Nautical Fiction List (Changes)
John Kohnen
Thanks to Jennifer Hunter at The Armchair Sailor, Seattle
<http://www.yachtworld.com/armchair/> for several of the new titles and
descriptions this month. Several more are from the list of known titles kept
by Rich Merritt at Tall Ships Books <rich_m...@cmfz.com>, which I am very
gradually incorporating into the Nautical fiction List. But most came from
enthusiatic readers of the list. Thanks!
Deletions:
Biggins, John
Two-Headed Eagle (Mainly air service in the Alps and the Balkans while
attached to the Austrian and Hungarian Army; great stuff, but the only
nautical content is an interesting but short account of flying over the
sea when attempting to bomb Venice!)
Changes:
Adlard, Mark
The Greenlander, 1978 (Young man comes of age at sea, whaling in the
Arctic, as steam overtakes sail in the 19th century.)
Allen, Thomas B. and Polmar, Norman
Ship of Gold, 1987 (Submarines seek a sunken ship, as the CIA, Pentagon,
etc. strive to solve the forty year old mystery surrounding "Osaka
Maru".)
Bassett, James E.
Harm's way, 1962 (Aboard USN cruiser "Old Swayback" in the Pacific during
WW II.)
Bassett, Ronald
The Tinfish Run, 1942 (Ancient British destroyer hunts subs, fights
German aircraft in the Arctic. Bassett served in the Arctic aboard a
British cruiser. Many incidents in the novel are based on true events.)
Bengtsson, Frans Gunnar 1894-
The Long Ships: a saga of the Viking age, 1942 (Red Orm in the original
Swedish. Adventures of Red Orm, son of a pirate, master of his own ship
and afraid of no man. Bengtsson uses a rather dry style, like that of
the Icelandic sagas, to describe very exciting events, and gives a
vivid portrayal of the time and places without resorting to much
description. A ripping yarn. Made into a movie in 1963.)
Bissell, Richard Pike 1913- (Harvard grad, seaman, river pilot and author of
the book that became the musical comedy The Pajama Game (and co-author of
the script.))
A Stretch on the River, 1950 ("Picaresque" novel about towboating on the
upper Mississippi. Simultaneously hailed by the newspaper in Dubuque
and banned by the Dubuque Catholic Mothers Purity Association.)
Cameron, Ian 1924-
The White Ship, 1975 (Unquiet ghosts from a wrecked Spanish treasure
galleon haunt a 1970s expedition to the South Sandwich Islands, leading
to tragedy.)
Llewellyn, Sam 1948-
Blood Knot, 1991 (A former reporter plans a quiet retirement fixing up
his wooden cutter and living on it with a crew of troubled kids, but a
murder followed by attempts on his life lead him to the Baltics on a
race against death in an open boat.)
McCutchan, Philip 1920- (Author of nearly 90 naval adventures! here are a few.)
St. Vincent Halfhyde series: (Late 19th, early 20th century adventures,
sometimes in the RN, sometimes not)
Beware, Beware the Bight of Benin, 1974 (The author, in this, the
first of the series, introduces Halfhyde, a Royal Navy lieutenant,
who is on a secret assignment to forestall Russian intentions on
the West African coast. He is captured by the Russians but a
subsequent mutiny allows him to complete his mission with credit.)
The Halfhyde Line, 1984 (Halfhyde is tricked into illicitly carrying
arms to Ireland from Australia in his barely seaworthy freighter.
Although he attempts to warn the authorities they fail to stop them
being landed, so Halfhyde is left to retrieve the situation
himself.)
Halfhyde and the Fleet Review, 1991 (Halfhyde is back in the Royal
Navy; albeit the Royal Navy Reserve. He is assigned to the Chilean
Navy as their C in C and is given the task of ensuring the safety
of a controversial Chilean (but English) admiral.)
Tom Chatto series:
Apprentice to the Sea, 1995 (Original title Tom Chatto. Set on the seas
of the nineteenth century. Tom Chatto is a young apprentice seaman
from west Ireland, hoping to make his living on the decks of a
square-rigged windjammer. He encounters heavy seas, treachery, and
twists of plot; a delight for sea lovers everywhere.)
Mack, William P. 1915- (Vice Admiral USN (ret.))
Straits of Messina, 1994 (US destroyer squadron in action during the
invasions of Sicily and Italy during WW II.)
Nordhoff, Charles 1887-1947 and Hall, James Norman 1887-1951
The Hurricane, 1936 (Polynesian convict escapes and returns to home
atoll. Hurricane devastates island while he is evading recapture.
Great tale of humans against the elements.)
Pearson, Ridley
Blood of the Albatross, 1986 (A good old-fashioned page-turner of a
mystery, set in Seattle. The hero of this thriller is a sailing
instructor by day, a rock star by night. There are enough plot twists
and sleazy characters to keep things moving at an exhilarating pace.)
Pease, Howard 1894- (for "young" readers)
The Black Tanker, 1941 (A Stanford student gets word that his father, a
doctor working in China, has been seriously injured in a Japanese
bombing raid. The only way he can get to China is to sign on as an
engine wiper on a tanker, whose mate is Tod Moran, carrying oil to the
Japanese bases in China. There is a murder on board, a storm at sea,
and some adventures with the Japanese and Chinese after they arrive.
The book has an American neutrality political viewpoint, flavored with
a strong distaste for Japanese Imperialism.)
Richards, Jessica
Mistress of the Western Wind, 1980 (Young wife follows clipper ship
captain to see, winds up taking ship around Cape Horn by herself.
Episodes of explicit sex! Based, at least loosley, on an actual event.)
Styles, Showell 1908- (Napoleonic Wars era, some for young readers.)
Admiral of England, 1973 (Concerns the career of Admiral Duncan, the hero
of the Battle of Camperdown. Duncan was both 6 foot 6 and 66 years old
at the time of the battle, which was fought very shortly after the
infamous RN fleet mutinies in 1797. The novel includes an account of
Duncan grabbing one of the mutineers by the lapels and shaking him over
the ship's side.)
Wingate, John 1920-
Cold War Trilogy: (Describes the deterioration of relations between the
Soviet and Western blocks in a plausible and comprehensive scenario
and spells out in some detail the NATO strategy to contain the Soviet
submarine threat and keep open the sea lanes between Europe and the
States in the pre-all-out-nuclear stage of the lead up to WW III.
The stories concentrate mainly on the vessels named in the titles
during the confrontation. The operation and deployment of the weapons
systems and the ships performance during the various assignments come
across as being realistic. This realism is carried through to the
dialogue used by the characters and the makes an interesting
comparison to the language used in naval war novels set in WW I and
WW II.)
Frigate, 1983 (A confrontation between a Soviet sub and a NATO
exercise brings an end to the Cold War at sea and the beginning of
perhaps WW3. Anti-submarine tactics, weapon capabilities and
details of naval life give authenticity to the story of the
eponymous "Leander" class frigate and her part in containing the
Soviet submarine threat in the early stages of the sea war.)
Carrier, 1984 (This takes up the story where it was left in Frigate,
but from the perspective of an ageing British aircraft carrier as
it plays its part in trying to keep the sea lanes to the US open
and providing the necessary air cover to prevent Soviet subs
getting at the convoys taking reinforcements to Europe.)
Submarine, 1984 (The crisis is escalating and Armageddon looks
inevitable. A Royal Navy conventional submarine is sent on a
mission to decoy a Soviet super sub from its Northern Polar lair
to its destruction by a nuclear hunter killer.)
Additions:
Albano, Peter
Carrier "Yonaga" series: (84,000 ton Japanese aircraft carrier frozen in
the Arctic ice since 1941. It breaks free in 1983 and becomes the
savior of the free world.)
The Seventh Carrier, 1983 [1]("Yonaga" breaks free of the arctic ice,
and her Samurai crew is determined to complete its 1941 mission:
destroying Pearl Harbor.)
The Second Voyage of the Seventh Carrier [2] (The Chinese launch a
particle beam satellite that knocks out all modern electronics,
airplanes and ships. The old Japanese carrier "Yonaga" is the only
warship that still works and has planes that fly.)
Return of the Seventh Carrier [3] (The world is still crippled by the
Chinese particle beam, and Libyan terrorists are out to destroy
"Yonaga", last hope of the free world.)
The Quest of the Seventh Carrier, 1989 [4] ("Yonaga" is still the
largest functioning warship in the world. She leads a ragtag group
of WW II airplanes and ships against the Libyan Navy and its bigger
collection of WW II vintage ships.)
Attack of the Seventh Carrier, 1989 [5] (Old US Navy WW II submarine
joins "Yonaga's" fleet as the battle with Libya's navy continues.)
Ordeal of the Seventh Carrier [6] ("Yonaga" fights Arab battle group
off Iwo Jima. It's carrier versus carrier, 1940s style, in the
1980s!)
Trial of the Seventh Carrier [7] (The Arab navy threatens Japan, and
"Yonaga" still carries the banner of the free world.)
Revenge of the Seventh Carrier, 1992 [8](Libyan Navy strike force
armed with poison gas threatens the major cities of the free world,
but "Yonaga's" Samurai crew is still on the job.)
Challenge of the Seventh Carrier, 1993
Armstrong, Richard
The Big Sea, 1964 (Storm damages the steamship "Kariba" and her crew
abandons ship, leaving one seaman abooard to ride it out.)
Baker, W. Howard
Strike North (Escorting convoys to Murmansk with a spy aboard during
WW II.)
Ballenger, Dean W.
Terror at Sea (Fictionalized retelling of the aftermath of the loss of
the cruiser "Indianapolis" in the Pacific during WW II, by an
individual who served with the rescue forces.)
Bassett, James
Commander Prince, USN (Naval commander who has served on staff
positions is given command of a destroyer squadron in the Asiatic Fleet
after the outbreak of WWII. He must overcome doubts about his
competence and courage in the Java Sea, then fight an unequal battle
with a Japanese cruiser and his former flagship -- captured by the IJN
-- off the Solomons.)
Bassett, Ronald
The Guns of Evening, 1980 (Aboard the battle-cruiser "Invincible at the
Battle of Jutland.)
Bissell, Richard Pike 1913- (Harvard grad, seaman, river pilot and author of
the book that became the musical comedy The Pajama Game (and co-author of
the script.))
Goodbye Ava, 1960 (Most of the action takes place on houseboats. "A
boisterous fable..." NY Times, "Uproariously funny... the characters
are racy..." NY Times, "This book should be burned..." Mound Ill.
Weekly Gazette, "I wish Richard would get a steady job." The author's
mother.)
The Coal Queen (Short story in Atlantic Monthly about towboat life on
the Monongahela River in West Virginia. The first piece of writing
Bissell ever sold.)
Also non-fiction My Life on the Mississippi, or Why I Am Not Mark Twain,
1973.
Blake, George 1893-
The Shipbuilders, 1931 (Study of a Glasgow shipyard hit by the
shipbuilding bust in late 1920s, as seen through the eyes of the owner,
and a riveter who served as the owner's batman when both were in the
British Army in WW I. Never gets to sea, but a fascinating portrait of a
vital support maritime industry during the worst of times.)
Blake, George 1893-
The Shipbuilders, 1931 (Study of a Glasgow shipyard hit by the
shipbuilding bust in late 1920s, as seen through the eyes of the owner,
and a riveter who served as the owner's batman when both were in the
British Army in WW I. Never gets to sea, but a fascinating portrait of a
vital support maritime industry during the worst of times.)
Cleary, Jon 1917- (Australian known for his adventure fiction and his Scobie
Malone detective series.)
The Long Pursuit, 1967 (Escape by sea from the Japanese at the beginning
of WW II.)
Crane, Stephen 1871-1900
The Open Boat (Short story about four shipwreck survivors who set out for
safety in a lifeboat.)
Dorling, Henry Taprell (Taffrail) 1883-1963
Kerrell, 1931 (First lieutenant of a destroyer in action in the North Sea
and with the Dover Patrol in WW I. Good substantial naval action
story.)
The Scarlet Stripe, 1932 (Naval surgeon adrift in life-boat with 22 men
after their Q ship is sunk by U-boat in WW I.)
Dover-Ostend, 1933 (A cross-channel thriller. Piracy in the English
Channel is resolved by a naval officer. Included are charts so the
reader can follow the action which involves lots of coastal cruising
aboard the officer's yacht.)
Seventy North, 1934 (Plenty of statistics and social history are
interestingly incorporated into a readable story involving the British
fishing industry prior to WW II. Although written in the style of the
day, reading the book now graphically illustrates how the importance
and impact of fishing on the community has been eroded today.)
Second Officer, 1935 (Gives the reader an accurate picture of the
pleasant side of life in the Merchant Navy of the day. (unlike Mid
Atlantic?) Large general cargo ships voyage London - Panama - Pacific
to New Zealand with adventures on the way.)
Mid Atlantic, 1936 (With this story the author takes up the cudgels on
behalf of the merchant seamen of Great Britain during the Depression.
Sailing aboard an ill-found tramp the unfailing courage and heroic
tenacity of her people fail to save her after steering failure in
severe weather. Plenty of technical, social and background detail.)
Operation M.O., 1938 (Naval Intelligence track down and recover stolen
state secrets, with the aid of the Royal Navy, from a merchantman off
the Danish coast in this pre-war spy thriller. Really only 25%
nautical.)
Ellsberg, Edward 1891- (Renowned USN diving and salvage expert. Pioneered the
salvaging of submarines with his raising of the ill-fated S-51, for which he
received a DSM, and the rescue of the S-4. Principal Salvage Officer under
Ike in the N. Africa invasion during WW II and worked on the Mulberry
artificial harbor project for the Normandy invasion. He has also written
several excellent non-fiction books.)
Mid Watch: a novel, 1954 (Boiler blows up in an old US Navy cruiser
making a full power run sometime before WW I. Ensign is made scapegoat
and court martialled.)
Evans, Alan 1930-
David Cochrane Smith Series:
Audacity, 1985
Gobbell, John J.
The Last Lieutenant, 1995 (Group of Americans escape in small boat from
Corregidor at the beginning of WW II. Loosely based on actual event.)
Graham, Winston
The Grove of Eagles, 1963 (Englishman escapes Spanish Inquisition to
fight beside Raleigh at the sacking of Cadiz in 1596, and to help
defeat the second Spanish Armada.)
Gray, Edwyn
Fighting Submarine, 1978 (British sub commander sent to hunt down a
U-Boat haunting the East coast of Britain in 1940 suspects it may be
commanded by his friend and ex-commander, a cashiered RN officer
believed killed in a race car accident. Then the British sub is sent to
capture a German prison ship in Norwegian waters.)
U-Boat Series: (focuses on exploits of anti-Nazi Konrad Bergman)
No Survivors (Berman takes command of UB-44, discovers the ambiguities
of undersea warfare)
Action Atlantic, 1975 (Berman, in UB-44, participates in a mass attack on
an Atlantic convoy while the Gestapo investigates him for disloyalty.)
Tokyo Torpedo 1976 (Berman takes U-boat to Japan to study midget subs
there, and hijacks a Kaiten.)
The Last Command, 1977 (Bergman salvages a sunken U-boat, takes charge of
a flotilla of midget submarines attacking the Normandy beachhead,
commands salvaged sub on three missions in 1944-45, then is involved in
an attempt to smuggle Hitler to Argentina.)
Icenhower, Joseph B.
Mr. Midshipman Murdock and the Barbary Pirates, 1956 (Little Jim Murdock
joins the USS Liberty, 44, sister to the frigate United States and
sails to the Mediterranean. Definitely for a younger audience.)
Jenkins, Geoffrey 1920-
The Bridge of Magpies, 1974 (A story of U-boats, torpedoed liners, sunk
frigates and Nazi-Japanese skullduggery carried through to the present
day and centred on the eponymous landmark on South Africas Diamond
Coast. The Author's customary ability to give a desolate and
inhospitable landscape a magical and mysterious aura and to populate
his stories with unusual characters makes this a good yarn.)
Jordan, Humfrey 1885-
The Commander Shall..., 1938 (On Captain Gaunt's first voyage to
Australia as commander of a fast passenger he has to deal with murder,
a fire etc.)
Joseph, Mark
Typhoon, 1991 (Russian faction plans nuclear incident to regain Soviet
power. Other Russian sub commander tries to prevent it, while US sub
watches and tries to figure out what's going on.)
Leroux, Gaston 1868-
The Floating Prison, 1923 (Originally in French. Entered for the sake of
completeness. A nautical novel only because it is set aboard a French
Naval Transport taking convicts to Devils Island. They take over the
ship. The latter part is incomprehensible, apparently it lost
something in the translation.)
London, Jack 1876-1916
A Son of the Sun, 1911 (The adventures of Captain David Grief in the
Solomons Islands.)
Lunnon-Wood, Mike
Let Not the Deep (This Atlantic-set adventure-thriller carries you
through its pages on waves: A ship with engine failure calls out
distress and the crew of the "Maeve Corrigan", a superbly designed
lifeboat, set out to the rescue through stormy seas. A story of
courage and testing and suspense.)
Macdonnell, James E. 1917- (Australian author of naval stories, mostly set in
WW II and featuring Royal Australian Navy heroes.)
The Convert, 1967 (Lt. Kenyon takes command of a PT Boat and must prove
himself to himself, his crew and the squadron.)
Down the Throat, 1967 (Lt. Kenyon sinks Japanese transport that turns
out to have been full of Allied prisoners and nurses. Of course it was
a set-up, but Kenyon must overcome his doubts and prove himself to
himself, his crew and the squadron.)
Mack, William P. 1915- (Vice Admiral USN (ret.))
Normandy, 1995 (Destroyer activity leading to the D-Day invasion of
France.)
Nordhoff, Charles 1887-1947 and Hall, James Norman 1887-1951
The High Barbaree, 1945 (Catalina flying boat is shot down in the South
Pacific in 1943. After days of drifting, the lone survivor swims ashore
on a mystic, uncharted island, where he finds his uncle and fiancee.
Filmed in 1947.)
Peyton, K. M.
Sea Fever, 1962 (Sixteen year old boy becomes the sole breadwinner for
his family after his father dies in a fishing accident, and the family's
savings disappear overboard with dad. Through hard work, luck, and the
newfangled sport of yatch racing he is able to redeem his family's
finances, and defeat the individual who stole the family's fortune. Set
in coastal England in the mid to late 1800s. A fun read.)
Ponce de Leon, Napoleon Baccino
Five Black Ships: A Novel of The Discoverers, 1994 (This talented
Uruguayan writer has created in this book a wonderful tale of ships and
men using rich prose, earthly humor, and striking poetry. He looks into
the lives of the real men and real events behind what the history books
say, and he follows, like an artist, the marvelous story of the first
circumnavigation of the globe.)
Poyer, David C.
Louisianna Blue, 1994 (Tiller Galloway gets involved in oil pipeline
diving in the Gulf of Mexico.)
Rayner, Denys Arthur
The Long Haul, 1962 (More WW II destroyer action.)
Stephens, Edward
Blow Negative, 1962 (Submarine adventure.)
Steward, Davenport
Way of A Buccaneer, 1956 (English youth escapes from Spanish treachery
when his father is killed and his ship stolen. He takes up with the
maroons in Jamaica, grows into manhood, then gets captured and enslaved
by the Spanish. After a long period he is liberated by buccaneers,
joins Morgan's raid on Porto Bello, and becomes a buccaneer captain.)
Stone, Irving 1903-1989
The Origin, 1980 (Fictionalized biography of Charles Darwin. Nautical
part is his voyage with Fitzroy in the "Beagle".)
Taylor, J. E.
At Close Quarters, 1949 (Spells out sympathetically the reason why the
USA felt it necessary to go to war in 1812 against Britain's arrogance
at sea. Broadbank with the privateer "Avenger" joins in the war from
the beginning but gets off to a poor start and loses the ship and an
arm. He is a shorebound spectator to the "Shannon" - "Chesapeake" fight
and in the confusion is able to escape his captors and rejoin the
British and go on to organise at Lake Champlain a small but tactically
important mini-fleet that prevents the Americans from invading Canada.)
By Force of Arms ("This stirring sea story of the Napoleonic Wars
follows the fortunes of Captain Broadbank, and his privateer schooner
the 'Avenger', his life, his aims, and the love that came to him so
strangely, told against a broad exciting background of the lives and
conditions of ships and seamen of that great maritime era." [from the
bookjacket of At Close Quarters.)
Tracy, Louis 1863-1928
The Captain of the Kansas, 1907 (Gallant captain of the "Kansas", on a
run from Chile to England, with the help of assorted more or less
useful passengers, overcomes sabotage, Indian attacks, and the stormy
sea and finally gets the girl to boot. It's a pretty good look at the
racial stereotyping of the day, but holds up pretty well after 90
years.)
Wilson, Sloan 1920- (author of The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit.)
Voyage to Somewhere, 1946 (Somewhat less than awe-inspiring lieutenant
takes command of brand new very small supply ship during WW II. His
crew was assigned from the bottom of some alphabetical list; all their
names start with "W" except for a couple of the officers. They cruise around
the Pacific with assorted unimportant cargoes, never quite catching up
with the war. Very good.)
--
John <jko...@efn.org> The Eugene Free Net
http://www.efn.org/~jkohnen/nautical.html
The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what
you don't like, and do what you'd rather not. <Mark Twain>
Mark Kinsler
riverboats in Pennsylvania. It's called _Monongahela_, and it was pretty
good. The barges hauled coal from the mines along the Monongahela River,
which runs due north from West Virginia up to Pittsburgh. The towboats
that Bissell describes are diesel-powered, but the book's illustration
showed them with a stern paddlewheel. I didn't think there were
diesel-powered stern wheelers until I asked my other half Natalie the
finance professor, who knows from nothing about boats but who grew up on a
hill overlooking the Ohio River in Pittsburgh. She said that when she was
small, the towboats did indeed have stern wheels (she called it "that
paddle thing on the back.") And so we learn.
M Kinsler
humbled more than once by Natalie
Wallace Venable
>I'd forgotten about Richard Bissell.
>that Bissell describes are diesel-powered, but the book's illustration
>showed them with a stern paddlewheel.
Both "gas" (gasoline) and Diesel were used on commercial sternwheel
towboats on the Ohio-Mississippi system, in addition to steam. A couple of
the Ward Engineering 200 HP class boats from 1932 are still running, as are
ones by other builders.
PJK
on Sat, 20 Apr 1996 03:55:27 GMT,
Mark Kinsler <kin...@bobcat.ent.ohiou.edu> writes:
>I'd forgotten about Richard Bissell. He also wrote a book about the
>riverboats in Pennsylvania. It's called _Monongahela_, and it was pretty
>good. The barges hauled coal from the mines along the Monongahela River,
>that Bissell describes are diesel-powered, but the book's illustration
>diesel-powered stern wheelers until I asked my other half Natalie the
>finance professor, who knows from nothing about boats but who grew up on a
>hill overlooking the Ohio River in Pittsburgh. She said that when she was
>small, the towboats did indeed have stern wheels (she called it "that
>paddle thing on the back.") And so we learn.
>
> M Kinsler
> humbled more than once by Natalie
>
>
>
M. Kinsler and Natalie - if you like this sort of thing, there is The Keelboat
Age on Western Waters by Leland Baldwin, a history of keel boats and flat boats
on , if I remember correctly, the Miss, the Misouri, and the ???.
And see Floating West, a history of the more eastern canals - the Erie pri-
marly, but it mantions the Del & rariton (where I jog) and one other.
The first of these actually mentions Mike Fink as realing existing and Pirate
Cave.
Pjk
David Wilma
VEN...@cemr.wvu.edu (Wallace Venable) wrote:
Both "gas" (gasoline) and Diesel were used on commercial sternwheel
>towboats on the Ohio-Mississippi system, in addition to steam. A couple of
>the Ward Engineering 200 HP class boats from 1932 are still running, as are
>ones by other builders.
I think that in commercial/marine applications you will find diesel to be
the preferred fuel. If you say gas, make certain this is correct for the
era and the venue.
Wallace Venable
Bissell's book was circa 1950. I think there were probably a few
'gas boats' still in use at that time, but I would have to ask friends in
order to confirm it. The few sternwheel towboats still in commercial
service in 1996 are all diesel, as far as I know. There are a number of
sternwheel yachts operating today with gasoline engines.