This book was written for "Boy's Own Paper" shortly after that magazine started. The plan was to write a book illustrating how it might be possible for any very ordinary little boy joining the Navy in the lowest rating--powder monkey--and ascend to the very highest rank--admiral. It had been done before, in the separate cases of Benbow and Hopson, and there was no reason why it shouldn't happen again. A powder monkey was so called because his job in manning the guns was to run from time to time to fetch more powder whenever it was needed. Since the boys were small they afforded little target for the enemy's shot, so they tended to survive an engagement. Just as well, for their job was i…
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