Captain Frederick Marryat (July 10, 1792 – August 9, 1848) was an English novelist, a contemporary and acquaintance of Charles Dickens, noted today as an early pioneer of the sea story. He is now known particularly for the semi-autobiographical novel Mr Midshipman Easy and his children's novel The Children of the New Forest, and for a widely used system of maritime flag signalling.
Contents |
Marryat was born in London, the son of Joseph Marryat, a "merchant prince" and member of Parliament. After trying to run away to sea several times, he was permitted to enter the Royal Navy in 1806, as a midshipman on board HMS Imperieuse, a frigate commanded by Lord Cochrane (who would later serve as inspiration for both Marryat and other authors).
Marryat's time aboard the Imperieuse included action off the Gironde, the rescue of a fellow midshipman who had fallen overboard, captures of many ships off the Mediterranean coast of Spain, and the capture of the castle of Mongat. When the Imperieuse shifted to operations in the Scheldt, in 1809, Marryat contracted malaria, and returned to England on HMS Victorious, 74 guns.
After recuperating, Marryat returned to the Mediterranean in HMS Centaur, 74, and again saved a shipmate by leaping into the sea after him. He then sailed as a passenger to Bermuda in HMS Atlas, 64 guns, and from thence to Halifax, Nova Scotia on the schooner Chubb, to join the frigate HMS Aeolus of 32 guns (April 27, 1811).
A few months later, Marryat again earned distinction by leading the effort to cut away the Aeolus' mainyard to save the ship during a storm, and continuing a pattern, he also saved one of the men from the sea. Shortly thereafter, he moved to the frigate HMS Spartan, participating in the capture of a number of American ships (the War of 1812 having begun by then), and on December 26, 1812 was promoted to lieutenant.
As lieutenant, Marryat served in the sloop Espiegle and in the Newcastle, and was promoted to commander June 13, 1815, just in time for peace to break out. He then pursued scientific studies, invented a lifeboat (thus earning both a gold medal from the Royal Humane Society and the nickname 'Lifeboat'), and in 1819 married Catherine Shairp, with whom he had four sons and seven daughters.
In 1820 he commanded the sloop Beaver and temporarily commanded Rosario for the purpose of bringing back to England the despatches announcing the death of Napoleon I on St Helena. He also took the opportunity to make a sketch of Napoleon's body on his deathbed, which was later published as a lithograph. (Marryat's artistic skills were modest, but his sketches of shipboard life above and below deck have considerable charm that overcomes their crudities.)[1]
In 1823 he was appointed to HMS Larne, 20, and took part in an expedition against Burma in 1824. During this expedition, which resulted in large losses due to disease, he was promoted to command HMS Tees, 28, and this gave him his post captain rank. He was back in England in 1826. In 1829 he was commanding the frigate HMS Ariadne on a mission to search for shoals around the Madeira and Canary Islands. This was an uninspiring exercise, and between that and the recent publication of his first novel, The Naval Officer, he decided to resign his commission in November 1830 and take up writing full time.
From 1832 to 1835 Marryat edited The Metropolitan Magazine.[2] He kept producing novels, with his biggest success, Mr Midshipman Easy, coming in 1836. He lived in Brussels for a year, travelled in Canada and the United States, then moved to London in 1839, where he was in the literary circle of Charles Dickens and others. He was in North America in 1837 when the Rebellion of that year in Lower Canada broke out, and served with the British forces in suppressing it.
He was named a Fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of his invention and other achievements. In 1843 he moved to a small farm at Manor Cottage in Norfolk, where he died in 1848. His daughter Florence Marryat later became well-known as a writer and actress.
Marryat's novels are characteristic of their time, with the concerns of family connections and social status often overshadowing the naval action, but they are interesting as fictional renditions of the author's 25 years of real-life experience at sea. These novels, much admired by Joseph Conrad and Ernest Hemingway, were among the first sea novels. They were models for later works by C. S. Forester and Patrick O'Brian that were also set in the time of Nelson and told the stories of young men rising through the ranks through successes as naval officers.
His later novels were generally for the children's market, including his most famous novel for contemporary readers, The Children of the New Forest, which was published in 1847.
|
|||||
| ←Author Index: Ma | Frederick Marryat (1792–1848) |
| Distinguished captain of the (British) Royal Navy who was noted for several actions of bravery. In literature, an early pioneer of the sea story. Also wrote several childrens' stories. |
Contents |
 |
Works by this author published before January 1, 1923 are in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago. Translations or editions published later may be copyrighted. Posthumous works may be copyrighted based on how long they have been published in certain countries and areas. |
FREDERICK MARRYAT (1792-1848), English sailor and novelist, was born at Westminster on the 10th of July 1792. He was the grandson of Thomas Marryat (physician, author of The Philosophy of Masons, and writer of verse), and son of Joseph Marryat, agent for the island of Grenada, who wrote pamphlets in defence of the Slave Trade. His mother was a Bostonian of German extraction. Young Marryat distinguished himself as a boy by frequently running away to go to sea; and at last, at the age of fourteen, he was allowed to enter the navy. His first service was under Lord Cochrane (afterwards tenth earl of Dundonald) in the famous "Imperieuse," and no midshipman ever had a livelier apprenticeship to the sea. During his two and a half years of service under Cochrane, the young midshipman witnessed more than fifty engagements, and had much experience of service on the coast of Spain in the early stage of the Peninsular War, in the attack on the French squadron in the Roads (April 1809) and in the Walcheren expedition. Before the general peace of 1815 he had served in North America and the West Indies and gained a wide knowledge of conditions of life on board ship under various commanders. In 1815 he was promoted to the rank of commander. After holding various commands he commissioned the "Larne," 20, for the East Indies and was senior naval officer at Rangoon during the Burmese War from May to September 1824. In the early part of the next year he commanded an expedition up the Bassein River, in which Bassein was occupied and the Burmese stores seized. His services were acknowledged by a nomination as C.B. in 1826. He frequently received honourable mention for his behaviour in action, and in 1818 he received the medal of the Humane Society for "at least a dozen" gallant rescues. Marryat's honours were not confined to gallant exploits. He adapted Sir Home Popham's code of signals to a code for the Mercantile Marine, for which he was made F.R.S. in 1819, and received the Legion of Honour from Louis Philippe in 1833. A pamphlet written to propose a substitute for the system of impressment in 1822 is said to have offended King William IV.
Marryat brought ripe experience and unimpaired vivacity to his work when he began to write novels. Frank Mildmay, or the Naval Officer, was published in 1829, and The King's Own followed in 1830. The novels of the sea captain at once won public favour. The freshness of the new field which was opened up to the imagination - so full of vivid lights and shadows, light-hearted fun, grinding hardship, stirring adventure, heroic action, warm friendships, bitter hatreds - was in exhilarating contrast to the world of the historical romancer and the fashionable novelist, to which the mind of the general reader was at that date given over. He had an admirable gift of lucid, direct narrative, and an unfailing fund of incident, and of humour, sometimes bordering on farce. Of all his portraits of adventurous sailors, "Gentleman Chucks" in Peter Simple and "Equality Jack" in Mr Midshipman Easy are the most famous, but he created many other types which take rank among the characteristic figures in English fiction. Marryat's first attempt was somewhat severely criticized from an artistic point of view, and he was accused of gratifying private grudges by introducing real personages too thinly disguised; and as he attributed some of his own adventures to Frank Mildmay he was rather shocked to learn that readers identified him with that disagreeable character. The King's Own was a vast improvement, in point of construction, upon Frank Mildmay; and he went on, through a quick succession of tales, Newton Forster (1832), Peter Simple (1834), Jacob Faithful (1834), The Pacha of Many Tales (1835), Japhet in Search of a Father (1836), Mr Midshipman Easy (1836), The Pirate and the Three Cutters (1836), till he reached his highwater mark of constructive skill in Snarley-yow, or the Dog Fiend (1837). The best of his books after this date are those written expressly for boys, the favourites being Masterman Ready (1841), The Settlers in Canada (1844), and The Children of the New Forest (1847). Among his other works are The Phantom Ship (1839); A Diary in America (1839); 011a Podrida (1840), a collection of miscellaneous papers; Poor Jack (1840); Joseph Rushbrook (1841); Percival Keene (1842); Monsieur Violet (1842); The Privateer's Man (1844); The Mission, or Scenes in Africa (1845); The Little Savage (1848-1849), published posthumously; and Valerie, not completed (1849). His novels form an important link between Smollett and Fielding and Charles Dickens.
Captain Marryat had retired from the naval service in 1830, becoming equerry to the duke of Sussex. He edited the Metropolitan Magazine from 1832 to 1835, and some of his best stories appeared in that paper. He spent a great part of his time in Brussels, where he was very popular. He visited Canada during Papineau's revolt and the United States in 1837, and gave a disparaging account of American institutions in a Diary published on his return to England. While at New York he wrote a play, The Ocean Waif, or Channel Outlaw, which was acted, and is forgotten. His versatility is further shown by the fact that he drew rough caricatures and other sketches with some spirit. Some capital snatches of verse are scattered throughout his novels, the best being "Poll put her arms akimbo" in Snarleyyow, and the "Hunter and the Maid" in Poor Jack. In 1843 he settled at Langham Manor, Norfolk. He indulged in costly experiments in farming, so that in spite of the large income earned by his books he was not a rich man. He died at Langham on the 9th of August 1848, his death being hastened by news of the loss of his son by shipwreck.
His daughter, Florence Marryat, herself a novelist, published his Life and Letters in 1872. See also David Hannay, Life of Marryat (1889). (D. H.)
|
<< Marruvium |
Mlle Mars >> |
Categories: MAR-MAR | English writers | Military people | History of the Americas
   | Marryat works online at Arthur's Classic Novels - Novels of Captain Frederick Marryat : Arthur's Classic Novels |
| | Free ebooks of Marryat books optimized for printing at home, plus short Marryat bibliography - Frederick Marryat Ria Press Classic Books |
| | Link to National Portrait Gallery, London - National Portrait Gallery - Person - Frederick Marryat |
| | Marryat works at Project Gutenberg - Browse By Author: M - Project Gutenberg |
|
|
Wikis
Quiz
Facts
Map
Search
