AustLit

'These lower-deck reminiscences by John Nicol of life at sea in the late eighteenth century were written down and published in 1822 by John Howell, a Scottish bookbinder and inventor. How much of the language of the book is Nicol’s, and how much that of his kindly amanuensis, is impossible to tell; but there is no reason to doubt the general authenticity of the memoir. Nicol’s twenty-five years afloat were remarkable for their variety. He saw action in the War of American Independence; served in the Greenland whale fishery; was nursed back to life by a slave in the West Indies; marvelled at the customs of the Chinese. He was on the first ship into Hawaii after the death of Captain Cook at Kealakakua Bay, seven years earlier;…' (Introduction)