Sunshine Bill, by W H G Kingston.
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Bill's father is a wherry-man in Portsmouth Harbour, who one day has an
accident and is killed. Bill's mother is a seller of apples. The whole
family are a happy, good-humoured lot. Bill is befriended by a Captain
Trevelyan, who offers him a boy seaman's place in his ship, the Lilly.
So Bill goes off to sea, knowing that it would be perhaps four years or
more before he would see his family again.
His companions as boy seamen include Tommy Rebow, a somewhat weaker lad
than Bill. The crew are all reasonably pleasant people, maybe grumbling
occasionally, but all getting on well together.
But all is not sunshine, for there are hurricanes, fallings overboard,
and other serious mishaps resulting in some swimming. Some fighting
with the French, some encounters with sharks, some days with little or
no food and water. But they get through it all, giving heartfelt thanks
to God for each release from their ordeals. They were taking a captured
prize to Jamaica, when a lot of this occurred, and it was a considerable
time before they found themselves back on board the Lilly, and homeward
bound.
This is a neatly written book--no complaints about it. It is also very
short, only half the length of most of Kingston's books, and printed on
incredibly thick paper, comparable with the card used to pack breakfast
cereals. But the action is lively and frequently unexpected.
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