Best Nautical Books for the Merchant Mariner

[Capt. Nemo]

WOW!

I just finished it, and what a read. If you want to digest something heart-rending and familiar, pick it up. It's an epic.

It will make you reconsider your definition of what "a bad day" is. Although it is a novel, I suspect it's pretty representative of how it really was.

If you like to read, it's a good'un.

Nemo

[Sharp21]

One of my favorites is Desperate Journeys, Abandoned Souls by Edward E. Leslie.
True stories of castaways, marooned sailors, shipwrecks & being lost at sea.
Some would argue that it may not be the best reading while you are actually OUT at sea, but if you are prepared for the worst then you should be ready for anything.
And these guys went through the worst...
S.

[Capt. Fran]

One of my favorites is Desperate Journeys, Abandoned Souls by Edward E. Leslie.
True stories of castaways, marooned sailors, shipwrecks & being lost at sea.
Some would argue that it may not be the best reading while you are actually OUT at sea, but if you are prepared for the worst then you should be ready for anything.
And these guys went through the worst...
S.

I forgot about that collection of stories. Totally agree that it is an amazing read!

[captobie]

I now have a new favorite book. The Sand Pebbles, by Richard McKenna. Amazing book. The writing is outstanding, and the story is compelling. McKenna really brings the experience of the Yangtze Patrol to life. It doesn't hurt to picture Steve McQueen as Jake Holman, either.

[cmakin]

McKenna wrote some other books/stories about the Navy in Asia. Look for Sons of Marth and Left Handed Monkey Wrench.

[NAUTICART]

FIRST POST ... Been watching from Twitter for a few days, And I am surprised I haven't seen anybody mention Clive Cussler. I enjoy reading his maritime adventure yarns. I've lost many an hour of precious off watch time reading the adventures of his characters Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino.

I just picked up 3 of of Cusslers' books at a garage sale this morning.
Sacred Stone , Plague Ship , and Corsair. The books are like new ( $1 each ) thats gotta be worth it. Don't know which one to start with, Ah well.

Hey John, How do I mail you / gCapatin the 15 cents ?

[PMC]

I have a huge nautical book collection. One day I was looking through the nautical book collection at a used book store near where Kenneth Dodson (Away All Boats (Classics of Naval Literature)
) had lived. He had passed away and all of his personal nautical books were there. Many were advance copies from other authors. I picked up a lot of them including his copy of "Bowditch, The American Practical Navigator:
"

[weski]

Bumping this up as I was looking for ideas for Christmas presents. Also thinking about the new Kindle vs. Barnes & Noble Nook. Saw Kindle has cool international capabilities - has anyone tried it yet?

[yakka]

This is a great forum topic. Thanks for all of the reading suggestions. A great book for Shackelton fans is "Shackleton's forgotten argonauts
( in the US it may have been titled Forgotten Men" by Leonard Bickel.
Another one of my favourites is " Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentlemen Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail
" by Stephen R Brown.
Of course all of the Francis Chitchester books are a great read.

[kyle in norcal]

im suprised that no one has mentioned Supership
by Noel Mostert yet. The author tagged along for a trip aboard the British tanker Ardshiel in 1973.

pretty good read.

kyle

[Kennebec Captain]

The Death Ship was mentioned earlier in the thread, it's a great book.

[captfish]

Thanks for the great thread...so many good titles out there all ready- here are a few more I didn't see:

A Voyage for Madmen by Peter Nichols, first-hand account of the first race to circumnavigate the gloge singlehandedly.

ANYTHING by Bernard Moitessier...my favorites being The Long Way which is a story about the same race mentioned above, and Tamata and the Alliance which is his facinating autobiography.

Around Alone by Emma Richards, another great first-hand circumnavigation story.

Kon Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl, a true story about floating from Peru to Polynesia in a balsa-wood raft in the 50s...a must read for any mariner.

North to the Night: a Spiritual Oddsey in the Artic by Alva Simon: I could not put this book down. Amazing true story of sailing his little steel sloop up to the Canadian Arctic, and then staying frozen in the ice for the winter...alone. One of my all-time favorites!

Looking for a Ship by John McPhee, a fictional accout of the decline of the US Merchant Marine.

Red Sky in Mourning by Tami Oldha Ashcraft, her first-hand account of a terrible disaster encountered while attempting to cross the pacific. Don't read this one alone.

I'm sure there are other's I am forgetting on the shelf at home. I know it has all ready been mentioned before, but Gray Seas Under is a must read for any tug boaters out there, and also one of my favorites. Really makes me feel wimpy when I read about what those guys were going through. Boat who wouldn't float is another great read by Farley Mowat, not sure if it was mentioned before.

Enjoy

[sea star]

I've always been fond of the oxford companion to ships and the sea, it never fails as a source to stump most folks with historical events or the origin of terms....pretty fun to engage shipmates in useless trivia of the day challenges. When the monotony sets in it'll bring a chuckle from time to time, and once in a while you might actually glean something useful from that old book......like many others I am a pretty big fan of old Joey Conrad.....Then there's always Robert Raurke, if the old man and the boy doesn't make you cry once you have no soul. Raurkes African big game adventures spawn interest in that safari I can't afford, but a good escape if that's what you're hunting.
Then again there are those times when despite the fact that I am quite happy to be out there it's nice delve in a light collection of short stories....Pat McManus is a gas. How I got this way and they shoot canoes , don't they are two of my favorites.......but what the hell do I know, I can barley read.
A!

[jdcavo]

...Looking for a Ship by John McPhee, a fictional accout of the decline of the US Merchant Marine...

Shgould someone tell Andy Chase at Maine Maritime that he's fictitious?

[LOSTinFOURCHON]

In The Heart of the Sea Couldnt put it down. I was thinkin bout gettin a kindle but so far most of the books mentioned in this thread arent available. Maybe amazon doesnt realize that mariners can read?

[CaptAndrew]

Maybe amazon doesn't realize that mariners can read?

After the short time I spent in the Gulf I tend to agree. They spent the whole time in front of movies.

As for personal reading, I am currently working my way through James Nelson's books. Jim was a sailor before becoming an author.

[Tim]

I really enjoyed A Voyage for MADMEN by Peter Nichols.

I don't think I have ever read a book so quickly. You just can put it down!

[OneEighteen]

Some books not mentioned in the excellent suggestions above:
- Anything by Frederick Marryat. He was an English naval officer in the early 1800's. If I remember right he was a midshipman at Trafalgar and served with Lord Cochrane who some say was the inspiration for Hornblower and Aubrey. Excellent books written by someone who was there.

- Masefield's "Bird of Dawning". Clipper ship story.

- Francis Chichester's "Along the Clipper Way", a collection of stories from other authors.

- Samuel Elliot Morrison's "European Discovery of America".

- George MacDonald Fraser "The Pyrates" (he's most famous for a comic series of books about Harry Flashman, a Victorian soldier).

[Navigator2]

"Blue Latitudes" by Tony Horwitz - Boldly going where Capt. Cook has gone before, recounting Cooks voyages of discovery & then revisiting the people & places 200 yrs later. Part Cook biography, part travelogue & very much a stroke of genius!

[seadog6608]

Anything by Joseph Conrad, "Lord Jim","The Secret Sharer". That George MacDonald Frazer book is great too. The Patrick O'Brien books about Jack Aubrey and Steven Mathurin are my favorites though.

[Diesel]

I vote for:

"The Cruel Sea " by Nicholas Monsarrat

A thoroughly realistic and gripping account of the Battle of the Atlantic told from the perspective of the men who manned the escorts. The 1953 movie "The Cruel Sea" with Jack Hawkins as the commander of the corvette is a nautical film classic.

I'll come up with my list of other notable naval fiction and add it to the list soon.

By chance I just read that...awesome read.

[Mikey]

Just came across this book on Amazon. It's titled "Looking for a Ship" by John McPhee. Has anyone read it?

http://www.amazon.com/review/R34V6I0...R34V6I0VC21N1P

[Ordinaryseaman]

"The last Time Around Cape Horn" The historic 1949 voyage of the Windjammer Pamir By William F Stark

My chief mate on the Ocean Phoenix bought me a copy of this- and a "Rules of the Road" so I'd have something to read while we were in port. Thanks Tom

Great book- from the perspective of an OS.

Anyone who thinks working on deck is tough- read this. There sailors were a breed apart... scurrying up masts in hurricanes, working without electricity, sleeping in unheated and often wet quarters- pretty amazing stuff

[10talents]

Just came across this book on Amazon. It's titled "Looking for a Ship" by John McPhee. Has anyone read it?

http://www.amazon.com/review/R34V6I0...R34V6I0VC21N1P

Captfish and others have mentioned it on this thread as a good read.

[RkyMtn Paul]

Here are a few that I haven't seen:
Empire of Blue Water: Captain Morgan's Great Pirate Army, the Epic Battle for the Americas, and the Catastrophe That Ended the Outlaws' Bloody Reign by Stephan Talty yes, the rum is named after him
Flying Cloud: The True Story of America's Most Famous Clipper Ship and the Woman Who Guided Her by David W. Shaw 1851 speed record from NY to SF, navigator was cap't wife
Tracks in the Sea : Matthew Fontaine Maury and the Mapping of the Oceans by Chester G. Hearn invented mapping of the oceans with wind and sea currents, the very little known story and reason for weather reports
Racing Through Paradise: A Pacific Passage and Atlantic High: A Celebration by William F. Buckley

Louis L'amour has some good short stories that I run into here and there.

Knotship, my first SIU ship was the Sealift Pacific, out of Houston 1991. 30 days, 3 engine room fires, general alarm worked once. Also sailed SL Atlantic out of Portland shipyard. We had 4 paintbrushes!! Sailed 21 days, needed 20 to upgrade to 'B' seniority.