follow as he rises in the service, told by a narrator who looks back with candour on his younger self.
Marryat’s first novel, drawn closely from his own naval career, and a forerunner of all later Napoleonic sea fiction. Download the free EPUB.