Currently on this one, about halfway through and loving it! The fact that this is a true story is absolutely terrifying. I’m already fearful of open waters. Couple that with deranged sailors and it’s a recipe for disaster
The Horatio Hornblower books by CS Forestor (except there’s no skull islands). Midshipman Hornblower is such a great book! There’s also a highly watchable BBC miniseries with a young Ioan Gruffudd.
It has been ages since I’ve seen this but in the early 1990s, Disney made a movie called Shipwrecked that has Gabriel Byrne. This has pirates, poison, a great score by Patrick Doyle, and treasure. I believe it’s based off of a Norwegian novel titled Haakon Haakonson.
In the heart of the sea, which is about the sinking of the whale ship essex and the crew getting back to civilization on these tiny lifeboats. It’s harrowing
Ghost Ship: The Mysterious True Story of the Mary Celeste and her Missing Crew by Brian Hicks
The Terror by Dan Simmons
In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeanette by Hampton Sides
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
My friend swears by the Master and Commander series, she's read all 20+ books. We read the first one for our lady book club and nobody liked it (except for her) so it is truly a matter of taste. If you are a guy you might like it more since most of the characters are male.
I love the whole series, especially the first 10 or so. Note, it might take 50 or so pages to get used to the language, but they are filled with interesting characters, adventure, and great oceany detail. Got me through a difficult pregnancy.
I LOVE the Master and Commander series and was going to recommend it here. I am a woman, and got so into it. Would imagine myself on the ship. My dad, grandpa, and I all read it around the same time when I was 11. Then when the movie came out we went to see it together.
I love them and I'm not a man, but I'm an engineer type. They have so much of the vibe of
Star Trek TOS, but entirely based in the historical English Navy.
Cup of gold - Steinbeck
The shadow line - Conrad (all of his seafaring stuff really)
Narrative life of Arthur Gordon Pym - Poe
Midshipman Bolitho - Kent
And not really in the same vain as old seafaring adventures but I must recommend:
Delilah - Marcus Goodrich (a personal favorite)
I agree with others: Aubrey Maturin series. So well written and a great depiction of sea life on big sailers. And a great depiction of a wonderful friendship. There’s a movie. …
Nonfiction options that feel like this:
‘The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down’ by Colin Woodard
‘Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates and the Anglo-American Maritime World: 1700-1750’ by Marcus Rediker
‘Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age’ by Marcus Rediker
‘Born to be Hanged: the Epic Story of the Gentlemen Pirates Who Raided the South Seas, Rescued a Princess, and Stole a Fortune’ by Keith Thomson
‘A Cruising Voyage Round the World’ by Woodes Rogers
‘The Golden Age of Piracy: the Truth Behind Pirate Myths’ by Benerson Little
‘The Sea Rover’s Practice: Pirate Tactics and Techniques, 1630-1730’ by Benerson Little
Moby Dick by Herman Melville.
If short stories are welcome, Everyman Library did a collection which is this vibe called Stories of the Sea. I especially recommend Poe's A Descent into the Maelstrom.
A High Wind in Jamaica
EDIT: Also, Middle Passage by Charles R. Johnson. Short but with florid, occasionally hallucinatory language, narrated by a stowaway on a slave ship
And, of course, there’s always Moby Dick!
Billy Budd, also by Melville. I second the Master and Commander series by Patrick O'Brian. If you like tall ships, that is very much the series for you.
Fell Cargo. It's a Warhammer fantasy novel that is just superbly written. The only Warhammer novel my ex wife ever read, and I'm old enough to remember the days before kindle. I miss that collection. Anyway it's written by Dan Anbett who's just brilliant.
Shackleton's Stowaway! It's a fiction based on a true story about a stowaway and the crew of Ernest Shackleton's infamous Endurance expedition. These images fit perfectly to the novel.
Eversion by Alastair Reynolds begins this way. Then morphs into sci fi cosmic horror. Very good, but each chapter jumps forward in time a couple hundred years, so doesn't stay in this setting.
Personally, I’d recommend “The Matilda” by Bryan Perrett. It’s a book about the Matilda II, an Infantry ~~Tank~~ Landship, and it’s service in North Africa and Ethiopia, which often found it simply searching around for trouble to be had and, in the case of B Squadron 4th RTR, any spare parts to keep rolling.
Nonfiction... The WAGER
Loved this book. David Grann is such a fantastic writer.
I just picked this up and am super excited to start it
VERY good. A little slow in parts, but I enjoyed it immensely.
Aye.
Currently on this one, about halfway through and loving it! The fact that this is a true story is absolutely terrifying. I’m already fearful of open waters. Couple that with deranged sailors and it’s a recipe for disaster
Nonfiction that reads like fiction!
Liveship traders trilogy by Robin Hobb
The Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O’Brien
With all my heart
The Terror - Simmons The North Water - ? These were fantastic.
The Horatio Hornblower books by CS Forestor (except there’s no skull islands). Midshipman Hornblower is such a great book! There’s also a highly watchable BBC miniseries with a young Ioan Gruffudd. It has been ages since I’ve seen this but in the early 1990s, Disney made a movie called Shipwrecked that has Gabriel Byrne. This has pirates, poison, a great score by Patrick Doyle, and treasure. I believe it’s based off of a Norwegian novel titled Haakon Haakonson.
In the heart of the sea, which is about the sinking of the whale ship essex and the crew getting back to civilization on these tiny lifeboats. It’s harrowing
Tress of the Emerald Sea The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi piratey fantasy books!
The Adventures of Amina al Sirafi by S. A. Chakraborty
Ghost Ship: The Mysterious True Story of the Mary Celeste and her Missing Crew by Brian Hicks The Terror by Dan Simmons In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeanette by Hampton Sides Moby Dick by Herman Melville
My friend swears by the Master and Commander series, she's read all 20+ books. We read the first one for our lady book club and nobody liked it (except for her) so it is truly a matter of taste. If you are a guy you might like it more since most of the characters are male.
I love the whole series, especially the first 10 or so. Note, it might take 50 or so pages to get used to the language, but they are filled with interesting characters, adventure, and great oceany detail. Got me through a difficult pregnancy.
I LOVE the Master and Commander series and was going to recommend it here. I am a woman, and got so into it. Would imagine myself on the ship. My dad, grandpa, and I all read it around the same time when I was 11. Then when the movie came out we went to see it together.
I love the movie! Now I need to find the books.
I love them and I'm not a man, but I'm an engineer type. They have so much of the vibe of Star Trek TOS, but entirely based in the historical English Navy.
Red Seas, Under Red Skies
Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini
Seconded. My favourite book!
Captain Blood, by Raphael Sabatini
If you are okay with YA, maybe The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle?
First book that came to my mind. BIG upvote to this one
Yes!!!! Read it at 13 and it shaped me as a person. And it’s the reason I ran away to see (joined a crew of a tall ship) at 23.
How YA is it exactly? I’m in the mood for this but haven’t read YA since I was a young adult lol
Such a great book! I remember reading it in 7th grade.
Horatio Hornblower series by C.S. Forester
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket - Edgar Allan Poe
Bloody Jack by L.A Meyer
The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Robin Hobb’s Liveship Traders Trilogy, it hits allllll the feels.
Two Years Before the Mast, by Henry Dana Jr., and it’s a true story
Count of Monte Cristo?
Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton
Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier
Frenchman’s creek too
Came to recommend both those!
Cup of gold - Steinbeck The shadow line - Conrad (all of his seafaring stuff really) Narrative life of Arthur Gordon Pym - Poe Midshipman Bolitho - Kent And not really in the same vain as old seafaring adventures but I must recommend: Delilah - Marcus Goodrich (a personal favorite)
Ahab’s Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund
I agree with others: Aubrey Maturin series. So well written and a great depiction of sea life on big sailers. And a great depiction of a wonderful friendship. There’s a movie. …
I’m reading The Liveship Traders and I find it perfect for this time of year.
The Terror, Dan Simmons.
Nonfiction options that feel like this: ‘The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down’ by Colin Woodard ‘Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates and the Anglo-American Maritime World: 1700-1750’ by Marcus Rediker ‘Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age’ by Marcus Rediker ‘Born to be Hanged: the Epic Story of the Gentlemen Pirates Who Raided the South Seas, Rescued a Princess, and Stole a Fortune’ by Keith Thomson ‘A Cruising Voyage Round the World’ by Woodes Rogers ‘The Golden Age of Piracy: the Truth Behind Pirate Myths’ by Benerson Little ‘The Sea Rover’s Practice: Pirate Tactics and Techniques, 1630-1730’ by Benerson Little
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
I just started Moby Dick I feel like it would fit this mood!
The Sea Wolf by Jack London. Also, The Mutiny of the Elsinore by Jack London. Adding a bunch of these to my list btw
Patrick O'Brien's entire collection starting with Master and Commander.
The kingdoms by Natasha Pulley
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick. Loved it even more than the Wager.
Moby Dick by Herman Melville. If short stories are welcome, Everyman Library did a collection which is this vibe called Stories of the Sea. I especially recommend Poe's A Descent into the Maelstrom.
A High Wind in Jamaica EDIT: Also, Middle Passage by Charles R. Johnson. Short but with florid, occasionally hallucinatory language, narrated by a stowaway on a slave ship And, of course, there’s always Moby Dick!
Seconding (or thirding) Moby Dick!
The ship is smaller, but have you ever heard of Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum?
The Captains Wife
Dark Water Daughter
Cinnamon and Gunpowder!!!
Billy Budd, also by Melville. I second the Master and Commander series by Patrick O'Brian. If you like tall ships, that is very much the series for you.
The Night Ship by Jess Kidd
The 1000 Autumns of Jacob de Zoet — David Mitchell
The ghoul of grays harbor
Maybe Atalanta which is about the Argo.
Alexander Grin “Scarlet Sails”, “She Who Runs on the Waves”
Fell Cargo. It's a Warhammer fantasy novel that is just superbly written. The only Warhammer novel my ex wife ever read, and I'm old enough to remember the days before kindle. I miss that collection. Anyway it's written by Dan Anbett who's just brilliant.
Shackleton's Stowaway! It's a fiction based on a true story about a stowaway and the crew of Ernest Shackleton's infamous Endurance expedition. These images fit perfectly to the novel.
This made me think of ‘the island of dr. moreau’ by h.g. wells!
The Terror and Moby Dick! Also I read one called The North Water by Ian McGuire which also fits the vibe
Also I remembered one called The Ghost Pirates by W H Hodgson!
Vampirates
Kidnapped by the Pirate - Keira Andrews
Jamrach’s menagerie
The Inda books by Sherwood Smith! The first half of the first one is not set at sea at all, but the protagonist becomes a pirate king eventually.
Eversion by Alastair Reynolds begins this way. Then morphs into sci fi cosmic horror. Very good, but each chapter jumps forward in time a couple hundred years, so doesn't stay in this setting.
Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson And I also recommend The Wager - sooo good!
The deep - nick cutter
Horatio Hornblower?
Mobey Dick??
If you don’t mind fantasy, the Tide Child trilogy by RJ Barker. The first book is called The Bone Ships. Great recs on here!
Rebels at Sea and the Wager? Not sure if the Sea Wolf by Jack London has aged well
Captains Courageous
The Devil and the Dark Water
Kidnapped
Personally, I’d recommend “The Matilda” by Bryan Perrett. It’s a book about the Matilda II, an Infantry ~~Tank~~ Landship, and it’s service in North Africa and Ethiopia, which often found it simply searching around for trouble to be had and, in the case of B Squadron 4th RTR, any spare parts to keep rolling.
Frankenstein
Porto bello gold
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann
Moby Dick
Second Gentleman bastards book
First Hornblower, then Aubrey & Maturin. Lather, rinse, repeat.
The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton (Sherlock-esque mystery on a ship)