¶Sadleir 678. BL, Glasgow, and Cambridge only on Copac; OCLC adds copies in Edinburgh and one in Germany, but with no apparent physical copy in the US. Sadleir, in a note published in 1951, remarks: 'This book was reprinted (from the 3rd edition) in 1928 by the Scholartis Press, with valuable introduction and notes by R.H. Case. He established the authorship beyond doubt; but not having seen a first edition, concludes from remarks by contemporary reviewers that this edition carried on the title an ascription of the work to the author of "Zeluco", an ascription that does appear in the third edition but not the first. No second edition appears on Copac which records the 1808 3rd edition. A further seven London editions were published before 1850. A precursor to James Fenimore Cooper's The Pilot, 1824, which is generally considered to be the first example of nautical fiction as a distinct genre. John Davis, 1774-1854, first went to sea in an East Indiaman, joining Sir Edmund Nagle's frigate Artois in 1794. He rose to become acting lieutenant before leaving the navy in 1797. The Post-Captain, published anonymously in the first edition, was released at the end of 1805, immediately after Trafalgar. The book had considerable success despite receiving mixed critical reviews: 'To speak in the language of long-shore-men, since to such we address ourselves; this writer manifests abilities, and has strongly delineated the features of life in an English man of war: but he has coloured the picture very highly, at times not altogether correctly, and in his story has been wholly regardless of probability. The work may entertain such land-readers as have an inclination for and some acquaintance with nautical affairs: but to those who have not it will be unintelligible and perhaps disgusting. It is chiefly calculated for the gun-room and the midshipman's birth, where it will be most relished, though least wanted' (Monthly Review, or, Literary Journal, volume 50.)