The first edition of this book is dated 1881. The edition used is dated 1909. The publisher was Henry Frowde, Hodder & Stoughton, London. The number of pages is 402.

---

General information

Sadly, this was the last book Kingston wrote. He was diagnosed with a rapid fatal illness while he was writing it, and he used the opportunity of bidding his young readers farewell in the Preface.

There is a lot of action in the book, from encounters with the Barbary Pirates in what is now called Morocco, to military goings-on in Somerset and Dorset, to trials by Jeffreys, the Chief Justice (or Injustice might be a better name). It’s just a little bit confusing! An example of how confusing is that there’s a ship called Benbow, and a couple of chaps of that name as well. We have tried to sort out some inconsistencies in spelling, for example Axminster and Axeminster, Tregellen and Treleggen, but I think few of us would do any better if we were trying to finish writing a book in the few remaining days of our life.

It’s not a long book, and not a short one, either. About ten hours to read aloud.

---

Contents

Chapter I.
“Hillo, Roger! glad to find you at last. I have been hunting up and down along the cliffs for the last hour or more, till I began to fear that you must have been carried off by a Barbary corsair, or spirited away on the end of Mother Shipton’s broomstick.

Chapter II.
Madam Pauline, aided by Alice and several active-fingered maidens, laboured without cessation for several hours till they had prepared Roger’s kit as far as circumstances would allow.

Chapter III.
Several months had passed away, during which Stephen Battiscombe and Roger Willoughby had performed their duties in the counting-house at Bristol much to the satisfaction of their employers.

Chapter IV.
When they awoke the next morning and looked out, not a vestige of the vessel could they see, but the beach was strewn with the wreck, while here and there lay the dead bodies of their shipmates.

Chapter V.
As the harbour was very shallow, the Tiger had to haul out into the outer roads, inside the island of Tedal, off the mouth of the river Gueron, before she could take her guns, powder, or stores on board.

Chapter VI.
The Benbow frigate sailed out of the Bay of Cadiz bound for England.

Chapter VII.
We must now return to Eversden. Months had passed by since Roger and Stephen had sailed from Bristol, and no news had been received of them.

Chapter VIII.
We must now return to Lyme. The cordial reception Stephen Battiscombe met with from the Duke made him more than ever devoted to his cause.

Chapter IX.
Stephen and Andrew Battiscombe had, without hesitation, given their names and other particulars of their family to Cornet Bryce.

Chapter X.
The gale had been blowing for some days on the Dorsetshire coast.

Chapter XI.
The assize at Dorchester was opened on the 3rd of September. Jeffreys had already passed through Hampshire, and succeeded in Winchester in pronouncing sentence on the Lady Lisle for harbouring two fugitives from Sedgemoor.

Chapter XII.
We must now return to our hero, Roger Willoughby, who had fortunately, from having joined Captain Benbow, been prevented from being drawn in by Stephen to serve the cause of Monmouth.

Chapter XIII.
At the time the Ruby reached Port Royal harbour the merchants at Kingston were constantly receiving accounts of depredations committed on their vessels by a piratical squadron under the command of a Frenchman.

Chapter XIV.
Commodore Benbow’s squadron met with tolerably severe weather on its passage to Old England.

---