Edward Phillips Statham

The Story of the "Britannia";The training ship for naval cadets. With some account of previous methods of naval education, and of the new scheme of 1903., is a classical book and has been considered important throughout the human history. So that this book is never forgotten we at Alpha Editions have made efforts in its preservation by republishing this again in a modern format book for present and future generations. This whole book has been reformatted, retyped and designed. These books are not made of scanned copies of their original work and hence the text is clear and readable.

In this book, first published in 1910 at the height of Britain's naval arms race with Germany, E. P. Statham (b. 1848) presented the lives and exploits of, in his words, 'licensed plunderers'. Insisting his tales were 'without embroidery' but were intended 'to amuse and entertain', Statham clearly had a fondness for adventure and an almost grudging admiration for his subjects. A retired Royal Navy officer at the time of publication, Statham was also the author of a number of medieval histories, and at one point was the superintendent of a School Ship, which when moored in the River Mersey (Statham was born in Liverpool) was twice burnt down by its pupils. In his conclusion, Statham questions the possible role of privateering in the wars yet to come. Engaging and colourful, the stories perhaps reveal as much about the buccaneering spirit of the author as they do about their subjects.