Frederick Marryat

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Frederick Marryat

Frederick Marryat (born July 10, 1792 in London , † August 2, 1848 in Langham , Norfolk ) was an English naval officer and writer .

Life

Frederick Marryat was born in London as the second son of Joseph Marryat, a businessman , member of the British House of Commons and colonial commissioner for the island of Grenada , and his German wife Charlotte nee. von Geyer born. He found little pleasure in school life at Mr. Freeman's Academy in Ponders End, his birthplace, and ran away twice to pursue his dearest wish and go to sea.

Careers at sea

Letters proving Marryat's acts of rescue, circa 1811.

As a member of parliament of the Tories , his father was able to use his influence to secure the 14-year-old a place as a volunteer naval cadet on the frigate Impérieuse of Captain Lord Thomas Cochrane , a ship that later inspired him to numerous sea stories. Cochrane served as a model for the literary character of Horatio Hornblower in Cecil Scott Forester's novels and for Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey in his Aubrey Maturin series . In 1811 Marryat rescued an overboard sailor from drowning off the Gironde coast . This earned him a recommendation from Lord Cochrane. His courage and humanity were featured in a number of testimonials from this period and earned him a medal from the Royal Humane Society .

After serving on other ships and participating in the British-American War (1812-1814) he was provided for the rank of lieutenant in October 1812 , but the promotion was delayed until December 26, because he was not "according to the rules of the Anglican Church of England ”was baptized. Between 1813 and 1815, Marryat showed the first signs of coughing up blood , possibly caused by the 1811 rescue act.

Codebook of the Marryat flag code
Marryat's sketch of Napoleon's body, caption: “Napoleon Bonaparte as he appeared on Sunday morning on the 6th of May, 14 hours after his death, laying upon the bed that he died in.”

With the end of the wars against Napoleon , Marryat was promoted to Commander in 1815. In addition, he devoted himself to scientific studies, developed a. a. In 1817 the Marryat signal code for merchant shipping and in 1820 a lifeboat , for whose design he won a gold medal from the Royal Humane Society . The principle and design of the boat are described in more detail in Dodsley's Annual Register Volume 62 of 1820 on page 1372.

He became a member of the Royal Society and married Catherine Shairp in 1819, daughter of the British consul Sir Stephen Shairp, with whom he fathered four sons and seven daughters.

After 1820 he commanded the Sloop Beaver and temporarily the Rosario , with which he brought the news of the death of the ex-emperor Napoleon Bonaparte on May 5, 1821 in St. Helena to Europe . Immediately after Napoleon's death, Marryat made a sketch of the body, which has been preserved and is exhibited in London's National Maritime Museum .

In 1823 Marryat became the commander of the corvette Larne , took part in the expedition against Burma in the First Anglo-Burmese War, took over the frigate Tees and was promoted to post-captain. In 1826 he returned to England. With the frigate Ariadne he was sent in 1829 to explore the shallows around Madeira and the Canary Islands . After this less than inspiring commission, he said goodbye in 1830 and devoted himself entirely to writing .

Writing

After he had previously written the autobiographical novel The Naval Officer (1829) while at sea, further books were written in rapid succession over the next few years, of which Peter Simple (1834) and Mr Midshipman Easy (1836) were his best known. From 1832 to 1835 he also headed the magazine Metropolitan Magazine , published in which several of his novels in the preprint. In 1836 he lived in Brussels for a year and then traveled to Canada and the USA . He describes his impressions of the country and its people in his Diary in America (1839). In 1839 he returned to London and made connections with writers such as Charles Dickens , Clarkson Stanfield and Samuel Rogers .

His numerous sea ​​novels , which have been translated into German several times, were attested to have a “faithful conception of life” and a “skilful presentation”, but on the other hand Marryat's rapid production method was also criticized. The additional humorous element they contain is reminiscent of Tobias Smollett . Heinrich Smidt is often seen as the German contemporary counterpart to Marryat .

In the 1840s, Marryat increasingly oriented itself towards the literary market, addressed a young audience and wrote a.o. a. four Robinsonades , of which Masterman Ready, or the Wreck of the Pacific (German translation: Sigismund Rüstig ), 1841, became the most popular in the German-speaking world. This work, influenced by Johann David Wyss' novel Die Schweizer Familie Robinson , is also praised by Otto Ernst in his novel Asmus Sempers Jugendland . Settlers in Canada, on the other hand, has influences from James Fenimore Cooper . The last novel, The Little Savage , a robinsonad about a boy and a villainous sailor, was completed by his son Frank S. Marryat.

Marryat's admirers include writers such as Joseph Conrad and Ernest Hemingway . Also, Robert Louis Stevenson , Cecil Scott Forester and Patrick O'Brian benefited in its literary production from him.

End of life

In 1843 he left London and retired to an estate in Langham in Norfolk, where he died on August 2, 1848 at the age of 56 after years of health problems.

The writer and actress Florence Marryat was his daughter.

Awards and honors

Literary works

Illustration by Walter Zweigle from 1902 in a German edition of Der Flottenoffizier (The Naval Officer)
Book cover designed by Willy Stöwer in 1899 for a German edition by Sea Cadet Jack Freimut (Mr Midshipman Easy)

The titles of the German translations change frequently over the years. In addition, his works have been repeatedly revised by writers and specially adapted for young people.

  • The Naval Officer, or Scenes in the Life and Adventures of Frank Mildmay , 1829 (Eng. Der Flottenoffizier )
  • The King's Own , 1830 (dt. King's own )
  • Newton Forster or, the Merchant Service , 1832 (Eng. The Power of Fate or Harry and Felizitas )
  • Peter Simple , 1834 (German Peter on the seven seas )
  • Jacob Faithful , 1834 (German: The Adventures of Jakob Ehrlich )
  • The Pacha of Many Tales , 1835 (Eng. The Pascha )
  • Mr Midshipman Easy , 1836 (German midshipman Jack becomes sensible or midshipman Jack Freimut )
  • Japhet, in Search of a Father , 1836 (Eng. Japhet, who is looking for his father )
  • The Pirate , 1836 (Eng. The Pirate )
  • The Three Cutters , 1836 (dt. The three boats )
  • Snarleyyow, or the Dog Fiend , 1837 (dt. The Hellhound )
  • Rattling the Reefer (with Edward Howard), 1838
  • The Phantom Ship , 1839 (German: The Ghost Ship or the Flying Dutchman )
    • From: The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains (Eng. The white wolf in the Harz Mountains. Hannover, jmb 2011, ISBN 978-3-940970-69-5 )
  • Diary in America , 1839 (German diary in America )
  • Olla Podrida , 1840 (German Olla podrida )
  • Poor Jack , 1840 (German: Poor Jack )
  • Masterman Ready, or the Wreck in the Pacific , 1841 (German: Sigismund Rüstig )
  • Joseph Rushbrook, or the Poacher , 1841 (German Joseph Rushbrook )
  • Percival Keene , 1842 (German Captain Kiene )
  • Monsieur Violet , 1843 (German M. Violet's Travels and Adventure )
  • Settlers in Canada , 1844 (German Captain Marryat: The settlers in Canada. A book for the younger world . Translated from the English by Theodor Oelckers . Bernhard Tauchnitz jun., Leipzig 1844)
  • The Mission, or Scenes in Africa , 1845 (Eng. The Mission, or Scenes and Adventure in Africa )
  • The privateersman, or One Hundred Years Ago , 1846 (dt. The Kaperschiffer )
  • The Children of the New Forest , 1847 (dt. Children of the forest , fleeing to the Neuwald ) Digitalisat a German edition of 1878
  • The Little Savage , posthumously, 1848 (Eng. The castaways on the Chincha Islands )
  • Valerie, an autobiography , posthumous, 1848
  • Paul Periwinkle or the Preßgang-Verlag Joseph Jolowicz Berlin, around 1840 (there seems to be only one copy of this work)
  • Captains Marryat's entire works , 82 vols. (Vieweg, Braunschweig 1837–1843)
  • All works in transmissions by C. Kolb, H. Kurtz (20 in 19 volumes and 1 supplement volume) Stuttgart, Hoffmann 1844 and 1857–1861

Film adaptations

literature

  • Maurice-Paul Gautier: Captain Frederick Marryat. L'homme et l'oeuvre. Univ. Diss. Paris, 1971.
  • Rolf Guggenbühl: Change in the sea novel of the 19th century. Marryat, Melville, Conrad. Univ. Diss. Zurich, 1975.
  • David Hannay: Life of Frederick Marryat. Reprinted from 1889 edition. Haskell House Publ., New York 1973, ISBN 0-8383-1695-6 .
  • Louis J. Parascandola: “Puzzled which to choose.” Conflicting socio-political views in the works of captain Fredrick Marryat (= American university studies; Ser. 4, English language and literature; 182). Lang, New York et al. a. 1997, ISBN 0-8204-3077-3 .
  • Tom Pocock: Captain Marryat. Seaman, writer and adventurer. Chatham, London 2000, ISBN 1-86176-130-9 .
  • Oliver Warner: Captain Marryat. A rediscovery. Repr. Of London 1953 edition. Hyperion Press, Westport, Conn. 1979, ISBN 0-88355-721-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Papers of Captain Frederick Marryat
  2. ↑ a b c Dictionary of Canadian Biography
  3. ^ Dodsley's Annual Register Volume 62, page 1372

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Marryat, Frederick
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English naval officer and writer
DATE OF BIRTH July 10, 1792
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH August 2, 1848
Place of death Langham , Norfolk