SEVERAL years ago I wrote a series of articles for the `Boy's Own Paper,' relating some of my adventures in the Navy, and my assortment of yarns was very favourably received by the juvenile public for whom it was written. I am consequently encouraged to expand these, bringing the story up to date, and illustrating the principal events, in the hope that they will make an interesting volume, and give some grown-up boys an idea of a sailor's life and experiences during nearly fifty years in her Majesty's service.

The sporting pictures in the volume have been drawn from my rough sketches at the Studio of Design under the supervision of Mr Harry Furniss. I do not pretend to draw figures and animals sufficiently well for reproduction. Otherwise, the illustrations are my own, and most of them are original. That of Fatshan Creek is slightly altered from Mr Brierley's picture; while the "Calcutta in a Gale" and the " Attack on the Taku Forts " are from (but a long way after) Mr Bedwell's spirited drawings. The " Last of the Three Deckers," the old " Victoria," is reproduced from a painting of mine which was exhibited in the Naval Exhibition of 1892. The pictures of Landverk, our home in Sweden, and of the fish, are from photographs by Miss Mabel Stopford. I take this opportunity of tendering my grateful thanks to my old friend Chevalier De Martino, who very kindly looked over my black-and-white drawings of ships, junks, &c., and pointed out certain errors in perspective which I have rectified. The drawings are still far from perfect, but I hope that they will fulfil their purpose of indicating the scenes they are intended to illustrate.

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