Boat books, fiction

[Salish Nomad]

Oops, my mistake. In a previous post I mentioned Julian STOCKWELL....should have been STOCKWIN. If you like O'Brian, Stockwin is as good, in my opinion. He writes the Kydd series.

 

[AlaskaProf]

So much to choose from, but I think my favorite in the books and the movie too is when Dr. Maturin trepans the gunner, or as the crew tells it, "roused out 'is brains 'n' put 'em back. A right physician, 'e is".

 

[Jetstream]

No list of maritime books would be complete without him. THE GREY SEAS UNDER, one of the very best. The Boat That Wouldn't Float?

x 2. Greys Seas Under is a great read. If you like WW2 naval fiction J E Macdonnell wrote almost 200 great little novels. I have most of them.

 

[siestakey]

Ok guys I know I said I would start Aubrey–Maturin series after I finish all the C Cussler but I think I am going to have to start sooner

 

[BaltimoreLurker]

Yeah, that was a nail biter. What is most amazing is that O’Brian took almost all of his naval actions from the pages of the Royal Navy’s own logs.

I think he may have picked up some some Alfred T. Mahan too. In the "The Influence of Sea Power Upon History", the part dealing with French Admiral Suffren's Indian Ocean campaign read almost like O'Brian's work. Or, maybe it too was straight out of the logs.

Over the years I've read the entire series 3x and listened to it on Books-On-Tape while commuting.

 

[AlaskaProf]

Actually a lot of it is thinly-altered history, much of it modeled on the improbable life of Thomas Cochrane, who was also the model for Forester's Hornblower.

 

[AlaskaProf]

While I recognize this is a conversation about books, I want to put in a plug for the movie too. Master and Commander is remarkably faithful not only to O'B's writing, but it has a microscopic attention to detail. To cite one example: there's a scene when the ship is beating to weather, attempting to round The Horn and the camera is low on the port bow as the frigate pounds by in snow, fog and spray and there's a guy barely visible, sitting on the "head" ...with his trousers around his ankles! Truly one of those: "STOP, rewind" moments.

There's a scene when Aubrey is hosting his officers and one of the midshipmen asks him to tell about the Nile...and I realize that Aubrey and the First are both wearing the Nile Medal. Not only that, but Aubrey's is silver and Pullings' is pewter, reflecting their ranks at the battle.

I always think that kind of unnecessary touch, and there are many were done just for the very small audience made up of people like me...and you, of course

 

[Lady soft]

Everything written by Tristan Jones, is worth reading, if you love the blue.

 

[AlaskaProf]

Everything written by Tristan Jones, is worth reading, if you love the blue.

Speaking of fiction...

 

[Lady soft]

Oh, sorry. But I think both Tristan, and my stories, would be boring, without some fiction, here and there. ?

 

[AlaskaProf]

Free

Oh, sorry. But I think both Tristan, and my stories, would be boring, without some fiction, here and there. ��

Well said.

Unfortunately, I'm a member of the substantial cohort who believed every word and later had to acknowledge that rather than a great mariner, he was a pretty good storyteller.

His two best "memoirs", Incredible Voyage and Heart of Oak were complete fictions.

 

[Brooksie]

Grey Seas Under Farley Mowat

 

[ljk]

Second Ed Robinson and his "Breeze" series.

 

[Shrew]

There's a scene when Aubrey is hosting his officers and one of the midshipmen asks him to tell about the Nile...and I realize that Aubrey and the First are both wearing the Nile Medal. Not only that, but Aubrey's is silver and Pullings' is pewter, reflecting their ranks at the battle.

http://wiki.hmssurprise.org/phase3/index.php/Nile_Medal

Gold: Were presented to Nelson and his Captains
Silver: Lieutenants and Warrant Officers
Gilt Bronze: Petty officers
Copper: Royal Marines and seamen.

Tom Pullings was a 1st Lieutenant. That would have been Silver (possibly slightly tarnished). So if they made a Silver medal look slight tarnished, that truly would have been an amazing attention to detail. I doubt officers on active duty were polishing their medals while underway.

 

[BaltimoreLurker]

My memorial to POB. This is on the wall in my home gym. Ignore the window reflections.

 

[AlaskaProf]

http://wiki.hmssurprise.org/phase3/index.php/Nile_Medal

Gold: Were presented to Nelson and his Captains
Silver: Lieutenants and Warrant Officers
Gilt Bronze: Petty officers
Copper: Royal Marines and seamen.

Tom Pullings was a 1st Lieutenant. That would have been Silver (possibly slightly tarnished). So if they made a Silver medal look slight tarnished, that truly would have been an amazing attention to detail. I doubt officers on active duty were polishing their medals while underway.

When they were with Nelson at the Nile, Aubrey was a lieutenant and Pullings was a mid, as I recall, Aubrey calls him a "puling midshipman".

Where I got the dea that pewter medals were awarded is forgotten; ill have to do some more reading.

 

[AlaskaProf]

My memorial to POB. This is on the wall in my home gym. Ignore the window reflections.

Good on you. I have a large print of Geoff Hunt's cover of The Hundred Days.

 

[dhays]

Good on you. I have a large print of Geoff Hunt's cover of The Hundred Days.

Hunts cover art is just fantastic.

 

[Skyking]

Boat Books

For a change of pace you might consider the Jake Grafton series of books by Stephen Coonts. His first book (I believe) was Flight of the Intruder about A6 operations during Vietnam. Good look at the "Brown Shoe" navy (for those of us who served in that era; before we all had to wear "Black Shoes" and "water wings" became a thing.

 

[AlaskaProf]

I agree re: Intruder, dont know others.

 

[78puget-trawler]

Just ordered the 2 new Breeze books, 9 and 10. Didn't know he had them out. Also giving the local guy mentioned here a try, Red Herring by Clyde Ford.

 

[henryj2]

In a lighter vein, don't forget John D. McDonald's Travis McGee series, still pretty good yarns.
Jim H.

 

[78puget-trawler]

As a kid I loved the sea stories by Howard Pease. Juvenile reading but some of it was really good, and the period, mostly pre WWII was interesting. Tramp steamer stories with a few recurring characters, in particular Tod Moran and Capt Tom Jarvis, AKA, The Tattooed Man. Still have the nearly complete collection of his writings. Anyone else ever read them?

 

[dannc]

I would recommend Clyde Ford, author of several crime novels that take place in the San Juan Islands. The main character lives aboard a Willard 36 aft cabin trawler in Bellingham, Washington. Clyde's first book is "The Red Herring", followed by "Precious Cargo". These are fun reads...only wish he's continued writing the series.

I did not know Clyde had stopped writing the series. Seemed like a danged good idea for a long series. We met him at Trawlerfest a few years back and spent some time with him on a boat. Interesting guy.

Later,
Dan

 

[Salish Nomad]

As a kid I loved the sea stories by Howard Pease. Juvenile reading but some of it was really good, and the period, mostly pre WWII was interesting. Tramp steamer stories with a few recurring characters, in particular Tod Moran and Capt Tom Jarvis, AKA, The Tattooed Man. Still have the nearly complete collection of his writings. Anyone else ever read them?

My favorite as a youth, and still very readable as an adult. I have passed them on to my grandchildren.

 

[ChristineKling]

There have been some great suggestions here, and a few I've not heard of. Thanks for this great thread.

I write nautical thrillers under the name Christine Kling that some of you may find entertaining. The first series is about a woman who has a tug and salvage business in Fort Lauderdale. Her tug is a one-off 40-foot bare aluminum boat with a dry exhaust - based on the little tug HERO that still works Lauderdale's New River. The second series, called the Shipwreck Adventures, is about a solo sailor and a maritime archeologist who are searching for WWII shipwrecks (all based on real missing ships from that era).

But, of course, I write these books because they are what I like to read. One recent book that hooked me was Close Reach by Jonathan Moore. It takes place off Antarctica and Patagonia and gets pretty violent, but the sailing scenes are very well done. Also, a UK guy named Sam Llewellyn has written some great sailing thrillers. And Paul Garrison, who is also a co-writer for Clive Cussler, has written some fine sailing novels under his own name. And then if you like books about ships, you can't go wrong with Hammond Innes.

 

[Sugardog]

Hammond Innes.

 

[alormaria2]

In a lighter vein, don't forget John D. McDonald's Travis McGee series, still pretty good yarns.

Jim H.

Love those Travis McGee books. It's been a while. I think I'll revisit them.

 

[Fletcher500]

Jack London, Sea Wolf. All of his books are excellent.

 

[Blissboat]

As a kid I loved the sea stories by Howard Pease. Juvenile reading but some of it was really good, and the period, mostly pre WWII was interesting. Tramp steamer stories with a few recurring characters, in particular Tod Moran and Capt Tom Jarvis, AKA, The Tattooed Man. Still have the nearly complete collection of his writings. Anyone else ever read them?

Good call! The Howard Pease collection was mightily inspiring to me, a midwestern boy. Read everything in my local library, at least twice! Seem to recall one titled "Wind in the Rigging."