Percy Francis Westerman (1876 - 1959) was a prolific author of children's literature, many of his books adventures with military themes.
He was born in Portsmouth, England and educated at Portsmouth Grammar School, before taking up a clerical appointment at Portsmouth Dockyard. He married Florence Wager, of Portsmouth, in 1900. Always keen sailors, they spent part of their honeymoon sailing in the Solent. Their son, John F.C. Westerman, born in 1901, also wrote adventure books for boys.
At the age of 70 he was reluctantly forced by a fall to leave his houseboat for dry land, but he continued writing apace. He died at the age of 82, and his last book, Mistaken Identity was published posthumously in 1959.
His writing career allegedly began with a sixpence bet made with his wife that he could write a better story than the one he was reading to his son, who was at the time ill with chickenpox. His first book for boys, 'A Lad of Grit', was published in 1908. In the same year, Baden-Powell founded the Scouting movement, which strongly influenced many of Westerman's books - he was a particularly keen supporter of the Sea Scouts. He published a further three books in 1911, which were so successful that he gave up his Admiralty appointment that year to become a full-time author. He lived on board a houseboat - a converted Thames barge - on the River Frome at Wareham in Dorset, where he wrote the majority of his books.
During the First World War he was initially employed on coastal duties by the Royal Navy, but in 1918 he was commissioned, like W. E. Johns, in the Royal Flying Corps, as an instructor of navigation. During the Second World War he commanded a company of the Dorset Home Guard. He wrote to Blackie of his service in the two wars that "neither appointment seriously interfered with my literary output."
During the 1930s Westerman was voted the most popular author of stories for boys. His books sold over one and a half million copies in his lifetime and he published over 170 books, with 12 different firms.
Age of Sail: Fiction
AOS Naval Fiction |
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| Series: n/a | ||
| Year | Book | Comment |
| 1782 | A Midshipman of the Fleet | A boy picked up from the sea after the sinking of the Royal George becomes a Midshipman |
| Bob Strickland's Log | (No information available) | |
| Jack Craddock's Commission | (No information available) | |
| The Last of the Buccaneers | Young Somerville sails with Anson in the famous Centurion as a midshipman. | |
| 'Gainst the Might of Spain | A story of the days of the Great Armada | |
AOS Other Nautical Fiction |
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| Series: n/a | ||
| Year | Book | Comment |
| A Lad of Grit | A Story of Adventure on Land and Sea in Restoration Times | |
| The Quest of the "Golden Hope" | A 17th Century swashbuckling sea adventure | |
| Missing, Believed Lost | Bewildered schoolboys find themselves on a voyage to a West Indian island. | |
Modern Era: Fiction
Modern Era Naval Fiction |
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| Series: John Cloche | ||
| Year | Book | Comment |
| WWII | Fighting for Freedom | Cloche is engaged in turning back the tide of the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain. |
| WWII | Destroyer's Luck | (No information available) |
| WWII | Sub-Lieutenant John Cloche | Cloche witnesses the sinking of Ark Royal, and later, Prince of Wales and Repulse |
| WWII | 'Engage the Enemy Closely' | A tale of gunboat warfare in the English Channel |
| WWII | 'Operations Successfully Executed' | Cloche is chosen for the 3 man crew of a midget submarine |
| WWII | Return to Base | Cloche is missing following a Channel encounter |
| The Mystery of the Key | A party which, onboard a former trawler, set out to try their luck at sponge-getting | |
| Series: n/a | ||
| Year | Book | Comment |
| WWI | The Thick of the Fray at Zeebrugge | H.M.T.B.D. Bolero is sunk by a German U-boat |
| WWI | The Submarine Hunters | The story of the Capella |
| The Bulldog Breed | Three "on the beach" officers take service with the Valdorian Government, joining the Navy. | |
| The Flying Submarine | Holmsby and his friend Tresillian desire to secure the invention for the British Fleet. | |
| The Sea Monarch | Rescued sub-lt. Gerald Tregarthen is forced to serve on the cruiser Olive Branch. | |
| The Rival Submarines | A story of naval divers | |
| The Stolen Cruiser | (No information available) | |
| WWI | A Sub of the R. N. R. | A story of the Great War |
| WWI | Rounding up the Raider | A naval story of the Great War |
| WWI | Under the White Ensign | A naval story of the Great War |
| WWI | A Watch-dog of the North Sea | A naval story of the Great War |
| The Fritz-Strafers aka The Keepers of the Narrow Seas |
(No information available) | |
| WWI | With Beatty off Jutland | A romance of the great sea fight |
| WWI | A Sub. and a Submarine | The Story of H.M. Submarine R19 in the Great War |
| WWI | The Mystery Ship | A story of the "Q" Ships during the Great War |
| The Terror of the Seas | (No information available) | |
| A Shanghai Adventure | (No information available) | |
| The Disappearing Dhow | (No information available) | |
| The Black Hawk | (No information available) | |
| The Red Pirate | (No information available) | |
| Captain Flick | (No information available) | |
| Midshipman Raxworthy | (No information available) | |
| Midshipman Webb's Treasure | (No information available) | |
| The Phantom Submarine | (No information available) | |
| Short Story Anthologies | ||
| WWI | The Secret Channel and Other Stories of the Great War | |
Modern Era Other Nautical Fiction |
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| Series: Alan Carr | ||
| Year | Book | Comment |
| His First Ship | Alan Carr is too young to be accepted by the Golden Line but gets a job on the small coastal vessel Mary Rumbold. | |
| His Unfinished Voyage | Carr joins the Golden Effort for a voyage to Rio de Janeiro and Montevideo | |
| Cadet Alan Carr | Cadet Alan Carr is appointed to the Golden Vanity | |
| In Eastern Seas | Carr joins the Golden Venture at Liverpool but the ship is soon stranded on the sands at Formby | |
| WWII | The War - and Alan Carr | The Golden Venture is at sea when war is declared between Britain and Germany |
| War Cargo | (No information available) | |
| Alan Carr in the Near East | A Cadet's life and adventures aboard the S.S. Golden Venture during the World War | |
| Alan Carr in the Arctic | (No information available) | |
| WWII | Secret Convoy | The S.S. Golden Crest is in dock in New York where she is converted to take ramps for Sherman Tanks. |
| Alan Carr in Command | (No information available) | |
| Held in the Frozen North | (No information available) | |
| *** This series is built around the firm of Whatmough and Duvant who own and run the "Golden" line of ships. This firm is the basis of other works by the author and Alan Carr may have a 'walk on' part in such works. | ||
| Series: Golden Line | ||
| Year | Book | Comment |
| A Cadet of the Mercantile Marine | Peter Kelso sails as a cadet on the Golden Vanity, a fully-rigged ship of 3200 tons. | |
| Chums of the "Golden Vanity" | In a storm the Arran Dhu is on its beam ends when the Golden Vanity arrives. | |
| On Board the "Golden Effort" | (No information available) | |
| The Good Ship "Golden Effort" | Keith Harrington is a cadet on the Golden Effort when it is shipwrecked. | |
| The "Golden Gleaner" | Angus Cross anxious to follow the example of his uncle and go to sea, is accepted as a cadet by the "Golden Line". | |
| Round the World in the "Golden Gleaner" | (No information available) | |
| Working their Passage | Two Sea Scouts are rescued, none too soon, by the Golden Gleaner. | |
| East in the "Golden Gain" | (No information available) | |
| The Luck of the "Golden Dawn" | (No information available) | |
| Pat Stobart in the "Golden Dawn" | (No information available) | |
| The Junior Cadet aka Norman goes to Sea |
Junior Cadet Norman Mansell takes up his first post on the Golden Pursuit at Southampton Docks | |
| All Hands to the Boats | Fourth Officer Norman Mansell is loaned to the rival Blue Bird Line | |
| Series: n/a | ||
| Year | Book | Comment |
| WWII | By Luck and by Pluck | The story of apprentices on the Mulcaster, before and during D-Day |
| Held to Ransom | Sir Montague Corton takes a Mediterranean cruise in the ex-naval craft Zenna. | |
| The Salving of the Fusi Yama | Desperate rivalry, diving, a hurricane, and a quest for sunken treasure | |
| The Senior Cadet | (No information available) | |
| The Third Officer | A present-day pirate story | |
| The Wireless Officer | (No information available) | |
| The Pirate Submarine | When a ship dismantling business runs into trouble one is turned into the pirate submarine Alerte. | |
| Captain Cain | After the submarine Alerte is sunk some of the crew escape | |
| The Buccaneers of Boya | (No information available) | |
| Leslie Dexter, Cadet | (No information available) | |
| Captain Fosdyke's Gold | Follows Rob Wroxhall, assistant engineer to a sea salvage firm | |
| Captain Sang | Leslie Hughes is a victim of assault in an American seaport | |
| Rocks Ahead! | (No information available) | |
| Andy-All-Alone | (No information available) | |
| The Call of the Sea | (No information available) | |
| In Dangerous Waters | (No information available) | |
| Unfettered Might | A yacht wanders into an atomic testing area | |
| Contraband | (No information available) | |
| Desolation Island | A hunt for Australian gold lost in a shipwreck | |
| The Mystery of the Sempione | (No information available) | |
| Rolling down to Rio | A voyage from Southampton to Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires | |
The author’s official web site is (Fan site-The Westerman Yarns)