Plot: This is the start of a series of four books following three young friends through their career in the British navy. Terence, Jack and Alick first meet at a boarding school, and become fast friends, not least because together they stand up to the school bullies. Soon, they leave school and join the navy together. Sometimes they serve in the same ship, sometimes in different ones, but their careers are interwoven. In the Levant, in West Africa and in China, they live adventures involving sea battles, storms, and pirates. They have a way of allowing their paths to cross in order to look after one another.


The other books in the series are The Three Lieutenants, The Three Commanders and The Three Admirals. Although they follow the same characters as they are promoted, they can be read independently, because they are more or less episodic. In this first book, the characters are midshipmen, the most junior officers, being barely out of childhood, and the book ends with their promotion to lieutenants.

This is the second book by W. H. G. Kingston that I read, the previous one being Adrift on a Boat. this novel is much longer than Adrift on a Boat, but my impression is somewhat similar. Kingston's strengths are a fast pace, always full of action and heroism, and a readable style.

On the other hand, his stories seem to be superficial. He doesn't give his characters much individuality, which makes it difficult to care for what happens to them. Murray is a bit more thoughtful and religious, but mostly the three heroes are interchangeable. The characters are all brave and go into battle cheerfully. Apart from a few moments of comic relief, the fast pace doesn't allow for much quiet time to appreciate what it is like, living in a navy ship.

Since the characters are not in command of their ships, the occasion for them to distinguish themselves is when on independent missions, either on a boat that they may command or on land. Because of this, most of the novel is one of these independent mission after the other. They are always on a boat, boarding some enemy, or pirate or slaver ship, or on land assaulting some fortification or rescuing prisoners. The action really is continuous.

Kingston's writing is also quite jingoistic. In his stories, the British Navy is idealized, and its seamen are noble and brave, and foreigners are usually uncivilized and/or ridiculous.

All in all, a story that did well enough to entertain its young audience in the second part of the 19th century, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to modern readers, unless they are very keen on Victorian naval adventure novels. I think there are other adventure novels of the same time that have stood the test of time better.

In his Foreword to Treasure Island (a better novel than this one), Robert Louis Stevenson cited Kingston among his predecessors, along with R. M. Ballantyne and James Fenimore Cooper:

TO THE HESITATING PURCHASER

If sailor tales to sailor tunes,
Storm and adventure, heat and cold,
If schooners, islands, and maroons,
And buccaneers, and buried gold,
And all the old romance, retold
Exactly in the ancient way,
Can please, as me they pleased of old,
The wiser youngsters of today:

—So be it, and fall on! If not,
If studious youth no longer crave,
His ancient appetites forgot,
Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave,
Or Cooper of the wood and wave:
So be it, also! And may I
And all my pirates share the grave
Where these and their creations lie!

I'm not sure whether the wise youngsters of the 21st century still read Stevenson, or if they read at all, but I'm sure Kingston is mostly forgotten, as the vast majority of our current young adult literature will be forgotten in turn. This book is fine for what it is, but it's not high in the list of old novels that merit rediscovery by new generations. ( )