After watching Master and Commander, it's interesting to see many young boys serving on a ship in the 1800s. Was this really the case?

by colewinkle

Also to follow up, they were all treated the same as everyone else and sat in with the captain and officers during dinner, drinking wine etc. Is this purely fictitious?

jschooltiger

Yes, absolutely. I have written about this before — feel free to ask follow up questions here.