Band of Brothers: Boy Seamen in the Royal Navy, 1800-1956
by David Phillipson
Category: Child labor

A revealing history of the boy seaman rating in the Royal Navy, beginning with its evolution from the 18th-century Officer's Servant through to its abolition in 1956. It tells of an astonishing Victorian naval tradition which continued into modern times. HMS Ganges, a byword on the lower deck of the Royal Navy for vigorous - not to say harsh - discipline, was the hardest of the boy seaman training establishments.