Reviews

"An intimate record of life aboard an American man-of-war...written with such detail, vivacity, and the knack for vivid expression that it keeps one turning pages until the last one is reached. This Jackie has keen eyes and quick ears, and can put the things he saw and thought about into particularly vigorous English....This book affords an entertaining and occasionally edifying, confidential account of all that one particular man-'o-war's man thought and felt and did during three years service."--New York Times Saturday Review of Books
"No such intimate record of life aboard an American man-o'-war has ever been penned....Though sufficiently simple and direct in style to hold the interest of the young reader, this book will be found by grown-ups to be absorbing as a novel....The hero of this chronicle ran away from his comfortable home in San Francisco and enlisted just in time to cross the Pacific Ocean on the Olympia and share in the Battle of Manila Bay, on the flagship with Dewey. Day by day he sets down the happenings, observations, and feelings of the lad who finds himself part of the machinery of an American battleship first, and later an actor in one of the most dramatic battles of history. He was an observing fellow, always in the midst of things; and his observations are shrewd and keen and worth the reading."--The New York Observer
"Many of my friends and I have read [Three Years Behind the Guns] with the greatest interest. I can vouch for many of the facts; and the description of the Battle of Manila Bay is one of the best I have ever seen published. The type and active life of our American seamen is well and interestingly portrayed, and the book is well worth the attention of both young and old."--Admiral George Dewey