Green cloth binding with gilt title and ship decoration on the spine and front board.

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Cloth. Condition: Very Good. William Rainey (illustrator). First edition. A scarce first edition of this nautical adventure story by Harry Collingwood. The first edition of this work, published in 1907. A scarce book.One of Harry Collingwood (pseudonym for William Joseph Cosens Lancaster)’s many adventure books set at sea.Illustrated by William Rainey with four plates and a frontispiece. In the original publisher’s cloth binding. Externally smart with some shelf wear and a slight bumping to the head and tail of the spine and extremities. With some minor damp marking to the head of the front and rear boards. Inscribed by a previous owner to the front pastedown, undated. Internally, the binding is firm throughout. The pages are bright and clean with only a faint minor scattered spotting to the odd leaf. Illustrated by William Rainey with four plates and a frontispiece. Very Good. book.

Harry Collingwood was the pseudonym of William Joseph Cosens Lancaster (23 May 1843 – 10 June 1922), a British civil engineer and novelist who wrote over 40 boys’ adventure books, almost all of them in a nautical setting. Collingwood was the eldest son of master mariner Captain William Lancaster (1813 – (1861 – 1871)) and Anne, née Cosens (c. 1820 – 9 October 1898). His birth certificate shows that he was born in Weymouth, Dorset on 23 May 1843 at 9:30am at Concord Place. The Oxford Dictionary Of National Biography notes that most references, except his birth certificate, give his date of birth as 1851. His application for Associate Membership of the Institution of Civil Engineers gives his birth date as 23 May 1846.

Collingwood was the first of three children for the couple. He was eight when his sister Ada Louise (c. 1852 – 8 January 1929) was born and 12 when his sister Sarah Anne (1 June 1853 – 27 December 1941) was born. Both women were shown as draper assistants in the 1871 census. By then Collingwood’s father had died, and his mother continued to live with her daughters until her death. Ada never married and lived with her sister after leaving the paternal home. Sarah Anne married Mathew Smellie in St Michaels, Toxteth, Liverpool, Lancashire on 30 June 1880. The couple had one child, Harold Ernest Smellie (11 April 1881 – 30 April 1961). Harold was the nephew who registered Collingwood’s death in 1922. Collingwood’s mother died at his home in Norwood on 9 October 1898, with her daughter Ada Louise as the executrix of her effects of £1,308 11s 11d. When Ada Louise died on 8 January 1929, her widowed sister Sarah Ann (with whom she was living) was the executrix for her effects of £1,907 16s 8d. Harold was the executor for the effects (£4,574, 15s 1d) of his mother Sarah Ann when she died on 27 December 1942.

Most sources state that he attended the Royal Naval College, Greenwich and distinguished himself there by carrying off many prizes. However, this college closed in 1837, and when it reopened it was only for those who had passed the exam for lieutenant. Kirk states that Collingwood attended the Royal Naval School, which was at New Cross, near Greenwich. This school had over 210 boys destined for careers at sea on the rolls by 1865 and trained officers and men for both the Royal Navy and Merchant Marine. In Collingwood’s first book The Secret of the Sands the hero, called Harry Collingwood, was educated at the Royal Naval School at Greenwich.

Collingwood joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman at 15. However, his severe near-sightedness forced him to abandon his chosen career. Kitzen states that Collingwood traveled widely in both his short naval and much longer civilian career. Kirk states that it was during his civilian career that Collingwood travelled widely.

Book illustrator, William Rainey RI RBA ROI (21 July 1852 – 24 January 1936) was a British artist and illustrator. He was a prolific illustrator of both books and magazines and illustrated about 200 books during his career. He also kept painting and exhibited his work frequently. Rainey also wrote and illustrated six books himself, one was a colourful book for young children, the other five were juvenile fiction.