Frederick Chamier
Frederick Chamier (1796–1870) was a novelist and naval captain.
He was the son of an Anglo-Indian official, John Ezechial Camier and his wife Georgiana, daughter of Vice-admiral Sir William Burnaby.[1]
He entered the Royal Navy in 1809 and was posted to the frigate Salcette as a midshipman. After service on the 74-gun Fame he was transferred to HMS Arethusa fighting the slave trade, followed by anther transfer to HMS Menelaus. His only command was of the 10-gun brig Britomart in 1827 which was very soon paid off.[2]
Retiring in 1827, he wrote his autobiography, The Life of a Sailor, which was serialised in Metropolitan Magazine (1831–1832). He also wrote sea novels somewhat in the style of Marryat, including The Unfortunate Man (1835), Ben Brace, the last of Nelson's Agamemnons (1836), The Arethusa (1837), Jack Adams, or the Mutiny of the Bounty (1838), The Spitfire (1840), Tom Bowling (1841), Jack Malcolm's Log (1846). He also continued William James Naval History, and wrote books of travel.
As a midshipman on board the frigate Salcette in May 1810, young Chamier watched Lord Byron swim across the Hellespont at the second attempt. This episode is described in The Life of a Sailor.
His most popular books were Life of a Sailor, with six reprints from 1832 to 1873, Ben Brace, with 11 reprints from 1836 to 1905, Tom Bowling, with 5 reprints from 1858 to 1905 and The Spitfire, with 3 reprints from 1840 to 1861. In 1870 The Times described Chamier as 'a veteran novelist, one, indeed, whose sea novels some quarter of a century ago were almost as universally popular as those of Captain Marryat'.
The only detailed publication on Chamier's life and works is the exhaustive PhD dissertation by P.J. van der Voort: The Pen and the Quarterdeck , Leiden University Press, 1972.
He is related to Daniel Chamier.
[edit] References
- ^ "The Chamiers of Epsom". http://www.epsomandewellhistoryexplorer.org.uk/ChamiersOfEpsom.html. Retrieved 2011-07-04.
- ^ Nelson's Navy in Fiction and Film. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ekt4aEv5dTcC&pg=PA35&lpg=PA35&dq=william+burnaby+navy#v=onepage&q=william%20burnaby%20navy&f=false. Retrieved 2011-07-04.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J. M. Dent & Sons; New York, E. P. Dutton.
