Newton Forster or The Merchant Service [Paperback]

Newton Forster is a troubled young man who survives impressment into the Navy, imprisonment in France, and a shipwreck in the West Indies before gaining a post on a British East India Company vessel bound for Asia. Forster faces a thrill a chapter—murder, insanity, press gangs, prison, pirates, treachery, and romance.Captain Frederick Marryat (1792–1848) was an actual 19th-century British naval hero who lived a saga worthy of the novels of C.S. Forester and Patrick O'Brian. He survived fifty naval battles on the crack frigate Imperieuse under Lord Cochrane—the real-life model for Horatio Hornblower and Jack Aubrey. In addition to plenty of cannonfire, battle strategy, peril, and passion—liberally sprinkled with wit and fine turns of phrase—Marryat's real-life naval experiences lend his novels a truly remarkable authenticity.This was Marryat's navy, his world, and no one brings it to us with greater authenticity.When your [Patrick] O'Brians are out, recommend Marryat.Marryat has the power to set us in the midst of ships and men and sea and sky, all vivid, credible, authentic.[Marryat's] greatness is undeniable.