Today is C.S. Forester’s birthday. (Thanks to Margaret Muir, who pointed it our on Facebook. Otherwise, I would have missed it.) Cecil Louis Troughton Smith, who wrote under the pen name of Cecil Scott “C.S.” Forester was born on August 27, 1899. … Continue reading
Category Archives: Seastories
I am pleased to announce that my novel, Hell Around the Horn, is now available on Amazon around the world. The print edition will be out shortly. About the novel: In 1905, a young ship’s captain and his family set … Continue reading
Barbados Bound, the first book of the Linda Collison’s Patricia MacPherson Nautical Adventure Series has been published by Fireship Press. First published as Star-Crossed in 2006 by Alfred A. Knopf, the New York Public Library chose Star-Crossed to be among … Continue reading
Many of the classics of nautical literature are stories of young men who set off to sea, often compelled, in equal parts, by necessity and a longing for adventure. Joan Druett’s “A Love of Adventure” is just such a tale, … Continue reading
Congratulations to Joan Druett! Her recent book, Tupaia – The Remarkable Story of Captain Cook’s Polynesian Navigator, was general non-fiction winner in the 2012 New Zealand Post Book Awards. See our review of Tupaia – The Remarkable Story of Captain … Continue reading
Not quite too sure what to make of this. Of all sports, beachcombing seems like one of the safest. Apparently, a woman, beachcombing with her family on a San Clemente Beach in Southern California, pocketed a few rocks which may have contained … Continue reading
We recently posted about an upcoming event at Mystic Seaport Museum honoring the bicentenial of the War of 1812 which features the privateer schooner Lynx. We also posted about an on-line documentary, the Privateer Lynx. While we are focussing on on the … Continue reading
After 18 months in dry dock and 15,500 volunteer hours of labor, a wholly rebuilt Hōkūle‘a, a Hawaiian voyaging canoe, was launched last week at Sand Island, Oahu, 37 years to the day after she was first launched. Following sea trials and outfitting, she … Continue reading
This is not really a nautical story, which is why it is amusing. The Billings Gazette reports that “the Wyoming House of Representatives on Monday advanced legislation to launch a study into what Wyoming should do in the event of … Continue reading
Margaret Muir’s novel, Floating Gold, was recently released in paperback. A great read, we never though that it got the attention that it deserved. Here is a repost of our review from May of 2010: Margaret Muir’s new novel, Floating Gold, is … Continue reading
Linda Collison, author of Surgeon’s Mate and Star-Crossed, recently reviewed Steven E. Maffeo‘s new book The Perfect Wreck – Old Ironsides and HMS Java: A Story of 1812 in her blog Sea of Words. I enjoy reading Linda’s reviews almost as much … Continue reading
In the United States, we have seen an explosion of so-called “reality TV,” which is usually more akin to unscripted soap opera than reality, fortunately. In Canada, however, the CBC has some wonderful programming which is reality television in … Continue reading
On Facebook this morning, Maritime Great Britain linked to a post on THE DEAR SURPRISE blog, discussing a post by Marion Elizabeth Diamond on the Historians are Past Caring blog, which raised the question, “Was this the real Stephen Maturin?” Ms. Diamond answers … Continue reading
Last month we posted about Kick’em Jenny, an active underwater volcano off Grenada in the Caribbean, which was last active in 2001. Now the eruption of an active underwater volcano off El Hierro Island, in the Canary Islands off the … Continue reading
I can’t decide whether I love or hate John Masefield‘s poem Sea Fever. I lean strongly towards love, though the poem has been repeated so many times and in so many places, that it is hard not to groan every time it … Continue reading
The Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway, located on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, must be a pretty amazing place. In July of 2010, we reviewed Schooner – Building a Wooden Boat on Martha’s Vineyard, which was about building a schooner … Continue reading
Over the next several weeks, we will be reviewing a series of books about what life was like in Nelson’s navy. The first is Jack Tar: Life in Nelson’s Navy by Roy & Leslie Adkins, subtitled “the extraordinary lives of ordinary seamen … Continue reading
For the sake of full disclosure, I am not a huge fans of thrillers, particularly thrillers involving ships. The plots often strike me as implausible and the descriptions of the ships and ship operations often border on the laughable. (Too … Continue reading
Today, we have three posts about dolphins and humans interacting. I went to high school on the Gulf Coast of Florida, which has some of the largest bottlenose dolphin populations in the world. When I am in Florida visiting family, I … Continue reading
I have really enjoyed Linda Collison‘s two books in her Patricia MacPherson nautical adventure series. (See our reviews of Star-Crossed and Surgeon’s Mate.) She is also an excellent interviewer. Here she interviews another favorite nautical writer and frequent contributor to this blog, Alaric Bond. (See also Linda’s … Continue reading