Captain William Parker's autobiography provides a unique insight into the United States Navy of the mid-19th century during an era when the Age of the Sail was coming to an end and the advent of steam power and ironclads was beginning. He entered the U.S. navy as a midshipman on the 19th day of October, 1841, being then fourteen years of age, on a ship under Commodore Perry. It is also the story of a man who served two governments in his career. In this witty, articulate memoir, Parker tells the good and the bad about the convulsion that tore the country apart in the American Civil War. At the end of the war, he was only 38 years old but out of a job, as he had lent his talents to the Confederacy.