Frederick Marryat, Part 2

Part 1 is here

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The success of Marryat’s first novel launched him into the literary world of 1830s London and was soon followed by publication of The King’s Own. Of this a modern reviewer says:

It is apparent that Marryat intimately knows the sea, its sailors, and its unforgiving nature. The scenes of naval conflicts are conveyed with a natural continuity that preserves the chaotic and horrific details of men fighting each other with cutlasses, on the decks of ships made of wood, and moved by canvas. He’s also familiar with the humor that permeates naval life either in the form of the antics played on fellow seamen or in the irony associated with naval commanders trying to shift blame away from their own shortcomings.

Beyond the sea, Marryat instills reality into his characters. He constantly brings forth small universal truths that support the actions and behaviors of his characters, which adds a greater depth or deeper meaning to his story.

With these novels Marryat inaugurated a literary genre explored by, for example, C S Forester with his Hornblower books and Patrick O’Brian’s best-selling Aubrey–Maturin series.

Marryat’s blend of authentic detail, fast-moving action and humour was to become his authorial trademark and gained for him a wide readership. The King’s Own was followed by Newton Forster or, the Merchant Service (1832).

With Jacob Faithful and Peter Simple (1834), he began to write also for a younger audience, and he may be best remembered as a children’s author, especially for The Children of the New Forest (1847).

His other works are as follows: Jacob Faithful (1834), The Pacha of Many Tales (1835), Japthet in Search of a Father, The Pirate, The Three Cutters, Mr Midshipman Easy (1836), Snarleyyow, or the Dog Fiend (1837), The Phantom Ship (1839), Diary in America (1839), Poor Jack, Olla Podrida (1840), Masterman Ready, Joseph Rushbrook (1841), Percival Keene (1842), Monsieur Violet (1843), The Settlers in Canada (1844), The Mission, or Scenes in Africa (1845), The Privateer’s Man, or One Hundred Years Ago (1846), The Little Savage, Valerie (both published posthumously in 1848).

From 1830 until 1843 Marryat divided much of his time between London, Norfolk and the fashionable Regency resort of Brighton. In 1832 he became the editor of the Metropolitan Magazine, and was a friend and contemporary of Charles Dickens and Samuel Rogers, among other luminaries of the literary world.

In 1836 he lived for a time in Brussels, and in 1837-8 travelled in Canada and the United States. One of his reasons for going to America had to do with the fact that American publishers regularly pirated British works, but his efforts in this regard failed. Dickens too was angered by American freeloaders, the more so when the American press told him he should be grateful for the exposure and was mercenary in expecting to be paid.

Marryat in middle age

Marryat’s marriage, unhappy for a long time, broke down in 1843 and he moved to his estate at Langham, taking up residence in the recently built Manor Cottage on the Cockthorpe Road – ‘cottage’ being a misleading word for such an imposing house, but considered appropriate because its roofs were thatched. Here, with the sea distantly in view, he received a visit from Charles Dickens and wrote his last novels.

Once settled in the village, Captain Marryat took a prominent part in its affairs, supervising his own estate, on which he installed a duck decoy; he shrewdly hired as his gamekeeper one William Barnes, a prolific local poacher. Marryat became a magistrate and churchwarden and was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Norfolk.

But the malaria he had contracted as a youth had permanently damaged his health. Matters had not been helped by the almost inhuman rate at which he had written since leaving the Navy.

In 1847, perhaps hoping a change of air would help, or perhaps because this restless, creative man had simply become bored, he applied to rejoin the Navy. The Admiralty’s curt rejection of his application so angered him that he broke a blood-vessel of the lungs and was dangerously ill for months.

Just as he was recovering, news came of the drowning of his eldest son, Frederick. He had gone down on 20 December 1847 in the paddle-frigate Avenger while off the north African coast.

The shock and subsequent grief proved too much for a system weakened by disease and overwork, and Frederick Marryat died at Langham on 9 August 1848. His tomb in the churchyard is now looking a little forlorn, a sad reminder of what awaits even the best, brightest and most energetic of us. The unalloyed pleasure given by his fiction is a far better and living legacy: that and the enduring annals of his bravery and his humanitarianism.