Vyvyen Brendon's Children at Sea: Lives Shaped by the Waves is a thorough, in-depth look at the lives of several people who, as the title suggests, were impacted in some way by an ocean voyage.

My impression of the book suffers a bit from my own preconceptions. I went into this book with relish, expecting stories about midshipmen, ship's boys, powder monkeys, maybe a captain's son or two. It's actually a collection of brief biographies of people who had some connection to the ocean, however tenuous.

The very first chapter is about a young female convict who was transported to the penal colony of Botany Bay in 1787; although it touches on her voyage, much of the chapter deals with her life in England before her conviction and her life in Australia afterwards.

The second is about Joseph Emidy, who was captured as a child along the Guinea Coast of Africa and sold into slavery. His connection to the sea might have ended his Atlantic voyage on a slave ship if he hadn't found a talent for music on a plantation in Brazil; however, his owner took him back to Lisbon, Portugal, and there he was pressed after a performance at the Royal Opera House by none other than Sir Edward Pellew, renowned captain of HMS Indefatigable, who was pleased by his playing and wanted him "to furnish music for the sailors" on his ship. That doesn't mean he wasn't also put to work scrubbing decks, hauling anchors and working the cannon in battle. Finally, after seven years at sea, peace with France put Emidy ashore in England, where his musical abilities earned him a place in the community, as well as a wife, family and prominent career.

The book continues on in this manner, offering eight chapters detailing the lives of men and women who, as children, were touched by the sea in some way. (One of them, interestingly enough, was Sydney Dickens, son of famed writer Charles Dickens.) The final chapter offers shorter vignettes on a handful of additional youngsters.

I certainly can't fault Brendon for her scholarship, as she mines archival sources and brings to life the stories of these Georgian- and Victorian-era subjects. It's a varied assortment of biographies that, although not what I was expecting, certainly proved to be an interesting read.