After two years at the Britannia Naval College at Dartmouth, Bryan Godfrey Faussett joined his first ship, HMS Dido in June 1879. From the day he joined her he wrote long letters home to his family and friends. The Dido went to West Africa, South and East Africa and the letters recount his experiences as a young man of 15 from when he first joined. Remarkably, he made copies of all the letters that he wrote home and these copies provide a very rare glimpse of the life of a young midshipman in the Royal Navy of the mid-Victorian era. The letters cover the period from June 1879 until April...