MARRYAT, Frederick, English naval of ficer and novelist: b. London, 10 July 1792; d. Langham, Norfolk, 9 Aug. 1848. In 1806 he entered the navy, served on the coast of North America in 1811 in the dzEolus, and in 1823 was commander of the Larne during the first Burmese War, in 1825 had the naval command of a successful expedition up the Bassein River, and in the same year was made captain of the Tees. From 1828 until his resignation in 1830 he commanded the Ariadne. He received the gold medal of the Royal Humane Society (1818) for saving life at sea; adapted to the mercantile marine Sir Home Popham's system of signaling; was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1819, and was also something of a caricature artist. He is best known, however, for his stories of the sea, beginning in 1829 with 'The Naval Officer.' The most familiar of them is 'Midshipman Easy' (1836), in which his chief characteristics, lifelike and circum stantial narration and a rollicking humor, ap pear perhaps at their best. Others of the series are
series of juveniles, chief of them 'Masterman Ready' (1841). He visited Canada and the United States in 1837-38; and recorded his im pressions in 'A Diary in America' (1839), which gave some offense to the people of the nation, then hypersensitive to foreign criticism. In 1832-35 he edited the Metropolitan Magazine, in which he published a review.of N. P. Willis' 'Pencilings by the Way,' which the latter, then in England, considered abusive. Willis chal lenged Marryat, and they exchanged shots at Chatham without injury. (See MIDSHIPMAN EASY, MR.). Consult Marryat, F., 'Life and Correspondence' (1872); Hannay, 'Life' (in 'Great Writers> series).