by Edward Howard,
edited by Captain Marryat
As far as can be gathered, this breezy and adventurous history is the true life-story of Edward Howard, the author, up to the time when he left the navy by reason of deafness. Not only is it extremely probable that the accounts of his early upbringing, his schooldays, his life as a midshipman on board the Eos are strictly true, but there is nothing here, however outrageous, that did not happen to many a young fellow whose boyhood was passed at the beginning of the last century. But Ralph Rattlin, or Edward Howard, was a manly, happy-go-lucky sort of fellow, and he tells his story with a nautical breeziness, a sailor-like humour, and an accuracy in detail that give it a place among the finest sea-yarns. In his vivid description of discomfort at sea he may justly be compared with Tobias Smollett, while in his reverie at the mast-head, as described in Chapter XXXIX, he even recalls the great sea-pictures in Melville's immortal story of Moby Dick. First published in 1836
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