The Man Who Stayed Below

In 1913, sixteen-year-old Johnny Boult joins the wool-clipper "Emilia Denholm" in Melbourne as it sails for London and finds the stark reality of shipboard life different from his glamorous dreams of seafaring

In 1913 John Boult, a 16-year-old apprentice seaman, joins his first ship, an iron-hulled sailing vessel hauling wool from Melbourne to Liverpool. The ship is captained by a madman dying of cancer, the first mate is a felon, the head apprentice a weak, wormy boy whom the captain delights in tormenting. During the four-month voyage John sees more of the contained shipboard life than he wanted, and grows up quickly. A well enough written coming-of-age novel, remarkable chiefly for the seagoing milieu and scenes of ocean storms.Edwin B. Burgess, U.S. Army TRALINET Ctr., Fort Monroe, Va. Copyright 1987 Cahners Business Information.