Frederick MarryatCaptain Frederick Marryat (1792-1848) first attempted to run away to sea at fourteen. His father, a member of Parliament, helped him secure a midshipman's berth on a frigate commanded by the daring Thomas Cochrane. He would go on to erve in the Royal Navy for over twenty years, in the Battle of Aix Roads and the War of 1812. When he turned his pen to naval life, he became the preeminent chronicler of British naval seamen in the great age of Nelson. His many novels were admired by such authors as Conrad, Hemingway, Thackeray, Coleridge, and Washington Irving.