Arthur E. Knights

Arthur E. Knights is known for Notes by the Way in a Sailor's Life, a memoir drawn from his career at sea. In the book, he presents himself as Captain Arthur E. Knights and writes with the easy, practical voice of someone who spent years in ships rather than in literary circles.

The memoir was framed in Hongkong in 1898, when Knights says he was encouraged by Murray Bain of the China Mail to turn his reminiscences into a small pamphlet for friends. Those pieces look back over earlier voyages and incidents from his working life, including service as second officer of the Northfleet in 1857, rescues at sea, and other episodes from the age of sail and expanding global trade.

Reliable biographical detail about his life outside the book is scarce in the sources I could confirm, so the safest picture is the one his own memoir provides: an experienced mariner writing from memory, with a strong sense of duty, danger, and the odd turns of life aboard ship.