The Adventures of a Midshipmite — Brian Smith

Conrad Lee joins H.M. training ship Britannia in Dartmouth Harbour to become a midshipman in the Royal Navy. He learns the ropes of life at sea on a sailing ship and experiences strict discipline, flogging and bullying, yet also camaraderie, playing tricks on his shipmates and marvellous fun. When he is ready to join the navy as a midshipman, an exciting world of battles, hidden treasure and nefarious slave traders await him. Will he be strong enough to meet his ultimate challenge when those most dear to him are sold into slavery?This book, like 'Medea's Cauldron,' brought back youth for the nonce. We read it delightedly from beginning to end, and were only sorry then that there was no more. There is a desperate engagement with the enemy on every other page; awful single combats; wrecks; exploits in cutting out ships, and the like, enough to turn any boy's brain. Twice the hero is lost among savages, and is only saved by the skin of his teeth. There is a lion-hunt too; the discovery of a pirate's hoard; and conflicts with slave-dhows. The interest never flags, and Mr. Knight has produced a capital story. If fathers do not wish their lads to join the Royal Navy or run away to sea, they had better reserve this book for their own private reading, and, like us, live their boyhood over again.- Academy.Arthur Lee Knight (1852 - 7 Jul 1944) was a popular author of adventure books in the late 19th and early 20th century. Around 1868 he joined the Royal Navy at the age of sixteen as a junior midshipman, where he served on the 51-gun screw frigate HMS Forte.Having been a midshipman in the navy he was familiar with life in the navy and many of the episodes in his novels - such as hunting Arab slave traders - are clearly events he experienced himself and give unique insight into the world and people in the Victorian age. His readable and often racy stories are characterized by authentic navy language of the time and evocative descriptions of seascapes, distant countries and unusual people.