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This book contains two stories. Firstly there is the story of Molly a twenty-first century eleven-year-old and, secondly, the story of Sam a ship’s boy on board the Victory before and during the Battle of Trafalgar. The separate stories are told chapter about. Molly’s chapters are written in the present tense while Sam’s are in the past.
Molly has problems. Her father died when she was four years old. Then when she was nine her mother married again –– to an American. At first all was well. They still lived in London and Molly continued to attend her own school. Then they moved to Connecticut and Molly just could not settle in America. She missed England, her grandparents and her old school friends dreadfully. Then one day in a second hand bookshop she buys a biography of Horatio Nelson. Later she finds an envelope in it containing a scrap of material. There is also a note from an Emma Tenney saying that the material was a scrap of the flag of the Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar and that it had been the most prized possession of her father Sam Robbins. After this Molly often feels that something or someone is trying to reach out to her from the past. After several disturbing experiences all is eventually made clear to her.
Sam is a country boy. He lives with his brutal father, his surly elder brother, his downtrodden mother and his younger sisters until he is rescued by his Uncle Charlie who takes him to live with him and his wife in Portsmouth. Uncle Charlie is a ropemaker and Sam hopes to become his apprentice. But that hope is dashed when both he and Uncle Charlie are caught by the press gang and taken aboard the Victory.
Then follows a very comprehensive picture of life aboard the Victory as Sam is shown learning his new duties. Being a country boy he knows how to kill a chicken and he starts off helping the cook. Then after a savage and undeserved punishment his uncle manages to get him assigned to his own mess and Sam, who can sew a bit, helps the sailmaker. Finally Sam becomes a powder monkey.
Apart from Sam’s duties the reader is also given a detailed picture of the ship herself and the conditions the crew lived in –– the monotonous food, the harsh disclipine, the constant risks and dangers. And, during the Battle of Trafalgar, the horrific injuries and the primitive treatments of the surgeons are described without mitigation.
Finally a picture of the Victory today is given as Molly persuades her grandfather to take her while on a visit home.
Comes with a historical note.
This book gives a well researched picture of the Victory and the Battle of Trafalger. Molly’s problems add an unusual story element.
Recommended.
12+
Thirteen-year-old Sam Witchall lives in Norfolk with his parents. Sam wants to become a sailor but his parents do not want the brutal and dangerous life of the Navy for their son. Eventually his father agrees that he can go to sea –– but on a merchant ship, not a Navy ship.
But the ship is boarded by a party from men from a Navy pressing tender and Sam is taken by them. So he finds himself in the Navy after all. He is taken aboard the frigate Miranda and forced to become a powder monkey –– one of the boys who, during a battle, runs below and fetches the gunpowder for the ships’ cannons.
From then on the reader follows Sam and gets a detailed picture of shipboard life in a Navy ship at the time of the Napoleonic Wars. There are the living conditions and Sam has to master the art of sleeping in a hammock, there are details of the food and even the sanitary arrangements and the ‘heads.’ Then Sam has to learn his duties and he learns just how dangerous the work of a powder monkey can be with the constant threat of being blown up. But being sent aloft in the rigging can be just as dangerous with the risk of plunging to the deck far below. Sam also sees the brutal discipline of the Navy and has to witness a flogging from which the man later dies.
Then there is the social hierarchy. Sam is in the mess with the gun crew but he also sees the midshipmen who are little older than himself but have to be obeyed without question as they are officers. Once Sam even has to wait at table when the Captain is entertaining the Governor of Gibralter, his wife and three daughters. Cue for descriptions of the Captain’s table and the contrast with the living conditions of the crew.
This book does not have much in the way of a plot as it is more a case of following Sam’s progress aboard the Miranda. But it does really need a conventional plot as the writing is so graphic that we really feel for Sam being forced into such a horrific life –– a life from which he could not escape because if he tried he would be shot or, if caught, flogged or even hanged. And even at the end of a voyage he would not be allowed to go home but forced to stay aboard.
It is not until the end that something of a story begins to emerge with the description of the carnage and bloodshed of an encounter with a Spanish ship. Sam and some of the crew of the Miranda are taken prisoner and face the prospect of years in a Spanish jail but Sam is involved in an escape plan.
Powder Monkey gives an illuminating picture of life aboard a ship of Nelson’s Navy.
11+
This is the third book in the series about Sam Witchall. Now they have been pardoned Sam and his friend Richard are on their way back to England from Australia. They sail through the Spice Islands where they encounter danger from storms, pirates and hostile islanders but eventually they arrive safely in London. After a while Richard returns to America while Sam makes short trips on merchant ships and goes back home to his family in Norfolk between times. Then he is nearly captured by the press gang again.
This makes him think very deeply about his future. Robert Neville’s father is very grateful to him for saving his son’s life. He has told Sam he is prepared to help him to become a midshipman. He will be Sam’s patron, purchase his uniform and oversee his training. As a midshipman Sam’s conditions would be much better than when he was a midshipman. Sam decides to accept this offer. He becomes a midshipman and is sent aboard the Victory. The book ends with the almost obligatory description of Nelson’s funeral.
So in the Sam Witchall books Paul Dowswell has covered most aspects of the Royal Navy at that time as we follow Sam from powder monkey to midshipman.
There could be some who would describe this series as a Boys Own adventure. This would be unfair for Paul Dowswell shows a more realistic picture. Sam has some reservations about joining the Navy again. He remembers all the cruelty but he also knows he will be in a better position now. Then there is the time when a sailor deserts and Sam is sent to bring him back. He catches up with the man who is wounded and pleads with Sam to shoot him rather than bring him back to be flogged around the fleet. The reader is given a clear picture of what exactly this would.
Then during the Battle of Trafalgar Sam finds out that the officers, including midshipmen, are not allowed to seek cover. In fact Nelson himself struts about the deck wearing all his decorations, badges of honour and insignia of rank and makes himself a distinct target for any French sharpshooter or sniper. This makes his eventual death almost suicidal.
Comes with historical notes and plans of the Battle of Trafalgar and of the Victory.
A well researched and exciting series. But heroics are tempered with gritty realism.
11+
This novel starts on a stormy night in Edinburgh in 1807. Patrick Barr and his twelve-year-old son John have just come from a meeting with their lawyer. Patrick has to tell his son that they have lost everything -- especially their home. John is devastated by the news but worse is just about to follow. They see again the rogue lawyer and his confederate and witness a murder -- of which the lawyer promptly accuses them. They flee and take refuge in a tavern in the port of Leith where they are pressed into the navy.
Once aboard John finds that he is still not free of the lawyer, Creech who follows him onto the ship before it sails. Creech accuses John of being a thief. Creech is ushered ashore but not before John has seen him conferring with Mr Higgins the bosun's mate.
But John soon has more to think about as he is assigned as an apprentice to Mr Tawse the master gunner. He has to learn the exhausting tasks of a powder monkey, to get used to the meagre ship's rations and to sleeping in a hammock. Then there is a sea battle with the French and the horrors of the surgeon's sickbay afterwards.
And all the time Mr Higgins is always trying to find a way of getting possession of John's leather satchell. A puzzle as all the satchell contains is some family papers. And one small book which John does not recognise. (He later remembers how it came to be in his satchell. During the conference in the lawyer's office some papers fell on the floor. John and his father scooped them up and put them in the satchell -- and the little book must have gone in with them).
Then one of the other boys -- Kit Mr Tawse's servant -- solves the mystery. Kit has a dark secret. He lets out that he can read French and it turns out that the little book is a French code book. This book would allow the British to feed the French false information. But first the British authorities want to uncover the network of French spies.
So begins a new career for John and Kit in espionage and the story goes from one exciting event to another. They go ashore and end up spending some months in a deserted chateau. Then follows a meeting with the Empress Josephine and a ball which is significant for more than mere dancing. Back on ship they are given another assignment.
This story was inspired by the life of the author's great-great-great grandfather who was himself impressed into the navy and served under Lord Cochrane. Another member of the crew was a young midshipman Frederick Marryat who later wrote Mr Midshipman Easy and Children of the New Forest.
This is an exciting adventure story of the kind seen only too few nowadays. It has been carefully researched and has an authentic background which ranges from the Edinburgh of 1807, life on board shiop in the Napoleonic Wars, life for the civilian population athe time and the Battle of Corruna.
Comes with a short historical note.
Highly recommended.
11+
It is 1813 and Britain is at war with France and America.
Kate Griffiths lives in Pembroke with her Aunt Megan and Uncle Owen. They have looked after her since her parents emigrated to America. Her parents said they would send for her later but Aunt Megan says that they have probably both been eaten by Indians.
Kate is unhappy in Pembroke. Her aunt is unkind to her and makes her work like a skivvy. But Kate has a secret. Whenever possible she disguises herself as a boy and slips down to the docks where she enjoys watching the ships.
One morning she finds a large cat tied to the boot scraper. The cat has a label round its neck with Kate's name on it. There is another scrap of paper in a puddle but Kate cannot read the words on it because the ink has run. Kate picks up the cat and makes her way to the docks. There a coachman tells her to hold the horses. Instead of doing so Kate ties their reins to a railing. The horses break free and the coach runs over a man and breaks his leg. Kate flees from an irate crowd. Suddenly she sees the cat again and follows it through the docks to the sloop-of-war Narwhal. Kate follows the cat aboard and takes refuge by climbing the rigging. When she is finally discovered she is mistaken for another boy who was supposed to join the ship but who had run away.
So Kate now has a position aboard the Narwhal. She joins the rope school for boys who are not old enough to be midshipmen. The schoolmaster is a sailor known as Jago. He teaches Kate how to tie knots, how to use the shrouds and climb to the top of the mast and how to make her way along the yardarm. He also details another boy to show her over the ship.
Jago is kind to Kate and then she finds him signalling to an American privateer. He is a traitor. He tells Kate, One word. And I'll kill you. Keep quiet you'll thank me for it.
Plenty for Kate to puzzle over. And then the Narwhal is involved in a sea battle with the American privateer. But that is not the worst. Kate herself is accused of being a traitor. She is condemned to be hanged from the yardarm at dawn.
Jago may be a traitor but to Kate he is more trustworthy than the officers of the Navy.
Kate's faith is justified. Jago has a plan to save her. Does it succeed? Does Kate find out why the cat had her name on a label round its neck? And where does her father come into all this?
Sam Llewellyn really knows his subject. He is an enthusiastic and experienced sailor and he has always had a passionate interest in the sea. This shows in the detailed and authentic background to Rope School.
An engrossing and exciting tale of naval life in the early years of the nineteenth century. And the cat Yankee -- or Cougar -- is an added bonus for animal lovers.
11+
When Scholastic began their fictional diary series, My Story, the titles were aimed mainly at girls. But they have recently introduced a kind of sub series -- My Story for boys. This is from the range of boys' titles.
James Grant is the son of a Liverpool merchant. When he is thirteen he goes to sea as a midshipman on board the frigate, the HMS Norseman.
Then follows accounts of James being shown over the ship, meeting the other midshipmen, the daily shipboard routine and the daily lessons in navigation and seamanship.
But James does not stay long in home waters. The Norseman is ordered to join the escort of a convoy of merchantmen to the West Indies. Once there she patrols the Caribbean keeping watch for French privateers. After a few years she returns again to England -- with a message that a French fleet is in the Caribbean. Then she is assigned to Admiral Nelson and is present at the Battle of Trafalgar.
Being a frigate, the Norseman does not take part in the actual fighting. She stands off just out of range and sends, and intercepts messages. James knows all that is going on as he is ordered aloft to watch the action and report to his captain.
After the Battle James is in one of the
boats which searches for survivors.
Shortly after this James passes his exams and becomes a lieutenant
and is assigned to another ship.
I put the reading age of this book at ten plus. Perhaps because the editors had a young readership in mind the true brutality of the age is played down. True there is a description of a flogging and there is a brief mention of the surgeon and his mates at work after an engagement, complete with the screams of the men on the operating table. But despite this the real horrors of nineteenth century warfare and shipboard life are not brought out. At the present time this is rather going against the trend.
Also the diary format can result in lack of structure and plotting. This means that this ends up more as an easy way of learning history rather than a real novel.
The book comes with historical notes,
an excellent glossary and a few contemporary illustrations.
10+