by H.H. Clark, U.S.N.
The fact that young boys served upon warships in all the navies of the world in the eighteenth and nineteenth century is a known fact. What is not known so well is the kind of life they lived during this service. Joe Bentley, a young farm boy, living along the banks of the Aroostook River in Maine, sees a notice nailed to a tree asking for boys to serve in the Navy. He joins up, and this is the story of his adventures. We learn of the kind of training the boys received and the life they lived aboard ship in the late nineteenth century. Iron ships and steamers were just beginning to make their mark upon the navy but the gunnery was still broadside at this time and the turret had yet to be fully developed.
One of the 100 Best Books on the American Sailor (Elbridge S. Brooks).
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