Mr Midshipman Easy

Mr Midshipman Easy is an 1836 novel by Frederick Marryat, a retired captain in the British Royal Navy.

Mesty is sympathetic to Easy's philosophizing, which seems to offer him a way up from his lowly job of "boiling kettle for de young gentlemen"; but once Mesty is promoted to ship's corporal and put in charge of discipline, he changes his mind: "...now I tink a good deal lately, and by all de power, I tink equality all stuff."

In some way Mesty is the real hero of the novel, as he pulls Easy out of several scrapes the impulsive 17-year-old gets himself into as he cruises the Mediterranean on several British ships.

Easy throws out the criminal servants his father has employed and puts the estate to rights, demanding back rents from the tenants, and evicting those who will not pay.

Using his new-found wealth, he formally quits the navy, rigs out his own privateering vessel, and returns to Sicily to claim his bride Agnes.