The Yankee Middy
Navigation Home Juvenile Naval
Adams, William Taylor. [As Oliver Optic] The Yankee Middy; or, The Adventures of a Naval Officer: A Story of the Great Rebellion. Boston: Lothrop, Lee and Shepard, 1865. Out of print.
Jack Somers, hero of The Sailor Boy, continues his career, eerily parallel to the one that his brother Tom leads in The Young Lieutenant. While Tom rescues a Senator's daughter on land, Jack is busy saving a Commodore's daughter from near-shipwreck. This feat wins him Kate Portington's keen interest, but irks a rival for her hand and fortune, the unscrupulous Phil Kennedy. Phil turns rebel, giving him a chance to meet young Somers in several naval battles, culminating in a boarding-party action with cutlasses drawn. At the end of the novel, the young middy is promoted to ensign and ready for another sequel.