Authors Fra - Fur
France, Ruth (1913-1968)
The Race. Constable, 1958. 191 pages
New Zealand novel, based on the ill-fated Lyttleton to Wellington yacht race in 1951 in which the author's husband participated
Francis, Dorothy B. [Brenner] (1926- )
Run of the Sea Witch. Abingdon, 1978. 158 pages
Young boy joins his family for a 2-week run on a shrimp boat off Key West. For young readers.
Frank, Bruno (1887-1945)
A Man Called Cervantes. Viking, 1935. 301 pages
Translated from the German Cervantes. Biographical novel featuring a section set with the Christian fleet in the Battle of Lepanto
Fraser, George MacDonald (1925-2008)
Flash for Freedom! Barrie & Jenkins, 1971. 272 pages
In this novel Flashman, amongst other things, is shanghaied onto a slaver under the command of a former Oxford don of all things. Third in the series.
Flashman's Lady. Barrie & Jenkins, 1977. 328 pages
While Flashy and his wife are visiting Singapore, she is kidnapped by a notorious pirate. Flashy enlists (reluctantly!) in the brown-water navy of James Brooke, White Rajah of Sarawak, and sails up the jungle-lined rivers of Borneo to destroy the pirates in their lair and rescue the fair Elspeth. Great fun with Flashy blubbering and whining his way to eventual victory (mostly brought about through the efforts of his betters). Sixth in the series.
The Pyrates. HarperCollins, 1983. 421 pages
Comic spoof of Hollywood sea movies. "I cannot resist a book in which one man thinks he is a famous French pirate because he was hit over the head with a skillet while taking a French lesson at the age of eight. . . a book in which characters 'speak in that genuine Mummerset growl which was to keep Robert Newton in gainful employment for so many years'. . . a book in which the action is interrupted by a strike by the Union of Pirates, Buccaneers and Merchant Adventurers Afloat. And I cannot resist a book in which we are told: 'We last left our hero in an open boat off the coast of Madagascar. In the last two chapters, he has rowed a distance of 1,500 miles, a physical impossibility, but we warned you on page 13 we were going to take certain liberties with history, geography and the grammar of the French language. '
Freeman, Richard
Commander Steadfast Thrillers:
First Command. Endeavour Press, 2014. 136 pages
1941. After losing his grandmother and brother to the war, Steadfast has a personal vendetta against the Germans, and is determined to prove himself as a ruthless, relentless and remorseless leader. However, many of his makeshift crew do not share Steadfast's hunger for battle and glory. They see the Navy as the first and last defender of Britain's liberty, rather than as an aggressive force that can take the fight to the enemy. The Defiant and its exhausted crew will have to cope with the harsh conditions of winter at sea, whilst defending itself from enemy attack from E-Boats and the Luftwaffe.
Action this day. Endeavour Press, 2015. 137 pages
Steadfast is being sent to the Mediterranean to rescue an Albanian scientist called Janos Dobransky. Dobransky has invented a compound that is vital to the war effort. Unaware of his importance, the Italians have captured him and are keeping him and other prisoners in a fortress off the Albanian coast. It is of vital importance that he is rescued before the Germans realise who he is. The mission is top secret, and Steadfast's orders are clear: Get Dobransky back. No high jinks. No bravado. Just straight in and straight out.
Enemy in sight. Endeavour Press, 2015. 140 pages
Lieutenant Commander George Steadfast – maverick leader and a favourite of Sir Winston Churchill – is in North Africa, assigned to a station that does not want him, to a command he does not desire. In an attempt to drive him out, Steadfast is assigned what is supposed to be a mundane task: he is to ferry a squad of sappers to the island of Platos. But when an E-boat crosses his path, toying with him, guiding him towards Platos, he realises something bigger is going on. The island is not what it seems, and the Germans are lying in wait .
French, Joseph Lewis (Editor) (1858-1936)
Great Sea Stories. Brentano's, 1921. 332 pagess
Spanish bloodhounds and English mastiffs, by C. Kingsley.--The club-hauling of the Diomede, by Captain F. Marryat.--The cruise of the Torch, by M. Scott.--The merchantman and the pirate, by C. Reade.--The mutiny of the Bounty, anonymous.--The wreck of the Royal Caroline, by J.F. Cooper.--The capture of the great white whale, by H. Melville.--The corvette Claymore, by V. Hugo.--The Merchants' cup, by D.W. Bone.--A storm and a rescue, by W.C. Russell.--The sailor's wife, by P. Loti.--The salving of the Yan Shan, by H. de V. Stacpoole.--The derelict Neptune, by M. Robertson.--The terrible Solomons, by J. London.--El Dorado, by J. Masefield.
Great Sea Stories : second series. Brentano's, 1925. 348 pages
The Invincible Armada, S. Purchas; The Revenge, W. Raleigh; Early Arctic Adventure, W. Barents; The Sword of Alan, R. L. Stevenson; In good King George's Time, T. Smollett; Fishers of the Deep, P. Lotti; Firebrand, L. R. Freeman; The Whale, J. F. Cooper; In the Hornet'S Nest, M. Scott; The Duel, W. C. Russell; In Nelson's time, J. Masefield; The Great Sea Serpent, F. Whymper; A burial at Sea, R. H. Dana; The Phantom Ship, F. S. Bassett; The Last Whale, W. H. Macy; Cape Horn, H. Melville; The Octopus, V. Hugo.
French, Peter (1918-1994)
The Southern Cross. Doubleday, 1958. 239 pages
In 1838 the Southern Cross was reputed to be the fastest merchant ship out of New York. Now the owner demands that she break all records on the perilous China run to Canton. His ambition was rivalled only by her new captain, on his first voyage as master of a ship, young Samuel Wilson. And prove himself- and his ship- he did- against gales, reefs, calms, pirates, the sinister but bumbling machinations of the English opium traders and the corrupt officialdom of the Chinese Empire.
The Ocean Mistress. Doubleday, 1961. 263 pages
Clipper captain, his wife, his mistress and his true mistress - the sea.
Freuchen, Peter (1886-1957)
Sea Tyrant. Liveright, 1932. 366 pages
Danco Kellar, greatest whaler of them all, and captain of the NORTH CAPE, takes his ship into the far North on a whaling expedition that becomes a frenzied battle for survival. Translation of Der Nordkaper.
Whaling Boy. Putnam, 1958. 127 pages
Danish boy goes on a whaling cruise to the arctic. For young readers.
Frew, James
In the Wake of the Leopard. Paradise, 1990. 303 pages
Nazi gold & jewels in a sunken U- boat in the Bahamas. Years later the discovery of some of this involves an Austrian actress, an ancient flying boat and a bloodstained schooner in an attempted recovery during a hurricane.
Frisbie, Johnny (1932- )
The Frisbies of the South Seas. Doubleday, 1959. 259 pages
The memoirs of the eldest daughter of the American writer, Robert Dean Frisbie, and his Polynesian wife.
Frith, Henry (1840-1917)
Jack O'Lanthorn : a tale of Adventure. Blackie, 1884. 220 pages
The Search for the Talisman: A Tale of Adventure in Labrador. Blackie, 1886. 288 pages
The Wrecking of the Samphire : A Tale of Adventure. Frederick Warne, 1886. 126 pages
Aboard the Atalanta: The Story of a Truant. Blackie, 1888. 192 pages
The Captains of Cadets. A story of the Rule of Britannia. Griffith, Farran, 1889. 223 pages
The Hunting of the Hydra, or the Phantom Prahu. G. Routledge, 1889. 336 pages
The Cruise of the Wasp: a Romance of the North Atlantic. G. Routledge, 1890. 312 pages
The Log of the Bombastes. Griffith & Farran, 1890. 314 pages
The Light-ship Hand; or, the Strange Adventures of Richard Gayden. Sunday School Union, 1893. 192 pages
The Lost Trader: or, the Mystery of the Lombardy. W. & R. Chambers, 1894. 320 pages
In the Yellow Sea : a tale of the Japanese War. Griffith, Farran, 1898. 311 pages
Frothingham, Jessie Peabody (1862-1949)
Running the Gantlet : the Daring Exploits of Lieutenant Cushing, U.S.N. D. Appleton, 1906. 283 pages
Frye, Pearl [Pearl Frye Rau] (1917-1997)
A Game for Empires, a biographical novel (1793 -1798). Little, Brown, 1950. 471 pages
This story covers the years from 1793 when Horatio Nelson took command of his first battleship, Agamemmon, to the battle of the Nile in August 1798.
The Sleeping Sword, a biographical novel (1798 -1805). Little, Brown, 1952. 400 pages
The second half of her fictional partial biography of Lord Nelson.
Gallant Captain; a biographical novel based on the life of John Paul Jones. Little, Brown, 1955. 324 pages
Fuhrman, Paul Thomas
The Downeaster: Deadly Voyage. Fireship, 2016. 356 pages
The interactions of three characters going Round the Horn in 1872: the down on his luck Captain, the gun running Irish feminist nurse, and a lad suffering through the Captains Courageous cure for weaklings.
Fulgham, Joel M.
World War III : the Beginning. 1stBooks, 2003. 160 pages
The Islamic countries of the world have joined together to form a united republic. Now they are using the violation of their territorial waters by the United States as a pretext to declare war on the free world. With a massive military they invade Israel and seal off the Mediterranean Sea. The United States' newest submarine and a handful of aircraft carriers must lead an assault against a superior force to keep the United States' Mediterranean Fleet from destruction.
Fuller, Iola (1906-1993)
The Guilded Torch. Putnam, 1957. 343 pages
Traces Rene Robert Cavelier, de la Salle on his route along the present-day Saint Lawrence Seaway, through the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi to claim the Louisiana Territory. The novel focuses on the hardships of the trip and suggests the effects of the explorers, missionaries, and settlers on the Great Lakes and other parts of the Northwest Territories and on the Native Americans there.
Fullerton, Alexander (1924-2008)
Surface! P. Davis, 1953. 224 pages
After the Germans surrender, the British sub SEAHOUND joins the war against Japan.
No Man's Mistress. P. Davis, 1955. 224 pages
After James Wentworth resigned his commission in the RN he had always declined to attend the Annual Summer Ball at Fort Blockhouse, home of the navy's submarine service, but this year he decides to go. Finding he has little in common with most of the other guests he wanders out to the jetty and boards the submarine he last served in. He joins the captain and shares a bottle with him. They were midshipmen together in the cruiser HMS PELORUS in the Mediterranean in the dark days of 1941. As they talk the story unfolds.
A Wren Called Smith. P. Davis, 1957. 221 pages
A Norwegian freighter bound for England from the Phillipines in 1945 -- with mixed assortment of passengers including a tuburcular British submarine commander, a RN desk officer, a group of German POWs off a U-boat, a loud-mouthed American officer commanding their guard, and a man-hungry WREN -- is torpedoed by a Japanese sub, and cast away on an isolated Pacific Island. The story is told retrospectively by the British sub commander.
The Waiting Game. Granada, 1961. 160 pages
WW II submarine adventure set on HMS SETTER in the Arctic, during summer, when there's no nightime, so subs shouldn't surface.
The Thunder and the Flame. Hodder and Stoughton, 1964. 189 pages
Novel based on true story of Sir Richard Grenville's REVENGE, which in 1591 sailed alone in battle off Flores in the Azores against 53 Spanish ships protecting their treasure flotilla.
The Aphrodite Cargo. Joseph, 1985. 283 pages
Sunken treasure off a Greek island.
Johnson's Bird. Macmillan, 1989. 272 pages
Matt Johnson, professional yachtsman, sails for Turkey where an old friend is on the run from police and where his girlfriend's sister has been kidnapped.
Bloody Sunset. Macdonald, 1991. 329 pages
In the summer of 1918, Count Nikolai Solovyev pleads with Lt Bob Cowan for help in rescuing five females, including two of the Tsar's daughters. Cowan wants to help, but the Royal Navy's task is to fight Turks and Germans, not Bolsheviks.
Look to the Wolves. Little, Brown, 1992. 393 pages
Set in the Russian civil war of 1919. While serving in Sebastopol, Lt Cdr Bob Cowan - half Russian, half British - is sent to rescue two Red Cross nurses who have joined up with the White Army. Sequel to Bloody Sunset.
Love for an Enemy. Little, Brown, 1993. 419 pages
A naval adventure, and a love story of divided wartime loyalties, set in Alexandria and the Mediterranean in the summer of 1942. Lt Cdr Ned Mitcheson falls for the half-Italian sister of the commander of an enemy ship.
Not Thinking of Death. Little, Brown, 1994. 410 pages
British submariner gets his younger brother's fiancee involved with another submarine officer, who is a rake. The girl throws over the brother for the rake, but her new fiancee gets killed when the "T" class submarine he is on sinks during acceptance trials just before WW II. Then, during the war, the girl becomes engaged to another submariner, who gets sent out on a one-time, dangerous mission on the same submarine that her first fiancee was killed in. If this sounds vaguely like HMS THETIS/THUNDERBOLT, it is because Fullerton used that incident as the basis for this novel. Even now, when this tragedy is mentioned, it is guaranteed to upset anyone who was in the Royal Navy's submarine service at the time.
Band of Brothers. Little, Brown, 1996. 248 pages
The German U-boat supply ship, Heilbronne, is sailing heavily escorted from Le Havre to the Atlantic, and a mixed force of motor gunboats and motor torpedo boats from Newhaven in Sussex is ordered to intercept and sink her.
Final Dive. Little, Brown, 1998. 284 pages
In the depths lies a cargo containing gold and atomic secrets, upon which a Ukrainian retrieval vessel has sinister designs. This submarine and shipwreck adventure culminates in a thrilling Atlantic dive that may be the crew's final chance of survival. Part of the SOE Operative Rosie Ewing series.
Wave Cry. Little, Brown, 1999. 427 pages
An Irish family - Eileen and Frank Maguire and their 3-year-old son Tom - emigrants travelling steerage-class from Queenstown to New York on The Titanic - are woken by the jolt of the collision; Eileen survives but in scenes of terrifying confusion her husband and child do not. Then in the rescue ship Carpathia - by this time wishing she had drowned, and not entirely sane - she sees Bruce Joseph Ismay, managing director of the White Star Line, alive and well. Eileen sets out to kill him.
The Floating Madhouse. Little, Brown, 2000. 376 pages
In the summer of 1904 Tsar Nicholas II sent his Baltic fleet, mostly old crocks with untrained, potentially mutinous crews & hopelessly inefficient officers, halfway around the world to reinforce his few remaining ships in the Far East. There the Japanese fleet under Admiral Togo had been scoring success after success. The Russians' main aim was to relieve besieged Port Arthur.
Stark Realities. Time Warner, 2004. 313 pages
October 1918: Germany is suing for peace, terms for an armistice are being negotiated between the several capitals, all U- boats have meanwhile been ordered home from patrol. Among them is U81, commanded by Otto von Mettendorff: he's young, dynamic, already approaching the status of an 'Ace', and is infatuated with a new girlfriend who works not far from Wilhelmshaven, to which port U81 is now returning. However, U81 is 'holed' by a destroyer and sent to the bottom of forty fathoms of English sea. <
Submariner. Sphere, 2008. 385 pages
Lieutenant Mike Nicholson is operating out of Malta. Captaining the submarine Ursa, he's part of the fleet deputed to disrupt the flow of war supplies from Italian ports to Rommel's Afrika Korps. Although Ursa is small, under armed, and frustratingly slow, she succeeds, on her 17th Mediterranean cruise, in sinking a German tank- transporter.
Andy Holt series:
Westbound, Warbound. Little, Brown, 2003. 280 pages
Andy Holt, is a 20-year-old 3rd Mate in the PollyAnna carrying coal in the South Atlantic to be off-loaded, before picking up a cargo of iron ore. There are rumours of German raiders in the area which are confirmed when the seamen come across what's left of a boat and its crew, in a rapid state of decomposition. Andy's vessel is onward bound via Calcutta and her whorehouses, to Montevideo, a neutral port, all the while wary of a particular German warship, the Graf Spee, which is picking off British naval vessels.
Non-Combatants. Time Warner, 2005. 278 pages
It is the summer of 1940 and Andy Holt has signed on as 2nd mate in the SS Barranquilla, sailing in ballast from the Clyde for Nuevitas in Cuba. From there she'll be routed up the US seaboard to Halifax, Nova Scotia, assembly-point for homebound convoys. The homebound ones are the worst - U-boats preferring their victims to be deep-laden, full of cargo. That's if he makes it back, because this is what the U-boat people are calling their Happy Time - easy targets and lots of them, convoys with hardly any escorting warships. There have been heavy losses off Norway and Dunkirk - the vital priority at this time is for destroyers to counter the invasion that seems imminent.
Nick Everard, mariner of England series:
The Blooding of the Guns. Joseph, 1976. 239 pages
The Everards, Hugh, commanding a QUEEN ELIZABETH-class battleship, David aboard an armored cruiser, and Nick in a destroyer, see action and have their mettle tested at the battle of Jutland.
Sixty Minutes for St. George. Joseph, 1977. 224 pages
The Dover Patrol 1917-18 and Zeebrugge in 1918.
Patrol to the Golden Horn. Joseph, 1978. 229 pages
Assault on the GOEBEN at Constantinople in 1918.
Storm Force to Narvik. Joseph, 1979. 231 pages
British destroyers in the battles of Narvik Fjord, Norway in 1940.
Last Lift from Crete. Joseph, 1980. 238 pages
In command of the destroyer HMS TUAREG Nick takes part in the evacuation of the British Army from Crete in May 1941, fighting off the Luftwaffe's murderous Stuka dive bombers while overcrowded with troops, many wounded.
All The Drowning Seas. Joseph, 1981. 262 pages
In 1942, as Japan sweeps across the Pacific, a handful of ships prepare for the last ditch defence of Java.
A Share of Honour. Joseph, 1982. 255 pages
Submarines in the Mediterranean in 1942 and the raid on St. Nazaire.
The Torch Bearers. Joseph, 1983. 290 pages
The convoy Nick is escorting from Freetown is deliberately being used by the Allied High Command to bait the German U-boats in the hope that the fleet for the Invasion of North Africa (Operation TORCH) will be undiscovered as it makes it way south. Paul Everard's submarine is landing an agent in Sicily; Jack Everard is a POW in Germany and Nick's new wife is in a sitting duck that has unexpectedly joined the convoy!
The Gatecrashers. Joseph, 1984. 287 pages
Midget submarines against the Tirpitz in north Norway and convoys to Russia in 1943.
Furst, Alan (1941- )
Dark Voyage. Random House, 2004. 256 pages
The Noordenham, a Dutch freighter under the command of Captain Eric DeHaan, docks in Lisbon under the guise of a neutral boat. But the ship, sailing for the Intelligence Division of the British Royal Navy, loads detection equipment for a clandestine operation on the Swedish coast--a secret mission, a dark voyage.