Project Gutenberg's On Board the Esmeralda, by John Conroy Hutcheson

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: On Board the Esmeralda
Martin Leigh's Log - A Sea Story

Author: John Conroy Hutcheson

Illustrator: W.H. Overend

Release Date: April 16, 2007 [EBook #21107]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON BOARD THE ESMERALDA ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

On Board the Esmeralda; or, Martin Leigh's Log

by John Conroy Hutcheson
_______________________________________________________________
There is no doubt that John Hutcheson was a talented writer of books for
teenagers. Most of his books were about the sea, but few of them were
as well-written as this one. What is meant here is that his English
style is very good, even when he brings in characters whose command of
English is less perfect; and also that he drives his characters from one
gripping situation to another.

The hero, Martin Leigh, is the son of a brave British Naval officer, who
was killed in Africa when the boy is very young. The mother also dies,
and Martin is left an orphan, to be brought up by his father's brother.
He has a horrible time in this family, and Aunt Matilda is his chief
tormentor. Eventually he is sent to a cheap boarding school with a
prospectus in no way matched by reality. Again he has a horrible time,
for several years, but is befriended by another boy, Tom. One year, on
Guy Fawkes' Day, they perpetrate a misdemeanour far beyond what they
should have done, and are sentenced to be expelled. They run away, and
stow away in a little coaster. When they are discovered, the captain
beats them even worse than the Headmaster of their school had done. So
Martin, aged thirteen, has known nothing but hard times.

He meets with nice people, has a while in which he gets his act
together, and then goes to sea again. This trip is full of adventure,
near misses and disasters. Fire at sea, wrecked on the southern tip of
South Anerica, and finally back home to the kind people who had
befriended him when he had that early chance to settle down.

It is a well-written book, easy to read or to listen to, and I recommend
it