author
Bartimeus
1886–1967
A Royal Navy officer turned storyteller, he wrote vivid sea tales shaped by firsthand experience and a lifelong connection to naval life. Under the pen name Bartimeus, he became known for fiction and sketches that bring early 20th-century seafaring to life.
5 Audiobooks
The Long Trick
by Bartimeus
The Navy eternal : which is the Navy-that-Floats, the Navy-that-Flies and the Navy-under-the-Sea
by Bartimeus
Naval Occasions, and Some Traits of the Sailor-man
by Bartimeus
A tall ship on other naval occasions
by Bartimeus
An awfully big adventure
by Bartimeus
About the author
Born Lewis Anselm da Costa Ricci in London in 1886, the writer better known as Bartimeus entered the Royal Navy as a cadet while still very young. After illness cut short his chances of a normal seagoing career, he remained connected to the service and began writing about the world he knew so well.
His books and stories drew on naval routines, shipboard character, and the humor and strain of life at sea, which gives them an easy authority. He later anglicized his surname to Ritchie, served through the Second World War, and is also recorded as having worked as press secretary to King George VI.
Bartimeus died in 1967, but his work still appeals to readers who enjoy nautical fiction with an insider's eye. Whether he was writing short sketches or longer novels, he had a gift for making the customs and personalities of the Royal Navy feel immediate and human.