Captain Frederick Marryat was an actual 19th-century British Naval hero who lived a saga worthy of the novels of C.S. Forester or Patrick O'Brian. Captain Marryat survived fifty naval battles and served on the crack frigate Imprieuse under Lord Cochrane-the real-life model for Horatio Hornblower and Jack Aubrey.

Marryat's writing followed notable examples of the sea-story genre by Daniel Defoe and Sir Walter Scott. In turn, his writing influenced Herman Melville and Joseph Conrad. What made Marryat different than some of the aforementioned writers was that he lived the adventures about which he wrote.

Leon Howard's biography of Herman Melville credits Captain Marryat's writing as having influenced the author of Moby Dick to first go to sea.