Lieutenant Fitton - Naval historical fiction by Showell Styles

Lieutenant Fitton by Showell Styles is a bit different to the normal genre of naval fiction for two reasons; one is that our hero does not attain high rank in the navy and the second is that it is based on the real-life exploits of Lieutenant Fitton. Showell Styles (1908-2005), was a Royal Naval Reserve Lt. Commander in WW II and wrote factual and fiction.

Now much of historical naval fiction is based on actions that have taken place in reality in the past, by a variety of naval officers, but are then ascribed to the hero of the fictional book.

There really was a Lieutenant Michael Fitton.

The story of Lieutenant Fitton is recounted in William James' Naval History of Great Britain, printed originally in 1827. The story it tells was the reality for most Naval Officers who served before, during and after the Napoleonic Wars. We read of the few whose actions were mentioned in the London Gazette, and who often had good connections, and were promoted to greater things. We are rarely allowed the pleasure of being able to follow the career of an equally brave and energetic officer who for some reason, be it through lack of patronage etc. was never able to make the break beyond a humble Lieutenant. It has been suggested that Fitton was not one of his admiral's favourites, so was never advanced for promotion beyond Lieutenant.

This is what makes this particular hero so readable.

This book is set aboard the Gypsy schooner, and Lieutenant Fitton was in reality commander of the Gipsy schooner, of 10 guns and 45 men, tender to the flag-ship, the Hercule.

This book, Lieutenant Fitton, is the 6th book in the series and the first one I have come across, as most of them are/were out of print but are supposed to be republished by Faber & Faber.

So what about the writing. Well I like the dialogue because it is reminiscent of a lost age of manners and protocol, a way of polite speaking (at least in the privileged classes, and officers would by default be privileged, even if they came from humble origins initially) and respect for another's privacy. It is this use of language of the past that I like in general, which is why I like reading other naval historical fiction and also Jane Austen.

Jane Austen was a contemporary writer of her time and so her use of language, both in dialogue and description reflect a bygone age. The naval historical fiction, and much of historical fiction arranges the dialogue, if not the description, in the language of the time. (That does not mean I do not like historical fiction written in contemporary dialogue, but those that are written in the dialogue of the time are given an extra layer of complexity, which I like.)

Lieutenant Fitton himself is portrayed as a loner, a man more at ease with his own company and one who follows the Stoic philosophy. It is this Stoic philosophy that keeps him comfortable with his position in the Navy, although this book does allude to the fact that he had an altercation with his admiral which the admiral held against him forever, hence him never being promoted past lieutenant.

In this book it is told that he has taken 28 prizes in a year, privateers mainly, and in reality he took over 40 in his career, although in did not benefit very well financially from them as he had to share the prize money with the officers of the flagship.

The book is also interesting in that it mentions he bought a chronometer from John Harrison, to be able to measure longitude. There is a great book written by Dava Sobel, called Longitude that details the race for the development of a watch that could keep time accurately enough that it could be used on long sea voyages to determine longitude. This race was won by John Harrison.

Back to the book. While a loner generally, Fitton does develop a friendship, unexpectedly to him, with one of the passengers on his ship, the new Governor of Jamaica, whom he is tasked with settling in Jamaica. However when they get to Jamaica, they find that the island has been taken over by pirates and they must find out what's going on. So he sets of on a reconnaissance mission which leads to a minor setback but gets him the information he needs to attempt to overcome the pirates.

Following a minor action on land, he has to head off to sea to follow a pirate ship, much more heavily armed and armoured than his own schooner.  It is due to his light armament and thin (relatively) hulls that he does not engage in much action against other ships, but when he has to he relies on better sailing and better long range gunnery from his small guns.

And of course one expects his victory, even if he does get badly mauled in the process.

All in all a good read.

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