Extract from Percy F. Westerman's historical adventure novel, A Midshipman of the Fleet (1954)

Shortly after four o’clock in the morning of the 28th day of August, 1782, a young man was hastening through the narrow streets of Portsmouth.

He was tall, and the worn mud-stained greatcoat that was buttoned tightly round him exaggerated rather than concealed his slender figure. Beneath the coat his stockings of light-blue silk and his pinch-beck shoes with massive silver buckles, appeared somewhat incongruous, though matched by a three cornered laced hat that surmounted a perfumed and powdered wig.

He had regular features, while his clean shaven face revealed a square, determined jaw, full lips and clear white skin. His eyes were brown in colour, with well-arched eyebrows that all but met above the bridge of his aquiline nose.

In his right hand he carried a sword-cane, the head massively mounted in silver, while the left hand, thrust deep into the pocket of his coat, clasped a bulky leather case, as if he feared to allow it for moment out of his grasp.

Apparently unconscious of his surroundings, he walked rapidly and with a set purpose down the almost deserted High Street and passing under a narrow gained a small wooden pier known as the Sally Port landing. Here he stopped, glanced rapidly along the beach on either hand, for the tide was now low, and then gazed fixedly out to sea.

It was a stirring sight that met his eyes. The sun had not yet risen, but the grey mists of the morning were already beginning to disperse, breaking up the fleecy patches as they fled before the north-easterly breeze.

Away at Spithead, their black and yellow hulls and tapering masts standing up through the breaks of the mist, were eleven large ships riding easily at their stout hempen cables. From their lofty sterns the twinkle of the poop lanterns hardly held its own against the rapidly increasing daylight, while neither from truck nor ensign-gaff* were any colours shown to denote their nationality. The fleet was apparently wrapt in slumber.

Percy F. Westerman (1876 – 22 Feb. 1959) was a prolific and highly successful novelist and naval enthusiast, publishing 178 books and selling at least 1.5 million copies, mostly of adventure stories for boys. Many of his works were first published in serialised form and featured recurring characters such as Cadet Alan Carr and Standish of the Air Police. His career in adventure fiction began aged 31 with A Lad of Grit (1908), a work inspired by the beginning of the Scout movement the year before. So successful was he that within four years he was able to devote himself entirely to writing. Other works include The Winning of the Golden Spurs (1911), Under the White Ensign (1918), The Wireless Operator (1922), *Clipped Wings (1923), King of Killba (1926), Standish Gets His Man (1938), and At Grips With the Swastika (1940). By the 1930s he was the most popular boys' author in the UK according to a Daily Sketch poll conducted through libraries, but his works also sold worldwide in translation. His works demonstrate particular interest in traditional masculinity, the open-air life, self-sufficiency, and practical ingenuity. His characters are often drawn from the navy, air force, and army, or aspire to join them. His work is often criticised, even by Westerman enthusiasts, for its patriotism, imperialism, and racism, and debates continue as to whether his work reflected or encouraged contemporary attitudes to nation and race. He is not regarded as one of the great prose stylists.

Born in Portsmouth, Westerman attended Portsmouth Grammar School and found clerical employment in the city’s Royal Navy Dockyards. He married Portsmouth-born Florence Wager in 1900, taking a sailing honeymoon on the Solent. The success of his writing career meant that he was able to retire from the admiralty in 1911. No longer tied to Portsmouth, he relocated to Pennington Cross near Lymington, and finally to a house boat in Wareham, Dorset from where he appeared in a delightful Pathe News film in 1931. During WWI, Westerman worked as a navigation instructor and on coastal duties, and was offered a commission in the Royal Flying Corps, but continued to write. During WWII he was a member of the Home Guard. He died in 1959, his final work, Mistaken Identity, appearing posthumously that year. His son, John Westerman was also a successful and prolific writer of adventure fiction.

We are indebted to the doyen of Westerman Studies, Nigel Gossop, for his assistance with research into Westerman’s life and career. See the Westerman Yarns blog for further information. See also History in Portsmouth)

ENTRY: Dr Mark Frost, Department of English Literature, University of Portsmouth.
If you have any comments or suggestions please email: mark.frost@port.ac.uk