Frederic Stanhope Hill

Frederic Stanhope Hill was an American writer born on August 4, 1829, and he is chiefly remembered for maritime writing. His best-known book, Twenty Years at Sea: Leaves from My Old Log-Books, draws on long personal experience as a sailor and helped establish his reputation as a storyteller of life aboard ship.

His books show a strong interest in naval history as well as seafaring adventure. Works attributed to him include The Romance of the American Navy, The Lucky Little Enterprise and Her Successors in the United States Navy, 1776–1900, and Twenty-Six Historic Ships, suggesting a career spent turning nautical knowledge into readable history for a general audience.

Reliable biographical detail beyond those broad outlines is limited in the sources I could confirm, so it is safest to describe him as a maritime author whose writing connects memoir, historical narrative, and a deep fascination with ships and sailors. He died in 1913.