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Set in a time of oppressive colonisation, when large areas of the world were still unknown to Europe, and Africa was literally on maps and minds as a mysterious shadow, Heart of Darkness famously explores the rituals of civilisation and barbarism, and the frighteningly fine line between them. We get the tale through a classic unreliable narrator, relating as Marlow, a ship’s captain, tells how he was sent by the Company to retrieve the wayward Kurtz, and was shaken to discover the true depths of darkness in that creature’s, and in his own, soul. Conrad based the work closely on his own terrible experience in the Congo. This work has been reinterpreted and adapted into many modern forms, the most well known being the film Apocalypse Now. (Summary written by Marlo Dianne)...

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Sea stories

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This is the tale of a perilous voyage aboard a clipper ship told by the second mate. He looks up to Trunnell, the first mate, who somehow manages to hold things together between a murdering former captain, a captain who may not actually be a captain, and a crew inclined to mutiny. This all leads to a surprising and satisfying ending. The author, Hains, wrote frequently of the sea. He is the author who (under a pen name) had a story on the newsstands about a liner hitting an iceberg and sinking, while Titanic was doing precisely that!...

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Fiction, Sea stories

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Authentic Narratives of the Most Celebrated Sea Robbers.

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Adventure, Sea stories, Biography

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The Trawler is a short story revolving around the trying life of a group of bank fishermen based in Gloucester. Skipper Hugh Glynn worked his men hard; some said too hard, and Arthur Snow was one who had paid the ultimate price. Arthur's close friend Simon Kippen decided he'd ask to take the place of his fallen friend aboard Hugh Glynn's vessel as a dory mate, and from there we have a tale of the open seas between Gloucester and Newfoundland where perhaps only the names and locations have changed from the countless stories of similar nature; the key being that this one, however, is first hand. (Summary by Roger Melin)...

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Adventure, Sea stories

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This 1904 maritime adventure is set in the Great Lakes region, upon water and in wood. Our hero is caught in a smuggling scheme and may lose his boat and his sweetheart. With a fast pace and interesting plot, the story is made realistic with very modern bad-guys. (Summary by Brenda Price)...

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Adventure, Sea stories, Romance

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This is the story of a man’s monumental struggle against nature, to win the hand of the woman he loves, and surmount every difficulty that Nature puts in his path (Summary by Alisson Veldhuis)...

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Romance, Sea stories

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Im Jahr 1599 sind die Niederlande von den Spaniern besetzt. Die Stadt Antwerpen ist bevölkert von italienischen Söldnern. Doch die Niederländer leisten Widerstand. Auf See ist der Wille der “Wassergeusen” ungebrochen und ihre Schlagkraft von den Besatzern gefürchtet. Am meisten graut ihnen jedoch vor dem Flaggschiff: Die schwarze Galeere… (Zusammenfassung von Felix)...

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Adventure, Sea stories

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Nördlich von Australien, um 1840. Während einer Reise von Sidney nach Singapur sichtet die Mannschaft des Segelschiffes Betsy Ann auf den Klippen des Great Barrier Reef ein Wrack. Die Bark scheint menschenleer zu sein, doch als einige Männer der Betsy Ann zu dem Wrack hinüberrudern, finden sie dort einen rätselhaften Einsiedler vor. Blutspuren deuten auf einen Kampf an Bord hin, und den Seeleuten wird bald klar, dass hier ein Verbrechen geschehen ist. Aber was genau ist passiert, und welche Rolle spielte dabei dieser schweigsame Mann? Da geschieht plötzlich ein weiteres Unglück... (Zusammenfassung von Karlsson)...

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Adventure, Sea stories, Teen/Young adult

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Typee is Herman Melville's first book, recounting his experiences after having jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands in 1842, and becoming a captive of a cannibal island tribe. It was an immediate success in America and England, and was Melville's most popular work during his lifetime. It was not until the end of the 1930's that it was surpassed in popularity by Moby Dick, more than thirty years after his death. The story provoked harsh criticism for its condemnation of missionary efforts in the Pacific Islands. Many sought to discredit the book, claiming that it was a work of fiction, but this criticism ended when the events it described were corroborated by Melville's fellow castaway, Richard T. Greene, who appears in the story as the character Toby (Summary by Michael)...

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Adventure, Sea stories

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This novel was published a full 14 years before the sinking of the Titanic, but listeners may be surprised at how many parallels this fictional tale has with subsequent true events. The Titan is the largest and most technologically advanced steamship of her time. She is considered unsinkable. Her full speed crossings of the Northern Lane Route carry her rich passengers in the highest standards of luxury and comfort. The less well-off travel in rougher quarters but still benefit from the speed of travel. These crossings, however, are fraught with navigational hazards, the greatest of which is ice. Unlike the ship, one member of her crew is not of the highest standard. At least, not anymore. John Rowland is a broken man who drinks to forget his past. However, when the Titan crashes into an iceberg during her attempt to break a speed record, he is forced to confront his past. Can he overcome his enemies and escape as the ship begins to sink? And can he make his way back to civilization and find self-respect once more? Adventure and soul-searching await Rowland, with a surprise ending....

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Sea stories, Tragedy

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The Mirror of the Sea (collection of autobiographical essays first published in various magazines 1904-6 ), 1906 (Summary from Wikipedia)

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Sea stories, Biography

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The Sea-Wolf is a novel written in 1904 by American author Jack London. An immediate bestseller, the first printing of forty thousand copies was sold out before publication. Of it, Ambrose Bierce wrote The great thing—and it is among the greatest of things—is that tremendous creation, Wolf Larsen... the hewing out and setting up of such a figure is enough for a man to do in one lifetime....

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Sea stories, Romance, Adventure, Fiction

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Wolff gehört zu den sogenannten Butzenscheibendichtern. Dieser Begriff wurde zuerst 1884 von Paul Heyse verwendet, um damit zeitgenössische Dichter zu charakterisieren, die altertümelnde Verserzählungen in gefälliger Art über historische Stoffe und Sagen schrieben und ihren Lebensunterhalt damit bestritten. Diese Reimerzählungen über die bekannte Seemannssage „Der fliegende Holländer“ wurde im Jahre 1892 veröffentlicht. Julius Wolff erzählt uns hierin, wie es dazu kam, das aus Tyn van Straten (Name abweichend zur Legende) der „Fliegende Holländer“ wurde....

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Poetry, Sea stories, Adventure

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The Sea Hawk is a novel by Rafael Sabatini, originally published in 1915. The story is set in the late 16th century, and concerns a Cornish sea-faring gentleman, Sir Oliver Tressilian, who is villainously betrayed by a jealous brother. After being forced to serve as a slave on a Spanish galley, Sir Oliver is liberated by Barbary pirates. He joins the pirates under the name Sakr-el-Bahr, the hawk of the sea, and swears vengeance against his brother. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Adventure, Sea stories, Teen/Young adult, Romance

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Few things, even in literature, can really be said to be unique — but Moby Dick is truly unlike anything written before or since. The novel is nominally about the obsessive hunt by the crazed Captain Ahab of the book’s eponymous white whale. But interspersed in that story are digressions, paradoxes, philosophical riffs on whaling and life, and a display of techniques so advanced for its time that some have referred to the 1851 Moby Dick as the first “modern” novel. (Summary by Stewart Wills)...

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Adventure, Sea stories

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Maturin Murray Ballou was the author of dozens of books, chiefly centered around his extensive sea travel. He was deputy navy-agent in the Boston Custom House and circumnavigated in 1882, collecting material for several travel accounts and various nautical romances, amongst which The Sea-Witch can be counted. (Summary by Gesine)...

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Fiction, Sea stories, Romance

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Stanton H. King was from Barbados and followed his brothers to sea at the age of twelve in 1880. He spent only twelve years at sea for reasons given in this book. Thereafter, he became associated with the Sailors' Haven, Boston, Massachusetts and became its director. He was also a renowned Chantie singer and, in 1918, King's Book Of Chanties was published. King views the sailing life from before the mast, that is, through the eyes of the common sailor. (Summary by Peter Kelleher)...

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Sea stories, Biography, Adventure

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Joshua Slocum was the first man to sail around the world alone in a small boat. He personally rebuilt an 11.2 metre sloop-rigged fishing boat that he named the Spray. On April 24, 1895, he set sail from Boston, Massachusetts. More than three years later, he returned to Newport, Rhode Island, on June 27, 1898 having circumnavigated the world, a distance of 46,000 miles (74,000 km). In 1899 he described the voyage in Sailing Alone Around the World now considered a classic of travel literature. It is a wonderful adventure story from the Age of Sail and a book of which Arthur Ransome declared, boys who do not like this book ought to be drowned at once. (Summary by Alan Chant and Wikipedia)...

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Biography, Sea stories, Adventure

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For killing an albatross, the mariner and his crew are punished with drought and death. Amidst a series of supernatural events, the mariner's life alone is spared and he repents, but he must wander the earth and tell his tale with the lesson that all things great and small are important. (Summary written by Gesine)...

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Sea stories, Poetry

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At the age of 16 Ballantyne went to Canada and was six years in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company. His rule in writing, being in every case, was to write as far as possible from personal knowledge of the scenes he described.In this book he details the lives of the crew as they must overwinter in the frozen north including their meetings with Eskimos and bears and their struggles with disease. This is a realistic account of what life was like for the explorers of the Arctic. (summary by Esther, adapted from wikipedia)...

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Adventure, Sea stories, Historical Fiction, Nature, Teen/Young adult