The Sailor Boy: Or, Jack Somers in the Navy

1866. The Civil War is raging, and twelve-year-old Jack Somers bursts through his door with news of Union naval victories, his heart already aboard a man-of-war. His widowed mother has already lost one son to the cause, but Jack's love of the sea and his country prove impossible to contain. When a naval lieutenant needs a skilled boatman to reach Fort Warren through a killing gale, Jack pilots Captain Barney's yacht through the storm himself, pulling the officer from the waters after a near-collision. This act of daring earns him the lieutenant's favor and, crucially, his mother's reluctant consent to enlist. Shipboard life on the receiving ship Ohio is all hard edges and harsh discipline, but Jack finds allies among the crew and a cunning mentor in veteran Tom Longstone, who teaches him the subtle art of surviving naval hierarchy without breaking its rules. Soon bound for the sloop-of-war Harrisburg with new friends and new stations, Jack stands at the threshold of a sailor's life, caught between the romance of patriotism and the brutal reality of war. Oliver Optic writes with the breathless energy of a boy who has never known the sea but was born to chase it, capturing both the glories and the grinding duties of 19th-century naval service.