A good read. Any suggestions?

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fredrussell

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I’m looking for recommendations for well written nautical fiction. So far I’ve done Endeavour (obvs), The Wager by David Grann, The Terror by Dan Simmons, Star of the Sea by Joseph O’Connor, To the Ends of the Earth (trilogy) by William Golding and a couple of others that have slipped my mind. I’m slightly less into the naval battle type stuff but not totally opposed to it, and I’ve tried twice to read Moby Dick, and not been grabbed by it, though not sure why - I’m a bit of a bug hugger - a nut-job hunting a whale not right up my street perhaps.
Fiction preferably, but if you want to recommend non-fiction I’d be grateful for that too.
 
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Non fiction but an excellent account of a true event. A book " The wreck of the Whaleship Essex" which is an account of a Nantucket Whale ship which was sunk by a big Whale in the Pacific in 1820. It's an horrific account of ship sinking, stranding on a small island, and survival in a small boat at sea for some, aided by cannibalism.
I can't remember any publisher details but the Author was a man named Thomas Nickerson.
It inspired Herman Melville's later book, Moby Dick.

PS. Orcas are just Pussy Cats. :giggle:
 
fredrussell said:
I’m looking for recommendations for well written nautical fiction. So far I’ve done Endeavour (obvs), The Wager by David Grann, The Terror by Dan Simmons, Star of the Sea by Joseph O’Connor, To the Ends of the Earth (trilogy) by William Golding and a couple of others that have slipped my mind. I’m slightly less into the naval battle type stuff but not totally opposed to it, and I’ve tried twice to read Moby Dick, and not been grabbed by it, though not sure why - I’m a bit of a bug hugger - a nut-job hunting a whale not right up my street perhaps.
Fiction preferably, but if you want to recommend non-fiction I’d be grateful for that too.
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Look in the Book Forum on this site.

If you like historical stuff the O’Brian Aubrey Maturin series will give months of good reading.
 
Deep Water

Just read this on holiday, I enjoyed it.

Also Berserk by David Mercy, Jarle Andahoy’s trip to the Antarctic in a 27ft Albin Vega with a novice crew is very good.
 
"The Lieutenant and Commander
Being Autobigraphical Sketches of His Own Career, from Fragments of Voyages and Travels"

Author: Captain Basil Hall RN

A very good read, I thought.

Available free as an ebook from Gutenberg, or on Kindle, or in print.
 
Not boating as such but I recently read The Dive by Stephen McGinty which tells the story of the rescue of a manned mini-submarine back in 1973. I met some of the people involved in this a few years back. Fascinating stuff.
 
Two Years before the Mast by R H Dana may be worth reading. It is an autobiographical novel about a trading trip round the Horn, about the same time as Moby Dick but written in simpler language.
 
As Skysail has suggested, lots of suggestions on the Book forum.

I would recommend C.S Forester - the master. Try an early novel: Brown on Resolution; there is a haunting quality to the tale which is hard to pin down or forget.

For tales of Edwardian yachting you can't beat: Messing about in Boats by John Muir.

More up to date, The Unlikely voyage of Jack de Crow non fiction by A J Mackinnon

Post war voyaging in Europe is the setting of much of Gorge Millar's non fiction. I particularly like Isabel and the Sea.

I think you do well to avoid Melville, for me Conrad is in the same bracket. 😐

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Somerset Maugham, particularly his short story collections.

They are not specifically maritime tales, but they are set around the time and in areas where sea transport and seafaring in general would have been a much bigger part of life than it is today.

Great tales in their own right too.

I think 100 or so years ago many ordinary people would have had a much broader knowledge of life under sail than they do today. The technical language used in Treasure Island (a children's book) and therefore the assumed knowledge is quite astounding!
 
The Restless Voyage ~ Being an Account by Archibald Campbell, Seaman of his Wanderings in Five Oceans from 1806 to 1812
Stanley Porteous.

This is non fiction, but what a story with an amazing ending. It was given to me by a friend who stated, “ just read it, you won’t be disappointed!”

The book is out of print but it is still available to buy e.g. Pardon our interruption...
 
doug748 said:
I think you do well to avoid Melville, for me Conrad is in the same bracket. 😐

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I have read most of Melville's books and never quite understood why people have a problem with him. I suppose that for him and others the story or narrative is not the main point so much as the writing itself and the discursions and opinions expressed. He does his best to annoy the reader in Moby Dick as part of the game he is playing and I think it can be a shame when people allow themselves to take the bait because they are missing a lot of fun, however, in the end it is all a matter of individual choice.

Conrad is much more story-driven. Although it can sound a bit dated, he basically invented the psychological novel, each one being very different to the next, unlike many writers who basically rewrote the same book many times. Nostromo is a good romp.

I've just remembered Peter Simple by Captain Marryat. Quite naive, but full of fascinating detail from the period.
 
johnalison said:
I have read most of Melville's books and never quite understood why people have a problem with him.
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Bearing in mind it's probably 20-30 years since I read Moby Dick ... I don't think "a lot of fun" would be a phrase I'd use. The endless minutiae of whaling might be great if you find that fascinating as doubtless some will but for people who came just wanting a good yarn rather than a whaling lesson it's a bit of a yawnfest.

Not a novel but I would recommend that any of the ancient mariners here who have never read the rime of the ancient mariner to do so:
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(and if you enjoy that move on to the slightly more compact Christabel and Kubla Khan, neither of which are remotely boaty)

Skysail said:
If you like historical stuff the O’Brian Aubrey Maturin series will give months of good reading.
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I thought it was a forum given that we'd all read those? :) . "I'll just try the first one" I thought....
 
A few random suggestions that I’ve enjoyed:

The Old Man and the Sea - Hemingway

Youth - Conrad

Three Men in a Boat - Jerome

I don’t suppose any of them are really so much about boats as much as they are about life. But boats do feature.
 
I have the following titles in my library. Some well known and considered classics, others not so.

The Unknown Shore by Patrick O'Brian (Pre-dates all the Aubrey / Maturin books. Set aboard Anson's ship 'The Wager')
The Sea Wolf by Jack London.
The Good Shepherd by C. S. Forester.
Way for a Sailor by Captain'Trader' Horn. (non fiction).
The Ice Master by Jennifer Niven. (non fiction)
The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monserrat.
The Voyage of the Tai-Mo-Shan by Martyn Sherwood R.N. (non fiction).
Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor.
Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling.
The 'Caine' Mutiny by Herman Wouk.
Cape Horn by Felix Reisenberg. (historical)
Australia the Hard Way by David Pyle. (non fiction).
This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson.
Sea Kings of Britain Volumes 1, 2 & 3. by Callender. (Potted biographies of Britain's admirals from 1558 to 1805).
1421 by Gavin Menzies. (Touted by the author as historical fact but widely considered fiction).

I commend them to the house.

Edit:
The Golden Keel by Desmond Bagley.
 
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