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Homer |
 Fiction
The Odyssey (circa 700 BCE)
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Now with a sharp sword I sliced an ample wheel of beeswax down into pieces, kneaded them in my two strong hands and the wax grew soft, worked by my strength and Helios' burning rays, the sun at high noon, and I stopped the ears of my comrades one by one.
They bound me hand and foot in the tight ship — erect at the mast-block, lashed by ropes to the mast and rowed and churned the whitecaps stroke on stroke. We were just offshore as far as a man's shout can carry, scudding close, when the Sirens sensed at once a ship was racing past, and burst into their high, thrilling song...
— excerpt from The Odyssey
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Daniel Defoe |
The Robinson Crusoe series
1 / Robinson Crusoe (1719)
2 / Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719)
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A little after noon I found the sea very calm, and the tide ebbed so far out that I could come within a quarter of a mile of the ship. And here I found a fresh renewing of my grief; for I saw evidently that if we had kept on board we had been all safe — that is to say, we had all got safe on shore, and I had not been so miserable as to be left entirety destitute of all comfort and company as I now was.
This forced tears to my eyes again; but as there was little relief in that, I resolved, if possible, to get to the ship...
— excerpt from Robinson Crusoe
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Charles Darwin |
Non-fiction
The Voyage of the Beagle (1839)
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Having now finished with Patagonia and the Falkland Islands, I will describe our first arrival in Tierra del Fuego. A little after noon we doubled Cape St. Diego, and entered the famous strait of Le Maire. We kept close to the Fuegian shore, but the outline of the rugged, inhospitable Statenland was visible amidst the clouds.
In the afternoon we anchored in the Bay of Good Success...
— excerpt from The Voyage of the Beagle
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Richard Henry Dana, Jr |
Non-fiction
Two Years Before the Mast (1840)
Twenty Fours Years After (1869)
Journal of a Voyage Round the World (2005)
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As we made the high point off San Diego, Point Loma, we were greeted by the cheering presence of a light-house.
As we swept round it in the early morning, there, before us, lay the little harbor of San Diego, its low spit of sand, where the water runs so deep; the opposite flats, where the ALERT grounded in starting for home; the low hills, without trees, and almost without brush; the quiet little beach...
— excerpt from Two Years Before the Mast
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Herman Melville
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Fiction
Typee (1846)
Omoo (1847)
Moby-Dick (1851)
Billy Budd, Sailor (1891)
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"Stop your grinning," shouted I, "and why didn't you tell me that that infernal harpooneer was a cannibal?"
"I thought ye know'd it; — didn't I tell ye, he was a peddlin' heads around town? — but turn flukes again and go to sleep. Queequeg, look here — you sabbee me, I sabbee — you this man sleepee you — you sabbee?"
"Me sabbee plenty" — grunted Queequeg, puffing away at his pipe and sitting up in bed...
— excerpt from Moby-Dick
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Charles Kingsley
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Fiction
Westward Ho! (1855)
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The Spaniards, seeing him wait for them, gave a shout of joy — was the Englishman mad? And the two galleys converged rapidly, intending to strike him full, one on each bow.
They were within forty yards — another minute, and the shock would come. The Englishman's helm went up, his yards creaked round, and gathering way, he plunged upon the larboard galley.
"A dozen gold nobles to him who brings down the steersman!" shouted Cary, who had his cue.
And a flight of arrows from the forecastle rattled upon the galley's quarter-deck...
— excerpt from Westward Ho!
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Jules Verne
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Fiction
In Search of the Castaways (1865)
20,000 Leagues Under the Seas (1870)
Mysterious Island (1874)
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By then the NAUTILUS had returned to the surface of the waves. Stationed on the top steps, one of the seamen undid the bolts of the hatch. But he had scarcely unscrewed the nuts when the hatch flew up with tremendous violence, obviously pulled open by the suckers on a devilfish’s arm.
Instantly one of those long arms glided like a snake into the opening, and twenty others were quivering above. With a sweep of the ax, Captain Nemo chopped off this fearsome tentacle, which slid writhing down the steps...
— excerpt from 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas
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Robert Louis Stevenson
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The David Balfour series
1 / Kidnapped (1886)
2 / David Balfour (1893)
More Fiction
Treasure Island (1883)
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He was a very silent man by custom. All day he hung round the cove, or upon the cliffs, with a brass telescope; all evening he sat in a corner of the parlour next the fire, and drank rum and water very strong.
Mostly he would not speak when spoken to; only look up sudden and fierce, and blow through his nose like a fog-horn; and we and the people who came about our house soon learned to let him be...
— excerpt from Treasure Island
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Rudyard Kipling |
Fiction
Captains Courageous (1897)
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This rescue would certainly make him a hero among his friends for life. He hoisted himself on deck up a perpendicular ladder, and stumbled aft, over a score of obstructions, to where a small, thick-set, clean-shaven man with gray eyebrows sat on a step that led up to the quarterdeck.
The swell had passed in the night, leaving a long, oily sea, dotted round the horizon with the sails of a dozen fishing-boats. Between them lay little black specks, showing where the dories were out fishing. The schooner, with a triangular riding-sail on the mainmast, played easily at anchor...
— excerpt from Captains Courageous
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Joshua Slocum
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Non-fiction
Sailing Alone Around the World (1899)
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The SPRAY's dimensions were, when finished, thirty-six feet nine inches long, over all, fourteen feet two inches wide, and four feet two inches deep in the hold, her tonnage being nine tons net and twelve and seventy-one hundredths tons gross.
Then the mast, a smart New Hampshire spruce, was fitted, and likewise all the small appurtenances necessary for a short cruise. Sails were bent, and away she flew with my friend Captain Pierce and me, across Buzzard's Bay on a trial-trip — all right...
— excerpt from Sailing Alone Around the World
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Joseph Conrad
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Fiction
Lord Jim (1900)
Typhoon (1902)
The Shadow-Line (1915)
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The first morning the new flag floated over the stern of the NAN-SHAN Jukes stood looking at it bitterly from the bridge. He struggled with his feelings for a while, and then remarked, "Queer flag for a man to sail under, sir."
"What's the matter with the flag?" inquired Captain MacWhirr. "Seems all right to me." And he walked across to the end of the bridge to have a good look.
"Well, it looks queer to me," burst out Jukes, greatly exasperated, and flung off the bridge...
— excerpt from Typhoon
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Jack London
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Fiction
The Sea-Wolf (1904)
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From out of the fog came the mournful tolling of a bell, and I could see the pilot turning the wheel with great rapidity. The bell, which had seemed straight ahead, was now sounding from the side. Our own whistle was blowing hoarsely, and from time to time the sound of other whistles came to us from out of the fog.
"That's a ferry-boat of some sort," the newcomer said, indicating a whistle off to the right. "And there! D'ye hear that? Blown by mouth. Some scow schooner, most likely. Better watch out, Mr. Schooner-man. Ah, I thought so. Now hell's a-poppin' for somebody!"
— excerpt from The Sea-Wolf
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Rafael Sabatini
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The Captain Blood series
1 / Captain Blood (1922)
2 / Captain Blood Returns (1931)
3 / The Fortunes of Captain Blood (1936)
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Captain Blood took the pipe-stem from between his lips.
"My name," he said, "is Peter Blood. The Spaniards know me for Don Pedro Sangre and a Frenchman may call me Le Sang if he pleases."
"Good," said the gaudy adventurer in English, and without further invitation he drew up a stool and sat down at that greasy table. "My name," he informed the three men, two of whom at least were eyeing him askance, "it is Levasseur. You may have heard of me..."
— excerpt from Captain Blood
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Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
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The Bounty series
1 / Mutiny on the Bounty (1932)
2 / Men Against the Sea (1933)
3 / Pitcairn's Island (1934)
More Fiction
Botany Bay (1941)
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"Stolen, by God!" he shouted.
Christian and Fryer happened to be on deck at the time, and Bligh included them in the black scowl he gave the men near by.
"A damned set of thieves," he went on. "You're all in collusion against me — officers and men. But I'll tame you — by God, I will!"
— excerpt from Mutiny on the Bounty
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J W Wray
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Non-fiction
South Sea Vagabonds (1939)
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Well now, this was a poser. I had started to study navigation a little, but none of the problems had included that of working out one's position when one saw seven suns in the sextant.
Luckily we knew our approximate latitude today. Auckland was latitude 36°50'. We had come about 70 miles north, so our latitude now ought to be about 35°40'. I worked out this highly complicated problem backwards and at length found that it was the bottom left-hand sun in the mirror of the sextant that we had to use in our calculations...
— excerpt from South Sea Vagabonds
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Thor Heyerdahl
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Non-fiction
Kon-Tiki (1948)
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On the third night the sea went down a bit, although it was still blowing hard. About four o’clock an unexpected deluge came foaming through the darkness and knocked the raft right round before the steersmen realized what was happening. The sail thrashed against the bamboo cabin and threatened to tear both the cabin and itself to pieces.
All hands had to go on deck to secure the cargo and haul on sheets and stays in the hope of getting the raft on her right course again, so that the sail might fill and curve forward peacefully. But the raft would not right herself...
— excerpt from Kon-Tiki
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C S Forester
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Horatio Hornblower series
1 / Mr Midshipman Hornblower (1950)
2 / Lieutenant Hornblower (1952)
3 / Hornblower and the Hotspur (1962)
4 / Hornblower During the Crisis (1967)
5 / Hornblower and the Atropos (1953)
6 / Beat To Quarters (1938)
7 / Ship of the Line (1938)
8 / Flying Colours (1938)
9 / Commodore Hornblower (1945)
10 / Lord Hornblower (1946)
11 / Admiral Hornblower in West Indies (1958)
Non-fiction
Lord Nelson (1929)
The Barbary Pirates (1953)
The Last Nine Days of the Bismark (1959)
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"My name is Hornblower" he quavered at length."
"What an infernal piece of bad luck for you" said a second man at the table, with a complete absence of sympathy.
At that moment in the roaring world outside the ship the wind veered sharply, heeling the JUSTINIAN a trifle and swinging her round to snub at her cables again. To Hornblower it seemed more as if the world had come loose from its fastenings. He reeled where he stood, and although he was shuddering with cold he felt sweat on his face...
— excerpt from Mr Midshipman Hornblower
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Herman Wouk |
Fiction
The Caine Mutiny (1951)
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"This court is trying to find out among other things any possible extenuating circumstances in his decision to relieve his captain. Did these facts contained in the log merely indicate to you, as a layman, that Captain Queeg was a highly normal and competent officer?" There was an edge of irony in the tone.
Keefer quickly said, "Speaking, from ignorance, sir, my understanding is that mental disability is a relative thing. Captain Queeg was a very strict disciplinarian, and extremely meticulous in hunting down the smallest matters, and quite insistent in having his own way in all things. He was not the easiest person in the world to reason with..."
— excerpt from The Caine Mutiny
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Ernest Hemingway |
Fiction
The Old Man and the Sea (1952)
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He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.
It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his skiff empty and he always went down to help him carry either the coiled lines or the gaff and harpoon and the sail that was furled around the mast.
The sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat...
— excerpt from The Old Man and the Sea
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Edward L Beach |
Fiction
Run Silent, Run Deep (1955)
Dust on the Sea (1972)
Cold is the Sea (1978)
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"All hands below!" I yelled. Hugh wavered as the lookouts and Pat dashed past us. I motioned impatiently to the hatch. He dropped below. "Rudder amidships — all ahead emergency!" I yelled to Oregon.
I aimed for the narrow space between the two flaming ships again. If we could get between them once more — I knew there was no escort vessel on that side — that would force the two destroyers to slow down and maneuver to avoid their own ships. That might be our chance...
— excerpt from Run Silent, Run Deep
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Patrick O'Brian
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Aubrey-Maturin series
1 / Master and Commander (1969)
2 / Post Captain (1972)
3 / HMS Surprise (1973)
4 / The Mauritius Command (1977)
5 / Desolation Island (1978)
6 / The Fortune of War (1979)
7 / The Surgeon's Mate (1980)
8 / The Ionian Mission (1981)
9 / Treason's Harbour (1983)
10 / The Far Side of the World (1984)
11 / The Reverse of the Medal (1986)
12 / The Letter of Marque (1988)
13 / The Thirteen-Gun Salute (1989)
14 / The Nutmeg of Consolation (1991)
15 / The Truelove (1992)
16 / The Wine-Dark Sea (1993)
17 / The Commodore (1994)
18 / The Yellow Admiral (1996)
19 / The Hundred Days (1998)
20 / Blue at the Mizzen (1999)
21 / 21 (2004)
More Fiction
The Golden Ocean (1956)
The Unknown Shore (1959)
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Hitherto, Jack had been too busy working up his crew to pay much attention to the education of his midshipmen, but he had looked at yesterday's slips and they, with a very suspicious unanimity, had shown the SOPHIE in 39°21'N, which was fair enough, but also in a longitude that she could only have reached by cleaving the mountain-range behind Valencia to a depth of thirty-seven miles.
"What do you mean by sending me this nonsense?"
— excerpt from Master and Commander
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James Clavell |
Fiction
Shogun (1975)
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In the harbor were many other quaintly shaped boats, mostly fishing craft, some with one large sail, several being sculled — the oarsmen standing and pushing against the sea, not sitting and pulling as he would have done. A few of the boats were heading out to sea, others were nosing at the wooden dock, and ERASMUS was anchored neatly, fifty yards from shore, in good water, with three bow cables.
Who did that? he asked himself. There were boats alongside her and he could see native men aboard. But none of his. Where could they be?
— excerpt from Shogun
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Tom Clancy |
Fiction
The Hunt for Red October (1984)
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"Dive," Ramius ordered, moving to the periscope to relieve Vasily Borodin, his starpom (executive officer). Kamarov pulled the diving alarm, and the hull reverberated with the racket of a loud buzzer.
"Flood the main ballast tanks. Rig out the diving planes. Ten degrees down-angle on the planes," Kamarov ordered, his eyes alert to see that every crewman did his job exactly.
The RED OCTOBER's hull was filled with the noise of rushing air as vents at the top of the ballast tanks were opened and water entering from the tank floods at the bottom chased the buoying air out...
— excerpt from The Hunt for Red October
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Dennis Conner |
Non-fiction
No Excuse to Lose (1987)
Comeback (1987)
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Our original plan was to build only two new boats. The second, STARS & STRIPES ’86, was built with what is best described as a double bow.
There was a flat section and a rather ugly bump right at the forward waterline. The idea was to have the volume forward, and attempt to trick the water into behaving as if the boat were longer than she was. This seemed to work when it was windy.
She really hauled the mail...
— excerpt from Comeback
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Eugene B Fluckey |
Non-fiction
Thunder Below! (1992)
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"FIRE 4!"
Pharmacist's Mate William Donnelly pushed the firing plunger near the helm. The BARB shuddered as the torpedo was ejected by high-pressure air and roared off. The tube then vented inboard to avoid a large air bubble rising to the surface.
"FIRE 5!" Again the jolt. "FIRE 6!"
"Conning tower, JP sonar reports all torpedoes hot, straight, and normal..."
— excerpt from Thunder Below!
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James L Nelson
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The Norsemen Saga series
1 / Fin Gall (2013)
2 / Dubh-Linn (2014)
3 / The Lord of Vik-lo (2015)
4 / Glendalough Fair (2015)
5 / Night Wolf (2016)
6 / Raider's Wake (2017)
7 / Loch Garman (2017)
8 / A Vengeful Wind (2018)
Brethren of the Coast series
1 / The Guardship (2000)
2 / The Blackbirder (2001)
3 / The Pirate Round (2002)
Revolution at Sea series
1 / By Force of Arms (1997)
2 / The Maddest Idea (1997)
3 / The Continental Risque (1998)
4 / Lords of the Ocean (1999)
5 / All the Brave Fellows (2001)
Civil War at Sea series
1 / Glory in the Name (2004)
2 / Thieves of Mercy (2005)
More Fiction
The Only Life that Mattered (2004)
The French Prize (2015)
Full Fathom Five (2016)
Non-fiction
Reign of Iron (2004)
Benedict Arnold's Navy (2006)
George Washington's Secret Navy (2008)
George Washington's Great Gamble (2010)
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 |
Biddlecomb looked aft once again. Streaming away at regular intervals in the brig's wake was a line of barrels, and he imagined that the CERBERUS would now be bumping into the first of them. He looked up at the frigate. She was hull up now, noticeably closer, and Biddlecomb wondered when she would try her first ranging shots.
He put his glass to his eye. The frigate's bow wave was just visible, as was the ghastly figurehead with its leering canine faces. CERBERUS, the mythological gatekeeper of hell, inviting them in. And above that the black barrels of the bow chasers...
— excerpt from By Force of Arms
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Ian W Toll |
Non-fiction
Six Frigates (2006)
Pacific Crucible (2011)
The Conquering Tide (2014)
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 |
The quickest and least expensive way to obtain the frigates would be to purchase and convert existing merchantmen. The second option — to construct new ships — would clearly take longer and cost more.
From the very beginning, however, the president and his advisers preferred building and launching to buying and converting. Building new ships would enable the War Office to enforce rigorous quality controls, and it would give Humphreys the opportunity to test his design theory from the laying of the keel to the crossing of the yards...
— excerpt from Six Frigates
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Nigel Cliff |
Non-fiction
The Last Crusade (2012)
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 |
Death had always stalked the explorers, but in an age that held life cheap the risk had been worth the reward. Men who lived in hope of heaven and fear of hell had been eager to serve as Crusaders; men born into poverty had hungered to touch the wealth of the East.
Yet the wealth had stuck to the fingers of the elite, and faith had proved a poor defense against disease, famine, and storms...
— excerpt from The Last Crusade
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