Humble Launching, A Story of a Little Boy Growing Up at Sea (Book 1 of 9 in the Rundel Series)

The Story of a Little Boy Growing Up at Sea, 1778

This is the first of a series of nine books about the life of one fictitious person, Benjamin Rundel. We experience the Napoleonic Wars through his eyes and those of his friend, Thomas Murphy.

Rundel was born in 1780 and is orphaned at age one. He is raised for a time by a friend of his mother’s but does not know his real name. When Auntie Jo has to leave to care for a sickly relative, Benji is cast adrift and wanders from one house to another.

Ben ends up in an orphanage and sees the horrors of the work house. He plans a careful escape and lives on his own for a time. After a serious illness, he realizes that he cannot make it on his own.

At age 7 he stows away aboard the Faithful, an Admiralty ship under Captain Bailey. He is such a sincere child that he quickly wins the love of the captain and entire crew, all except a leftenant who knows that Benji saw him stealing the captain’s spirits in the lazarette.

Ben goes on to learn many skills aboard ship, which will later make him a fine captain. He escapes from a French patrol on land and saves his shipmates from death by quick thinking. His serious nature gets him assigned to loblolly boy and later as surgeon’s mate. His surgical skills result in him being assigned to a most unhappy ship, the HMS Hawk, under corrupt Captain Sharpe.

This is the story of a young boy growing up at sea and facing many challenges from the four terrible ship’s boys to a vindictive leftenant. It is pumped with action and still shows the challenges that make Benji a fine captain under often near impossible odds.

Benji goes it on his own for a time, but after a severe illness, he realizes that he must find a better life. He stows away aboard the Faithful under a wise captain who has a son who will never be able to go to sea. Benji’s enthusiasm and eagerness to learn attract the captain’s attention and Ben finds himself on the way to being a midshipman. He saves his crew when they are pinned on a French strand by French soldiers. A vile leftenant is responsible for Benji being abandoned in a fishing boat on shore. The fishermen find him and take him to the local naval hospital where he learns more about medicine until he is rescued by his captain who does not know if he is a ‘run’ or has been the victim of foul play. Aboard ship he studies medicine with a fine surgeon and learns all that there is to know about sailing ships. Many sailors take him in hand and help with his education. His talent as a surgeon is responsible for his being traded to a most unhappy ship, the Hawk, which is sailing the fever-ridden Caribbean with no surgeon.