Thirty-Six Years of a Seafaring Life by an Old Quarter Master: And Farewell to my Old Shipmates and Messmates

This volume contains two works by ‘an old quarter master’, John Bechervaise, born in St Aubin, Jersey in 1791. The first is a narrative of ‘thirty-six years of a seafaring life’, published in 1839, describing maritime experiences such as spending a winter in Newfoundland among Native Americans, being captured by privateers, being committed to a debtor’s prison, and deciding to join the Royal Navy. His detailed account of the day-to-day routines of life aboard ship are an important resource for naval historians, and the success of the book prompted a second memoir, published in 1847 by the same Portsmouth printer, which contains anecdotes and cautionary tales from the lives of ordinary sailors whom Bechervaise had known. There is an account of the comforts of the Royal Naval Hospital at Greenwich, a number of stories about the perils of drunkenness, and some acts of extraordinary heroism both at sea and on shore.