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Nautical Fiction Index

Authors Conr - Cos

Conrad, Barnaby (1922-2013)

Last Boat to Cadiz. Capra Press, 2003. 250 pages

Europe, 1945: Hitler is dead; the Third Reich is an open wound. Amid the chaos, a man like no other makes his way south through France and into Spain. No one will stand in his way and live. Only idealistic young Wilson Tripp, American vice consul in the city of Seville, stands to discover the man's true identity and the stunning threat he poses--that is, if Wilson Tripp can survive.

 

 

 

 

Conrad, Joseph (Josef Teodor Nalecz Korzeniowski) (1857-1924)

Almayer's Folly : a story of an Eastern River. T. Fisher Unwin, 1895. 272 pages

 

 

 

 

 

An Outcast of the Islands. T. Fisher Unwin, 1896. 391 pages

 

 

 

 

 

The Nigger of the Narcissus : a Tale of the Sea. Doubleday, 1897. 190 pages

Conrad's first sea story: a sailing ship voyage from Bombay to London with a dying black seaman aboard. American edition published under the title "The Children of the Sea: a Tale of the Forecastle".

 

 

 

 

The Heart of Darkness. Blackwood's Magazine, February-April 1899.

Marlow tells of his voyage in command of a steamboat far up the Congo River to relieve the mad ivory trader Kurz. Adapted to fit the Vietnam War and filmed by Francis. F. Coppola as Apocalypse Now in 1979. "The Horror! The Horror!"

 

The End of the Tether. Blackwood's Magazine, July-August 1902.

Upright 67 year old Captain Whalley compromises with his own rectitude without understanding the evil around him. As his coastal steamer sails through the Pacific his own falsehoods and the ambitions and obsessions of his crew bring on disaster.

 

Lord Jim : a Tale. Blackwood, 1900. 451 pages

 

 

 

 

 

Nostromo : a Tale of the Seaboard. Doubleday, Page, 1904. 630 pages

 

 

 

 

 

Chance : a Tale in Two Parts. Doubleday, Page, 1913. 468 pages

Significant for being Konrad Korzeniowski's breakthrough novel, outselling all his previous work.

 

 

 

 

Victory : an Island Tale. Doubleday, Page, 1915. 462 pages

 

 

 

 

 

The Arrow of Gold : a Story Between Two Notes. Doubleday, Page, 1919. 385 pages

Fictional version of the gun running section in "The Mirror of the Sea".

 

 

 

 

The Rescue : a Romance of the Shallows. Doubleday, Page, 1920. 404 pages

Long delayed sequel to "Almayer's Folly" and "An Outcast of the Islands".

 

 

 

 

The Rover. Doubleday, Page, 1923. 286 pages

Retired French freebooter settles near Toulon, where the French fleet under Villeneuve is bottled up by Nelson. In early 1805, urged by compassion for a brave young officer, the old salt sacrifices his life to deceive Nelson into withdrawing the British fleet, allowing the French to escape to ultimate doom at Trafalgar. Most of the novel covers life ashore, but the sea scenes are well drawn. One of very few books showing the war from the French point of view.

 

 

Tales of Unrest. Scribner's, 1898. 348 pages

Karain : A Memory -- The Idiots -- An Outpost of Progress -- The Return -- The Lagoon.

 

 

 

 

Youth : A Narrative, and Two Other Stories. Blackwood, 1902. 375 pages

In the title story, the 400 ton barque JUDEA and its attempt to sail from Scotland to Bangkok and we meet a young Marlow. Also collected: Heart of Darkness -- The End of the Tether.

 

 

 

 

Typhoon and Other Stories. W. Heinemann, 1903. 304 pages

In the title story, the steamer NAN-SHAN, with 200 Chinese coolies aboard, encounters a terrible storm in the China Sea. Also collected: Amy Foster -- Falk -- Tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

A Set of Six. Methuen & Co, 1908. 310 pages

The Informer -- Gaspar Ruiz -- The Brute -- An Anarchist -- The Duel -- Il Conde. "The Brute" is a story of an evil ship, seemingly malevolent, which kills a crewman on every voyage, and at last is destroyed in a freak accident.

 

 

 

 

'Twixt Land and Sea : Tales. London : J.M.Dent, 1912. 264 pages

A Smile of Fortune : A Harbour Story -- The Secret Sharer : An Episode from the Coast -- Freya of the Seven Isles : A Story of Shallow Waters

 

 

 

 

The Shadow-Line : a confession. Doubleday, Page, 1917. 197 pages

 

 

 

 

 

Within the Tides : tales. J.M. Dent, 1915. 280 pages

The Planter of Malata -- The Partner -- The Inn of the Two Witches -- Because of the Dollars

 

 

 

 

 

Constantin-Weyer, Maurice (1881-1964)

The French Adventurer: The Life and Exploits of LaSalle. Macaulay, 1931. 255 pages

Translation of Cavalier de la Salle (1927)

 

 

 

 

 

Cooke, Francis Bernard (1873-1974)

Yachting Yarns. Jenkins, 1944. 191 pages

Short stories

 

 

 

 

 

Cooley, Leland Frederick (1909-1998)

The Run for Home. Doubleday, 1958. 419 pages

In the 1920's when young Slim Fredericks left his comfortable California home to ship aboard the Tropic Trader as a deck hand, the U.S. Merchant Marine Service was at its lowest ebb--rusty freighters manned by the scrapings of the waterfronts, officered by rum-runners, foreigners, embittered mariners; devoid of decent living conditions, terrible food, no medical care. All the incidents that have happened to sailors since the days of wooden ships are experienced by Slim--love affairs casual and serious, steadfast friendship, brutal fights, cruel petty officers, wild nights ashore, shipboard accidents, table-top surgery

 

 

 

Coomer, Joe (1958- )

Beachcombing for a Shipwrecked God. Graywolf, 1995. 245 pages

Nine weeks after losing her husband, Charlotte escapes to a wooden houseboat where her shipmates are an aging blue-haired widow, an emotional seventeen-year-old, and the ugliest dog in literature. Gradually, a genuine friendship develops between the three women, united by the cramped quarters that confine them.

 

 

 

 

 

Coonts, Stephen (1946- )

America : a Jake Grafton novel. St. Martin's, 2001. 390 pages

USS AMERICA, the most technologically advanced nuclear-powered submarine ever built, is hijacked in front of hundreds of people gathered to watch its departure on its first operational cruise. As the sub disappears into the North Atlantic, the joint chiefs realize that AMERICA carries the United States' newest weapon: cruise missiles with electromagnetic pulse warheads designed to fry every electronic device within a ten-mile radius. Within hours, missiles from the sub rain down on Washington, D.C., starting a massive fire in the White House, bringing down jet-liners, and destroying nearly all the electronic devices in the nation's capital. Called upon to find the rogue sub, Jake Grafton must determine who is behind the carnage, what they want, and most importantly, how to stop them.

 

 

 

Cooper, James Fenimore (1789-1851)

The Pilot : a tale of the sea. Charles Wiley, 1823. 2 volumes

American revolutionary seaman terrorises the coast of Northeast England in the late 1770s; probably suggested by exploits of John Paul Jones.

 

The Red Rover : a tale. Carey, Lea & Carey, 1827. 2 volumes

Elusive Red Rover, aboard frigate DOLPHIN, fights British during the Revolutionary War.

 

The Water-Witch, or, The Skimmer of the Seas. A.L. Bert, 1830. 471 pages

Smuggling in the New York/New Jersey area around 1711.

 

Homeward Bound, or, The Chase: A tale of the Sea. Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1838. 2 volumes

An American packet ship, bound to New York from London, is chased by a British man-of-war.

 

Mercedes of Castile, or, The voyage to Cathay. Lea & Blanchard, 1840. 2 volumes

The voyage of Columbus, touching slightly on life at sea.

 

The Two Admirals : a Tale. Lea & Blanchard, 1842. 2 volumes

The two heroes, friends from youth, espouse opposite sides in the Jacobite rebellion of 1745.

 

The Wing-and-Wing, or, Le Feu-follet. Lea & Blanchard, 1842. 2 volumes

A French privateer in the Mediterranean, 1799, involved with the Neapolitan admiral Caracciolo, who Nelson hanged; a Yankee soldier of fortune plays a significant part. One of very few books showing the war from the French point of view.

 

Ned Myers, or, A Life Before the Mast. Lea & Blanchard, 1843. 232 pages

Claims to be the real-life autobiography of a seaman, edited by Cooper. Contains an eye-witness description of the 1813 naval campaign in Upper Canada.

 

Afloat and Ashore, or, The adventures of Miles Wallingford. The Author, 1844. 4 volumes

Adventures of two Yankee lads in the East Indies and the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

 

Miles Wallingford. Richard Bentley, 1844. 3 volumes

A sequel to Afloat and Ashore, extending the action to the Atlantic. Originally published as "Lucy Hardinge".

 

Jack Tier, or, The Florida Reef. Burgess, Stringer, 1848. 2 volumes

Unusual for Cooper, this is contemporary novel of maritime life. The wife of the brutal and greedy Captain Stephen Spike is forced to masquerade as the seaman Jack Tier.

 

The Crater, or, Vulcan's Peak : a tale of the Pacific. Burgess, Stringer, 1847. 2 volumes

The first two thirds of the book take place at sea as a young man advances from forecastle to cabin. The remainder is a Robinson Crusoe shipwreck tale.

 

The Sea-Lions, or, The Lost Sealers. Stringer & Townsend, 1849. 2 volumes

Two Yankee schooners compete for the riches of a secret sealing ground in Antarctica, but co-operate when forced to over-winter (1819-20) under appalling conditions. In this, his last adventure novel, Cooper writes in a far less stilted style than in previous novels, and the book is a pleasure to read. Also reflects on the decline in Yankee morality, into mere hypocritical money-grubbing.

 

 

 

Cooper, Jefferson (1911-1986)

Captain Seadog. Pocket, 1959. 183 pages

Lusty swordsman Michael Goddard is falsely accused of treachery when he returns to England rich from plundering the galleons of the Spanish Main. A beautiful woman he has never seen before helps Goddard escape -- and then Queen Elizabeth herself orders him to perform a service upon which the fate of England hangs. Is this a trap laid by an evil beauty or a chance for our hero to regain his honor and gold? A steamy bodice-untier.

 

 

 

 

Cooper, Lettice Ulphea (1897-1994)

The Old Fox. Hodder & Stoughton, 1927. 355 pages

Smuggling during the American Revolution as practiced in southern England. Much of the plot centers around the feared French invasion

 

 

 

 

Cooper, Susan

Victory. Margaret K. McElderry, 2006. 196 pages

Sam Robbins is a farm boy, kidnapped to serve on HMS Victory, the ship on which Lord Nelson will die a hero's death at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Molly Jennings is a twenty-first-century English girl transplanted to the United States by her stepfather's job, who's fighting her own battle against loss and loneliness.

 

 

 

 

 

Copping, Arthur E. (1865-1941)

Gotty and the Guv'nor. Mitchell Kennerley, 1908. 350 pages

A true narrative of Gotty's doings ashore & afloat, with an account of his voyage of discovery on a shrimping bawley in the English Channel.

 

 

 

 

 

Corbett, Julian Stafford (1854-1922)

A Business in Great Waters. Methuen, 1895. 361 pages

A naval story set in the 1790's when England is at war with France. Based around smuggling in late 18th Century Sussex it features the Quiberon Expedition (1795) and provides a detailed look at the state of the French navy after the Glorious First of June battle.

 

 

 

 

Corbett, W. Scott (1914-2006)

Midshipman Cruise. Little, Brown, 1957. 248 pages

A tale of the US Naval Academy set against the background of a real cruise.

 

 

 

 

 

Dead Before Docking. Little, Brown, 1972. 134 pages

A young boy accidentally discovers that a murder is planned on board his Panama-bound freighter. Who is the victim? Who is the killer? For young readers.

 

 

 

 

Captain Butcher's Body. Little, Brown, 1976. 168 p.

Two boys confront the ghost of a long-dead pirate on an island off the coast of New England. For young readers.

 

 

 

 

 

Corkum, Captain Alexander C.

Musings of a Mariner. Atlantic Printing Co., 1921. 110 pages

Privately published book of poems.

 

 

 

 

 

Corder, Eric (1941-2020) [pseud. Jerrold Mundis]

Slave Ship. McKay, 1969. 278 pages

Middle passage voyage aboard the slaver JUBILATION turns into a struggle between a journalist aboard to write an expose, and her power-crazed captain, with the slaves aboard looking for an opportunity to kill everyone and regain their freedom.

 

 

 

 

Corley, Edwin (1931-1981)

Sargasso. Doubleday, 1977. 259 pages

Apollo 19 splashes down in the Bermuda Triangle... with the three US astronauts missing. Spooky suspense novel.

 

 

 

 

 

Cornwell, Bernard (1944- )

Killer's Wake. Putnam, 1989. 317 pages

Also published as Sea Lord. John Rossendale, a sea gypsy, is called into action when he returns to England and becomes a reluctant player in a dangerous game of blackmail and ransom.

 

 

 

 

Wildtrack. Putnam, 1988. 320 pages

Nick Sandman won a Victoria Cross in the Falklands War, but his heroism cost him his marriage, his savings and two years in the hospital. Determined to start afresh, he plans to sail his beloved ketch Sycorax to New Zealand. But then he finds his boat beached, looted and rotting near his former home, now owned by media star Tony Bannister. To earn money to restore it, Nick agrees to captain Tony's yacht, Wildtrack, in a transatlantic race. Soon Nick is sucked into Tony's messy private life: Bannister may have been responsible for his wife's death, and her father is plotting to kill him. And now Nick is falling in love with Tony's mistress, Angela. Before long Nick finds his own life on the line as he battles human treachery and nature's storms on a mid-Atlantic "killing ground".

 

Crackdown. HarperCollins, 1990. 308 pages

Drug pirates stalk their victims in the treacherous waters of the Bahamas, then return to their fortress island of Murder Cay like primal sharks after a kill. Then along comes skipper Nicholas Breakspear with the son and daughter of a U.S. Senator. What should have been a simple de-tox cruise soon lurches into a voyage of terror and death when Breakspear is lured into a horrifying plot of cocaine, cash, and cold-blooded killings. Suddenly, he's racing through the shadowy kingdom of drug lords to save the woman he loves ... one step ahead of his own murder, and one step away from the big crackdown on Murder Cay.

 

 

Stormchild. HarperCollins, 1991. 358 pages

Yachtsman and boatbuilder Tim Blackburn embarks on a mission to rescue his daughter from suspected environmental terrorists in Patagonia. An American journalist looking for a story accompanies him.

 

 

 

 

Sharpe's Devil : Richard Sharpe and the Emperor, 1820-1821. HarperCollins, 1992. 280 pages

Lord Cochrane's adventures commanding the Chilean navy in the war of independence against Spain. Most action is ashore, but there is some at sea, and an interesting portrayal of Cochrane.

 

 

 

 

Sharpe's Trafalgar : Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805. HarperCollins, 2000. 276 pages

Sharpe's voyage home from India is interupted by the French warship Revenant. Soon, Sharpe finds himself caught up in the one of the greatest naval battles in British history.

 

 

 

Sharpe's Prey : Richard Sharpe and the expedition to Copenhagen, 1807. HarperCollins, 2002. 262 pages

It is 1807. Lieutenant Richard Sharpe, newly returned to England, now wants to leave the army. One last job is offered to him. Go to Copenhagen, help the Hon. John Lavisser deliver a bribe and so stop a war. It seems easy, but nothing is easy in a Europe stirred by French ambitions. The Danes possess a battle fleet that could replace every warship the French lost at Trafalgar, and Napoleon's forces are gathering to seize it. The British have to stop them, while the Danes, caught between two rival armies, insist on being neutral.

 

 

 

Cornwell, John

The Free & the Brave. Nordon, 1978. 319 pages

Young man caught bootlegging volunteers for the US Navy after Pearl Harbor to avoid jail, goes through boot training, and joins a 4-piper destroyer converted to a seaplane tender cruising the Caribbean and Pacific Coast in the opening days of the war. After the ship's alcohol-sodden commander dries up, the ship straightens out and becomes a hero ship in an action with a U-boat. Book ends with the protagonist entering flight school on the strength of the medal he's earned.

 

 

 

Costain, Thomas B. (1885-1965)

For My Great Folly. Putnam's, 1942. 504 pages

English pirate John Ward fights Spaniards, London underworld, and gentlemen swordsmen in the early 1600s.

 

 

 

 

High Towers. Doubleday, 1949. 403 pages

Multi-generational family saga, mostly set in French Canada, including scenes set along the Mississippi and New Orleans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

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