Reminiscences of a sailor of the Royal Navy during the Victorian Era.
This is another book from my library. It was written in the 1920's as far as I can tell and recounts the service life of a Scottish millworker who joined the Royal Navy in 1875 at the age of sixteen.
The author spent the first two years of his service on training ships at Portsmouth including HMS Victory where he learned all the skills required of a sailor. At this time most warships retained sails as their main source of propulsion. Although the majority were also fitted with steam engines these were very much auxiliary sources of power.
Following this extended period of training the author was posted to HMS Swallow, an 800 ton gunboat. On this ship he then spent the next four years on a continuous patrol firstly on the west coast of Africa then on the east coast of South America. At the time four year patrols were the norm. It is hard to imagine spending such a lengthy period away from home with just occasional layups for repairs and resupply in ports along the patrol line which usually provided a few days break on shore.
The author never experienced any combat action during the whole of his service. Therefore the book is filled with accounts of his day to day life firstly on the training ships then on the gunboat. These adventures are interesting and valuable accounts of life in the Royal Navy in this era. There can be no doubt he thoroughly enjoyed his naval career and it seems he only left the navy due to some injury suffered after returning to Portsmouth following the four year cruise. Unfortunately the details are unclear about this matter, I think the intention may have been to write a second book but my research indicates this never happened.
Overall a fascinating story of life in the Victorian Royal Navy and highly recommended to anyone interested in the Senior Service of this era.
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