John Davis

John Davis (1774-1854) first went to sea in an East Indiaman, joining Sir Edmund Nagle's frigate Artois in 1794. This was part of Warren's squadron, which also included frigates commanded by Pellew and Sydney Smith, so Davis had a first-hand opportunity to watch some of the Royal Navy's best captains in action. Ultimately rising to acting lieutenant, he left the navy when the Artois was wrecked in 1797, and went to America. He returned to Britain in 1804, when apparently he completed "The Post Captain" and submitted it to a publisher, and the novel appeared in print (although under another author's name) at the end of 1805, immediately after Trafalgar. The book had considerable success, but Davis didn't, writing a number of other pieces (poems, translations and books on American subjects), but apparently never making a decent living. He died in an almshouse in 1854