Authors V - Va
Vaczek, Louis C. [Charles] (1913-1983)
River and Empty Sea. Houghton, Mifflin, 1950. 372 pages
Even though an expedition of discovery to the Hudson Bay only results in a listless "river and empty sea", the protagonist nevertheless learns to love the wilderness and to respect his Indian companions
Vail, Jason
Lone Star Rising series:
Lone Star Rising: The Voyage of the Wasp. Fireship, 2012. 304 pages
The American rebellion has failed. George Washington is dead. The few surviving revolutionaries, led by Andrew Jackson, have fled to Spanish territories and the wasteland called Texas. But Jackson is not content to be a Spanish subject. He dreams large. Texas must be free and independent from the corrupt old empires of Europe. But with no army other than the Texas Rangers, and no navy, Texas has no hope of opposing the mighty forces of Spain. No hope, that is, until David Crockett meets an unemployed, sardonic naval officer named John Paul Jones II on the wharves at Baltimore. Together they buy and refit a broken down warship to become the first ship of the Texas Navy. With a handful of Crockett's men, the blessing of a voodoo queen, and a dubious crew of French pirates, they set sail to seize Spanish treasure and remake history in a ship called the Wasp.
Lone Star Rising: T.S. Wasp and the Heart of Texas. Hawk, 2013. 328 pages
British forces spread across the rebellious colonies, crushing all resistance now that George Washington is dead and the American army is dispersed. But defeat is merely a reckoning postponed. A few die-hards flee west into the Tennessee and the unsettled wilderness beyond the frontiers of British control, where after many years a leader arises among them, Andrew Jackson. Yet the British cannot ignore these upstarts, and Banastre Tarleton eventually arrives to crush them as well. Those who survive, lead by Jackson, escape into the Spanish Empire — to Texas. Still, even within the Empire the fugitives are not safe and free, for Spanish tyranny bears upon them. So Jackson and his friends pool their resources to buy a warship. Renamed the T.S. Wasp, they dispatch her to acquire guns for the Texas Army. On the way, Wasp finds more than they expected.
Vail, Philip, (1914-1988) [pseud. Noel B. Gerson (q.v.)]
The Sea Panther : a novel about the Commander of the U.S.S. Constitution. Dodd, Mead, 1962. 302 pages
William Bainbridge's exploits, from 1797 through his capture of the JAVA in 1812, interpreted in fiction of dubious accuracy. Bainbridge is given the capabilities of a comic book superhero -- regularly besting Royal Navy warships with a merchantman. Additionally, all American frigates are 44s -- including PHILADELPHIA, ESSEX, and CONSTELLATION -- and the Royal Navy frigate JAVA is transformed into a 64-gun ship of the line.
Van der Post, Laurens (1906-1996)
The Hunter and the Whale : a tale of Africa. W. Morrow, 1967. 350 pages
Big game hunter and whaling captain trade pot shots at an elephant and a whale.
Van der Rol, Greta
Die a Dry Death. Dragon International Independent Arts, 2010. 338 pages
June 1629. Laden with treasure and the riches of Europe, the merchantman Batavia, flagship of the Dutch East India Company, sails on her maiden voyage from Amsterdam bound for the East Indies. But thirty miles off the coast of Terra Incognita Australis-the unknown south land-she smashes into an uncharted reef. The survivors-women and children, sailors, soldiers and merchants-are washed ashore on a pair of uninhabited, hostile islands, with little food or fresh water. Desperately seeking help, the ship's officers set out in an open boat to make a two-thousand-mile journey to the nearest trading post. While they are gone, from the struggle for survival on the islands, there emerges a tyrant whose brutal lust for power is even deadlier than the reef which wrecked the Batavia.
Van Zwienen, John
Pivot. Jove, 1980. 246 pages
Germans mount an effort to hit the Empire State Building with a V-2 launched from a U-Boat. The expedition experiences difficulties due to production bottlenecks, denial of reality by the senior leaders in 1944-45, cronyism, and mysticism -- a combination which makes allied forces trivial by comparison.
China Clipper. Paradise, 1983. 319 pages
Potboiler set in the 1840s-1860s centering on the exploits of an American seafaring and shipbuilding family, a renegade Englishman, and a nymphomaniac who starts out the novel as the wife of a clipper captain, then becomes acting captain when her husband falls ill. Between bedroom scenes, the story has lots of seagoing action examining the impact of the introduction of the clipper and the steamship in commercial shipping.
Vance, Marguerite (1889-1965)
Courage at Sea. E. P. Dutton, 1963. 86 pages
The sinking of the Titanic brings forth the hidden courage and heroism of a young boy
VanderMeer, Ann & Jeff (Editors)
Fast Ships, Black Sails. Night Shade, 2008. 241 pages
An anthology of original stories featuring a science fiction and fantasy romp through pirate-infested seas. The settings of these stories vary from the traditional 17th century Caribbean glory years of piracy to the frozen seas off colonial Boston to unnamed far future oceans to deep space itself. Boojum / Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette -- Castor on troubled waters / Rhys Hughes -- I begyn as I mean to go on / Kage Baker -- Avast, abaft! / Howard Waldrop -- Elegy to Gabrielle, patron saint of healers, whores, and righteous thieves / Kelly Barnhill -- Skillet and saber / Justin Howe -- Nymph's child / Carrie Vaughn -- 68* 07' 15" N, 31* 36' 44" W / Conrad Williams -- Ironface / Michael Moorcock -- Pirate solutions / Katherine Sparrow -- We sleep on a thousand waves beneath the stars / Brendan Connell -- Voyage of the iguana / Steve Aylett -- Pirates of the Suara Sea / David Freer & Eric Flint -- Cold day in hell / Paul Battieger -- Adventures of Captain Black Heart Wentworth / Rachel Swirsky -- Araminta, or, the wreck of the Amphidrake / Naomi Novik -- Whale below / Jayme Lynn Blaschke -- Beyond the sea gate of the scholar -- Pirates of Sarskoe / Garth Nix.
Vane, Conrad
Foreign spies : Doctor Doom and the ghost submarine, an international spy story. Whitman, 1939. 424 pages
A Better Little Book: half text, half pictures.
Vane, Sutton (1888-1963)
Outward Bound. Chatto and Windus, 1929. 311 pages
A group of seven passengers meet in the lounge of an ocean liner at sea and realize that they have no idea why they are there, or where they are bound. Each of them eventually discovers that they are dead, and that they have to face judgment from an Examiner, who will determine whether they are to go to Heaven or Hell. Novelization of the author's hit play.
Vanner, Antoine
The Dawlish Chronicles:
Britannia's Innocent: February - May 1864. Old Salt, 2019. 336 pages
Political folly has brought war upon Denmark. Lacking allies, the country is invaded by the forces of military superpowers Prussia and Austria. Across the Atlantic, civil war rages. It is fought not solely on American soil but also on the world’s oceans, as Confederate commerce raiders ravage Union merchant shipping as far away as the East Indies. And now a new raider, a powerful modern ironclad, is nearing completion in a British shipyard. Denmark is not wholly without sympathizers however. Britain’s heir to the throne is married to a Danish princess. With his covert backing, British volunteers are ready to fight for the Danes. And the Confederacy is willing to lease the new raider for two months if she can be armed as payment for the lease, although the Union government is determined to see her sunk
Britannia's Interests: July - November 1866. Old Salt, 2023. 368 pages
1866: Four years since France invaded Mexico and set up a new ‘Mexican Empire’ with a puppet emperor imported from Europe, armies loyal to the republican government still resist. In a land devastated by battles, atrocities and reprisals, the tide of war is now turning in favor of the republic’s ‘Juarista’ supporters. France recognizes the war is unwinnable and evacuation inevitable, but first there will be bitter rearguard actions and old scores to settle.
Britannia's Guile: January 1877 - August 1877. Old Salt, 2021. 294 pages
1877: He’s chosen service on the Royal Navy’s hazardous Anti-Slavery patrol off East Africa for the opportunities it brings to make his name. But a shipment of slaves has slipped through his fingers. Now his reputation and chances of promotion, are at risk. He’ll stop at nothing to save them even if the means needed are illegal . . . But greater events are underway in Europe. The Russian and Ottoman Empires are drifting ever closer to a war that could draw in other great powers. And Britain cannot stand aside – a Russian victory would spell disaster for her strategic links to India.
Britannia's Wolf: September 1877 - February 1878. Old Salt, 2013. 414 pages
1877 and the Russo-Turkish War is reaching its climax. A Russian victory will pose a threat for Britain's strategic interests. To protect them an ambitious British naval officer, Nicholas Dawlish, is assigned to the Ottoman Navy to ravage Russian supply-lines in the Black Sea. In the depths of a savage winter, as Turkish forces face defeat on all fronts, Dawlish confronts enemy ironclads, Cossack lances and merciless Kurdish irregulars and finds himself a pawn in the rivalry of the Sultan's half-brothers for control of the collapsing empire.
Britannia's Reach: November 1879 - April 1880. Old Salt, 2014. 346 pages
In 1880, on a broad river in the heart of South America, a flotilla of paddle steamers thrashes slowly upstream, laden with troops, horses and artillery, intent on conquest and revenge. Ahead lies a commercial empire that was wrested from a British consortium in a bloody revolution. Now the investors are determined to recoup their losses and are funding a vicious war to do so. Nicholas Dawlish, an ambitious British naval officer, is playing a leading role in the expedition. And Dawlish finds himself forced to make a terrible ethical choice if he is to return to Britain with some shreds of integrity remaining
Britannia's Shark: April - September 1881. Old Salt, 2014. 354 pages
A personal tragedy has drawn Dawlish yet closer to his beloved wife Florence and in its aftermath they welcome the opportunity to combine his duty to observe trials of a new weapon in the Adriatic with an idyllic holiday together. Neither suspects that they are about to be drawn into a nightmare. Daring and initiative have already bought Dawlish rapid advancement in the Royal Navy and he hungers for more. But can the price be too high, not just for himself but for the woman he loves?
Britannia's Spartan: June 1859. April - August 1882. Old Salt, 2015. 354 pages
A new balance of power is emerging in the Far East. Imperial China, weak and corrupt, is challenged by a rapidly modernising Japan, while Russia threatens from the north. They all need to control Korea, a kingdom frozen in time and reluctant to emerge from centuries of isolation. Dawlish finds himself a critical player in a complex political powder keg. He must take account of a weak Korean king and his shrewd queen, of murderous palace intrigue, of a powerbroker who seems more American than Chinese and a Japanese naval captain whom he will come to despise and admire in equal measure.
Britannia's Amazon: April - August 1882. Old Salt, 2016. 284 pages
An unexpected incident brings Florence Dawlish into brutal contact with the squalid underside of complacent Victorian society. With her personal loyalties challenged to the limit, and conscious that her persistence in seeking justice may damage her ambitious husband’s career, not to mention the possibility of prison for herself, Florence is drawn ever deeper into a maelstrom of corruption and violence. The enemies she faces are merciless and vicious, their identities protected by guile, power and influence.
Britannia's Mission: August 1883 to February 1884. Old Salt, 2018. 362 pages
Two Arab sultanates on the East African coast control access to the interior. Britain is reluctant to occupy them but cannot afford to let any other European power do so either. But now the German Empire is showing interest in colonial expansion . . . For Dawlish, getting his fighting force up a shallow, fever-ridden river to the mission is only the beginning. There are obstacles to confronting the slavers, not least the missionary himself. The German presence is more contradictory and baffling than anticipated and a mysterious European is serving one of the sultans. Atrocities lie ahead, battles on land and in swamp also, and strange alliances must be made.
Britannia's Gamble: March 1884 - February 1885. Old Salt, 2017. 318 pages
1884 - a fanatical Islamist revolt is sweeping all before it in the vast wastes of the Sudan and establishing a rule of persecution and terror. Only the city of Khartoum holds out, its defence masterminded by a British national hero, General Charles Gordon. His position is weakening by the day and a relief force, crawling up the Nile from Egypt, may not reach him in time to avert disaster. But there is one other way of reaching Gordon.
Britannia's Morass: September - December 1884. Old Salt, 2020. 347 pages
Florence Dawlish remains in Britain when her husband, Captain Nicholas Dawlish, leaves for service in the Sudan. She faces months of worry about him but she’ll cope by immersing herself in welfare work for Royal Navy seamen’s families at Portsmouth. It’ll be a dull but worthy time . . . . . . until the suicide of a middle-aged widow whom Florence respects. Left wealthy by her husband, this lady died a pauper, beggared within a few months, how and by whom, is not known. But someone was responsible and there must be retribution. And for Florence to get justice will demand impersonation, guile and courage. Includes the short story "Britannia’s Collector", which tells of Nicholas Dawlish’s service as a young naval officer.
Britannia’s Rule: September 1886 – April 1888. Old Salt, 2022. 407 pages
Dawlish is at Trinidad when news arrives of a volcanic eruption on a West Indian island. But the volcano is just the prelude. The island's sovereignty is split – a British Crown Colony in the west, and in the east an independent republic established seven decades earlier by self-emancipated slaves. When wrenched from France through war, both seemed glittering economic prizes. Now they are impoverished backwaters where resentment seethes and old grudges fester.
Vaughan, Carter A. (1914-1988) [pseud. Noel B. Gerson (q.v.)]
The Yankee Brig. Doubleday, 1960. 258 pages
Seven Years War adventure. Boston skipper takes a brig to sea as a privateer fighting the French while facing the opposition of the Royal Navy commodore in command in Boston.
Dragon Cove. Doubleday, 1964. 248 pages
A band of Providence, RI, rebels led by Captain Jonathan Sherwood, strike at the British from their secret base in Dragon Cove. Among other adventures, they blow up a British 74 in port, steal a merchantman, use that as springboard to steal a British sloop-of-war, then take to the seas around Providence to give the British grief.
The River Devils. Doubleday, 1969. 239 pages
Set around the time of the War of 1812 and takes place along the Mississippi River and around New Orleans. Published under his Carter A. Vaughn pseudonym.
Vaux, Patrick [pseud. Maclaren Mein] (1872-1932)
Thews of England [tales]. William Heinemann, 1903. 305 pages
The Shock of Battle. G.P. Putnam's, 1906. 379 pages
Delays the outbreak of something like World War One to 1919, with Germany ultimately losing; much of the action takes place around the British Virgin Islands
Sea-salt and Cordite. Hodder and Stoughton, 1914. 189 pages.
Sea Patrols. Hodder and Stoughton, 1916. 196 pages.
Gadgets. Hodder and Stoughton, 1917. 224 pages
Salt Sea Patrols. Hodder and Stoughton, 1918. 320 pages
Vaux, Patrick & Yexley, Lionel (1861-1933) [pseud. Navarchus]
When the Eagle Flies Seaward. Hurst and Blackett, 1907. 343 pages
Future war at sea, with battles between Britain and Germany, whose attempted invasion is thwarted
The World's Awakening. Hodder & Stoughton, 1908. 463 pages
Reprinted as When the Great War Came in 1909. Writing together as by Navarchus, describes the beginning of the world conflict in the 1920s, which will be won or lost at sea