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Category Archives: Seastories
Nautical Writers on Writing and the Age of Sail – Linda Collison Interviews Margaret Muir
I am a big fan of both Margaret Muir and Linda Collison. Both are marvelous writers – skilled story tellers whose writing about the Age of Sail has both an immediacy and an understated authenticity that draws the reader into … Continue reading
Posted in Current, Lore of the Sea, Seastories
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Alaric Bond’s Cut and Run – A Review
Alaric Bond’s wonderful new book, Cut and Run, the fourth in his Fighting Sail series, steps away from the Royal Navy and takes us onto the decks of a merchantman – a ship of the Honorable East India Company. The ships of … Continue reading
Posted in Newbooks, Reviews, Seastories
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Great Summer Reading – Astrodene’s Historic Naval Fiction Log Book for July
A great line-up of Summer reading from Astrodene’s Nautical Log Book for July: Newly released novels include Steven E. Maffeo’s, The Perfect Wreck – Old Ironsides and HMS Java: A Story of 1812, and Tom Grundner’s latest novel in the Sir … Continue reading
Gentleman Captain by J.D. Davies – A Review
Lord Macaulay wrote “There were gentlemen and there were seamen in the navy of Charles the Second. But the seamen were not gentlemen; and the gentlemen were not seaman.” Twenty one year old Matthew Quinton, captain of the Happy Restoration, … Continue reading
Posted in Newbooks, Reviews, Seastories
Tagged Gentlemen Captain, J D Davies, Matthew Quinton, restoration, Royal Navy
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The Fyddeye Guide to America’s Maritime History – Book Trailer
Joe Follansbee has put together a really fun book trailer for his excellent guide book to historic ships, sites and museums. We reviewed the guide last March and liked it a lot. Read our review here. The Fyddeye Guide to America’s … Continue reading
SURGEON’S MATE by Linda Collison – A Review
Patrick McPherson is a 19 year surgeon’s mate in the Royal Navy. By all appearances, he is an upstanding young man with a promising future. The dark secret that the young mate carries is that he is indeed, a she. … Continue reading
Posted in Newbooks, Reviews, Seastories
Tagged Linda Collison, Star-Crossed, Surgeon's Mate
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Interview with Linda Collison, author of Surgeon’s Mate
Linda Collison’s new book Surgeon’s Mate, the second book in the her Patricia MacPherson nautical series, was recently been released. Astrodene’s Historic Naval Fiction interviewed Linda Collison about her new book, which we are reposting with permission. We reviewed Collison’s … Continue reading
Posted in Newbooks, Seastories
Tagged Astrodene's Historic Naval Fiction, Linda Collison, Surgeon's Mate
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Khubilai Khan’s Lost Fleet
Jim Luce recently wrote an article in the Huffington Post titled, Khubilai Khan’s Lost Fleet Found in Japan. The title makes it sound like a new discovery. Not so much. The site of the “lost fleet” was discovered … Continue reading
Posted in History, Lore of the Sea, Seastories
Tagged Jim Delgado, Khubilai Khan's Lost Fleet, maritime archaeologist
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Astrodene’s Historic Naval Fiction Log Book
Astrodene’s Historic Naval Fiction Log Book, a monthly newsletter on naval and nautical fiction and non-fiction is out for April. Books due for release this month are the novels, The Mountain of Gold by J. D. Davies, and Honor Bound by Robert … Continue reading
The Shipwreck Behind Crane’s “The Open Boat”
None of them knew the color of the sky. Their eyes glanced level, and were fastened upon the waves that swept toward them. These waves were of the hue of slate, save for the tops, which were of foaming white, … Continue reading
Posted in Lore of the Sea, Seastories
Tagged Florida, Ponce Inlet, Professor Paul Sorrentino, SS Commodore, Stephen Crane, The Open Boat
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eNotated Edition of Joshua Slocum’s Sailing Alone Around the World – A Review
I was recently sent The eNotated Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum. Enotation is electronic annotation, where instead of footnotes or endnotes, there are embedded links in the text of an e-book. A book like Slocum’s which contains … Continue reading
Posted in Critiques, Reviews, Seastories
Tagged eNotated edition, Joshua Slocum, Sailing Alone Around the World
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The Fyddeye Guide to America’s Maritime History edited by Joe Follansbee, on Kindle – A Dual Review
I recently purchased Joe Follansbee’s The Fyddeye Guide to America’s Maritime History – 2,000+ Tall Ships, Lighthouses, Historic Ships, Maritime Museums, and More. Rather than purchasing a dead-tree version, I bought the guide as an e-book for Kindle. This is, … Continue reading
Posted in Lore of the Sea, Newbooks, Reviews, Seastories
Tagged Fyddeye Guide, Joe Follansbee
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The Marine Quarterly – A Journal of the Sea
The Maritime Quarterly, a new maritime journal, was launched on the first of this month. Looks very interesting. Extracts are available on its website. About the journal: The Marine Quarterly is a new kind of sea journal, reporting subjects of strong interest to everyone … Continue reading
Fire on the Horizon: The Untold Story of the Gulf Oil Disaster by John Konrad and Tom Shroder
When the Deepwater Horizon suffered a blowout, caught fire and sank in the Gulf of Mexico last April, it was only forty miles off the coast of Louisiana. Yet, in many respects, the world aboard the ill-fated rig was as … Continue reading
Posted in Newbooks, Reviews, Seastories
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On Jules Verne’s Birthday – A Look at the Submarines named Nautilus
On this the 183th anniversary of the birth of Jules Verne, it seems worthwhile to look at the submarines named Nautilus. Click on any of the thumbnails for a larger image.
Before IMAX, there was Windjammer in “Cinemiracle”
In 1958, the New York Times published a review of Louis de Rochemont’s new movie “Windjammer.” It began: “Every last moviegoer with a drop of salt water in his blood will want to swing aboard “Windjammer,” which opened at the … Continue reading
Posted in Current, Lore of the Sea, Seastories
Tagged Christian Radich, Cinemiracle, Cinerama, Louis de Rochemont, Windjammer
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Choice of Broadsides – Kindle Text Game, a Review
Before video games and personal computers, there were gamebooks. They were novels where at critical scenes you as the reader were given a series a choices. “A troll comes out of the cave carrying a large club. You will … Continue reading
Posted in Games, Lore of the Sea
Tagged Choice of Broadsides, Georgian Naval fiction, Kindle
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Joan Druett’s Tupaia – Captain Cook’s Polynesian Navigator : A Review
Joan Druett’s new book, Tupaia – Captain Cook’s Polynesian Navigator, fills an important blank space in the history, as well as the legend, of Captain Cook. On his first voyage to the Pacific in HMS Endeavour, during a stop in … Continue reading
Posted in Newbooks, Reviews, Seastories
Tagged HMS Endeavour, Joan Druett, Maoris, New Zealand, Tahiti, Tupaia – Captain Cook's Polynesian Navigator
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Cockleshell Heroes – The Final Witness, a new book by Quentin Rees
On the night of December 7,1942 ten British commandos set off in five wood and canvas canoes from a British submarine in the Bay of Biscay off the coast of occupied France. Their intent was to paddle 75 miles up the Gironde estuary and attack … Continue reading
Posted in History, Newbooks, Seastories
Tagged Bordeaux, British commandos, Cockleshell Heroes, Gironde estuary, Quentin Rees, Second World War
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