Captain Frederick Marryat was both a Royal Navy officer and a novelist. He is now recognized as an early pioneer of nautical fiction, particularly for his semi-autobiographical novel Mr Midshipman Easy (1836). He is especially famous for his children's novel, The Children of the New Forest (1847). In addition, he created a widely used marine flag signalling system known as Marryat's Code. Marryat was born on Great George Street in Westminster, London. His parents were Joseph Marryat, a "merchant prince" and member of Parliament, as well as a slave owner and anti-abolitionist, and Charlotte, née von Geyer. Marryat's time on board the Imperieuse includes action off the Gironde, the rescue of a fellow midshipman who had fallen overboard, the seizure of numerous ships off the Mediterranean coast of Spain, and the capture of Montgat Castle. In 1809, the Imperieuse relocated to operations in the Scheldt, where Marryat caught malaria before returning to England aboard the 74-gun HMS Victorious. After recovering, he returned to the Mediterranean in the 74-gun HMS Centaur and once again rescued a shipmate by plunging into the sea after him. He proceeded as a passenger to Bermuda on the 64-gun HMS Atlas and then to Halifax, Nova Scotia on the schooner HMS Chubb, where he joined the 32-gun frigate HMS Aeolus on April 27, 1811.