The Mid of the Maintop

by Brian Smith

Sailing from ports in East Africa Arab slave dhows are transporting African slaves to markets in Arabia. But the British Royal Navy is at hand! The frigate HMS Forte is sailing through these perilous waters on the look-out for slave dhows with their wretched human cargo. Yet things seldom go as planned and the wheel of fortune keeps turning without mercy. Midshipman Jack Villiers has just finished a routine duty when fate's icy hand grasps him. Will he survive his ordeal - or go Davy Jones Locker like so many others before him? Arthur Lee Knight (1852 - 7 Jul 1944) was a popular author of adventure books in the late 19th and early 20th century. Around 1868 he joined the Royal Navy at the age of sixteen as a junior midshipman, where he served on the 51-gun screw frigate HMS Forte.
Having been a midshipman in the navy he was familiar with life in the navy and many of the episodes in his novels - such as hunting Arab slave traders - are clearly events he experienced himself and give unique insight into the world and people in the Victorian age. His readable and often racy stories are characterized by authentic navy language of the time and evocative descriptions of seascapes, distant countries and unusual people.