"1789 April: Just before sun-rising, Mr. Christian, with the master at
arms, gunner's mate, and Thomas Burket, seaman, came into my cabin while
I was asleep, and seizing me, tied my hands with a cord behind my back
and threatened me with instant death if I spoke or made the least
noise."
So began William Bligh's explanation of the infamous mutiny aboard the
Bounty. His account of his capture and his phenomenal navigation of a
small boat filled with men desperate to survive is one of the greatest
sailing stories ever told.
It is just one account readers will find in Astounding Sea
Stories--many that have been sitting unread for decades. Some are from
master writers whose deserved fame rests on works and characters who
lived far from the sea. Here are sea stories from Jack London, his first
published work, written miles from the frozen north that he loved and
wrote about often--and from Charles Dickens without Scrooge, Victor Hugo
far from Paris, and Arthur Conan Doyle on the deck of a ship without
Sherlock or Watson. All are hidden gems that make you wish they had
written and the sea and ships. Here also are marquee names like Melville
and Richard Henry Dana, the official report of the sinking of the
Titanic, a first-person account of the wreck of the Medusa, and a
story by an unknown captain written after his ship was sunk by a whale.
Imagine that.
This eclectic collection will not disappoint any armchair seafarer.
