From the Father of Modern Nautical Fiction While Frederick Marryat had achieved commercial success with his previous books, Peter Simple was perhaps his first "classic." Indeed, Peter Simple is considered by many to be the best of Captain Marryat's novels. Peter Simple goes to sea as a young, naive, midshipman during the Napoleonic wars. He is taken under the wing of Terence O'Brien, a Master's Mate, who, a bit at a time, brings Peter into a mature adulthood. Together they form a kind of nautical Don Quixote/Sancho Panza team that experiences the best and the worst that the nautical life has to offer. From cutting-out missions, to hurricanes, to mutiny, Peter Simple set the standard for presenting vivid characters and heart stopping adventure to the nautical reader. "[Marryat's] stories depict, with detailed realism, those qualities of courage, seamanship, tyranny, cruelty, recklessness, and good fellowship, all of which combined to render the British Navy so formidable a fighting instrument." J.A. Buckley The Guide to British Historical Fiction