ABSTRACT
The Captain was a 'respectable' boys' magazine. Like Cassell's Chums, it was clearly aimed at a reading community that was composed of middle-class, public school boys, and those who sought to emulate this class. It was a commercial product. The Captain acted as a repository for respectable society's fears about a range of evils from 'pernicious literature' and juvenile delinquency to urban degeneration and imperial decline. It represents a medium of positive influence for readers undertaking the transition from boyhood to manhood was made explicit. The Captain provides a defined and regular space for the discussion of issues such as tracking, riding and fire-making. It provides an enviable collection of role-models for its readers, through a range of features. The Captain discusses a repository for the moral and social anxieties of a generation preoccupied with a range of issues relating to communications, youth culture, sexuality, education, urban life, empire and, increasingly, national defence.
