The Untold Voyage by Roger Taylor

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steve yates

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Wow! Just wow!
Almost all of us will know of Roger Taylors vast seafaring experience, his numerous artic voyages in his junk rigged corribee Ming Ming and achilles 24 Ming Ming 2.

Well there was one artic voyage where he encountered something so awful that he deleted all pictures, tore up his logbooks and threw them overboard and never told a single soul about what happened up there. Until now, when he decided to unburden himself, write it down a d take the consequences.
It is written as beautifully as one expects from Roger Taylor, and is one hell of a story! My jaw kept dropping, and dropping, and dropping as I read it.
I’ll say no more except if you like reading, and like a good sea story, get this book!
 
I’m sure this book will provoke much discussion in the future. Agree, it’s a fantastic yarn. Puts me in mind of another well known sailing writer.
 
"The willing suspension of disbelief is the act of temporarily disregarding logic and crtical thinking to enjoy a fictional work. It's a term that's often used to describe the experience of reading or watching a work of fantasy, horror, comedy, or action.

The term was coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a British poet and philosopher in 1817, who believed that readers would suspend judgment if a writer could make a fantastic story seem realistic and include human interest."

“Never let the truth get in the way of a good story” - Mark Twain.
 
Tricky to criticise this one without spoilers but I'll try.

I'm content that I read it but I didn't love it. I don't think it's his best writing and some of the many, many places he stops to say "bloody hell" felt a bit incongruous. There are also a few places he briefly switches from the time of the tale to the time of writing about it, which is a perfectly acceptable literary device, but I didn't think it was done well and it harmed the main narrative for me.

If it's fictional it's a bit melodramatic and a few bits didn't quite ring true enough for me to suspend disbelief, though that of course doesn't prove fiction. If it's real it raises some pretty awkward questions. I took the postscript as telling us it's a fact/fiction blend rather than purely one or the other. Some aspects of the story seem to me to come from the kind of speculation one naturally does when sailing alone - what would I do if / how would I manage some imagined eventuality... I don't mind that. If it were presented as standalone maybe I'd have been happier, but it's presented as part of a series which otherwise seems to be factual, and I'm a bit ambivalent.
 
Bought after reading this thread. Great recommendation.

+++SPOILERS+++

Definitely a bit of the Melville and the more hallucinatory parts of Slocum in there - but actually quite plausible nevertheless. I can't work out whether he's just playing the old codger with a tall tale to tell or if it is a genuine unburdening. Weird story to make up though..
 
If I had known the contents I would not have bought it. Gave up early on. I am sure many - e.g. in war - could be just as descriptive. But they aren't - or at least the stuff I read.
 
steve yates said:
Wow! Just wow!
Almost all of us will know of Roger Taylors vast seafaring experience, his numerous artic voyages in his junk rigged corribee Ming Ming and achilles 24 Ming Ming 2.

Well there was one artic voyage where he encountered something so awful that he deleted all pictures, tore up his logbooks and threw them overboard and never told a single soul about what happened up there. Until now, when he decided to unburden himself, write it down a d take the consequences.
It is written as beautifully as one expects from Roger Taylor, and is one hell of a story! My jaw kept dropping, and dropping, and dropping as I read it.
I’ll say no more except if you like reading, and like a good sea story, get this book!
Click to expand...
Am reading it at the moment and have Roger's permission to use a short extract in the August issue of YM. Extraordinary and haunting book
 
Reminds me of Tristan Jones, but true. That Capt Taylor was worried about every man and his dog raking over the story and creating a mess is borne out by some commenters on this page.
 
If it helps the undecided - Roger gave permission for a 'Book at Bunktime' extract from The Untold Voyage. It's in the August issue. I would certainly recommend it, for many of the reasons that are obvious here. Principally because it makes one think.
 
goldenduck said:
If it helps the undecided - Roger gave permission for a 'Book at Bunktime' extract from The Untold Voyage. It's in the August issue. I would certainly recommend it, for many of the reasons that are obvious here. Principally because it makes one think.
Click to expand...
Sorry - I should have said the extract's in Yachting Monthly. Katy Stickland also gave it a very good review in PBO
 
I have decided that it is not fact, it is a work of fiction. The elusion to fact may be a marketing ploy. It is interesting enough to read and I enjoyed it and I don't think that a fact or fiction status detracts from the story. To me there are a few clues in the story that make me lean towards fiction. I have enjoyed his other works, descriptions of voyages and boats, philosophy and light societal commentary, but this was bland compared to say Voyages of a Simple Sailor or Ming Ming and the Tonic of Wilderness. Its and easy read and I certainly got sucked into the believe or don't believe wonder, when reading the book.

Buy it, enjoy it, for less than a tenner you could do a lot worse.
 
Many writers wrestle with the difficult task of balancing 'fact'-chronologically and the need for the flow of narrative. Phraseology carries 'baggage' and evokes different meaning in different readers.

Roger Taylor has 'previous' in relating fanciful fictional happenings within the structure of a tale of events in a voyage. Perhaps his literary agent encourged him to use more of his imagination when memory fails to supply the needed dramatic action.
 
I don't think there is quite enough in the book to really know. Presumably intentionally. You can make up your own mind and that's fine. (I don't see anyone "raking over the story" as SailingPilgrim suggests - and I think it would be a frustrating exercise as it's a narrative description of a memory, not a dull analytical layout of facts. You'd go round in circles over unanswerables)

Still not his best writing though. I won't reread it, so gave mine away.
 
zoidberg said:
Roger Taylor has 'previous' in relating fanciful fictional happenings within the structure of a tale of events in a voyage.
Click to expand...
I didn't know that. I've not read all his other work. The bits I have were presented as factual and I didn't question that. Whether true or not, Unknown Voyage IS a bit more ambiguous. Any clues about the others?

The nautical yarn with a bit of truth and a bit of uncertainty as to whether there's anything else... is a fine tradition and I quite like it. I hope one day to have had ambitious enough real sailing adventures that I can also yarn outrageously! (But I won't be doing anything like Taylor does)
 
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