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Nautical Fiction Index

Authors Gi - Go

Gibbs, Tony [pseud. Wolcott Gibbs, Jr.] (1935- )

Dead Run. Randon House, 1988. 262 pages

"This sailing thriller employs an old but servicable plot: both good and bad guys chase after an unidentified hidden treasure on an old sailboat, Glory. Gibbs knows and loves sailing, but the novel itself is pretty thin.." [Library Journal]


 

 

 

Running Fix. Random House, 1990. 371 pages

"...Gillian Verdan is a young woman of good breeding whose diminished circumstances have obliged her to charter out her family's magnificent yacht, GLORY. Her crew includes crusty Jeremy Barr, an old salt whose loss of wife and ship have left him high and dry emotionally, and Patrick O'Mara, a lusty young ex-mercenary whose working-class Catholic background puts him at a disadvantage among the snobbish gentry with whom he sails" [PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY]. Gillian searches for her college room mate, lost at sea with her editor boss. She and her crew run into a tangled web of intrigue and danger.


 

Landfall. W. Morrow, 1992. 251 pages

"...Jake Adler, a military man with connections to a dubious right-wing organization, charters the yacht GLORY and involves its owner Gillian Verdean, the captain...Jeremy Barr, and the cook Patrick O'Mara in a clandestine operation on the fictional Caribbean island of St. Philip....Lush locales, and extensive, but not overdrawan, seafaring lore add to the reading pleasure." [PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY]


 

 

Shot in the dark. Mysterious Press, 1996. 238 pages

Gibbs launches his new "Harbormaster" series which features low crime on the high seas in the Santa Barbara area. Lots of on the water action.


 

 

 

Fade to Black. Mysterious Press, 1997. 245 pages

Neal Donahoe walks the piers of Santa Barbara as the town's acting Harbormaster. And Coast Guard Lieutenant Tory Lennox, the newcomer on the dock, is beginning to feel a part of the floating world that makes up the city's marina and her beat. Nevertheless, Neal and Tory have their problems. Tory's reputation is frozen in mud, and she seems doomed to wither quietly at her post. What's more, she and Neal are at personal loggerheads. He's pushing for marriage, and Tory's not sure what she wants. Enter Erling Halvorsen. Erling - family man, self-declared minister of God, and skipper of the Prophet Jonah, a maritime eyesore on Santa Barbara's pristine shoreline - finds an angel in Tory, who is touched by the plight of the Halvorsen clan. When Tory's boss lowers the boom and orders the boat our of the harbor, she befriends the Halvorsens and helps them move. For Tory, it's a simple act of kindness. For Erling, it's a celestial sign. He has found the one. Meanwhile, Halvorsen's eldest son is a delinquent dock rat who just happens to be around when local painter Wilbur Andreas is blinded by acetone. Martha, the oldest daughter, is quietly rebellious but obviously terrified of her father. The three remaining children are wise beyond their years. And Erling's righteous zeal masks a rage that can consume everyone he loves - including Tory. Finally, in a single act of apocalyptic daring, the storm erupts. Caught in its center, Tory will need all the courage she can summon to prevent a bloodbath. And, trapped at its outermost edge, Neal must race against time to save both the woman and the world he loves.

 

 

 

Gidley, Charles (1938–2010)

The Raging of the Sea. Deutsch, 1984. 543 pages

The son of a Royal Navy officer whose father died a hero in WW II joins the post-war Royal Navy as an officer, becomes a pilot.


 

 

 

Armada: the novel. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1987. 437 pages

Tale of the Spanish Armada of 1588.



 

 

 

 

Gilbert, Elizabeth (1969- )

Stern Men. Houghton Mifflin Co., 2001. 289 pages

Ruth Thomas returns from boarding school to join her family in their Maine island lobster fishing business which is in a age-old fishing feud with other local lobstermen.

 

 

 

 

Gilchrist, Sir Andrew (1910-1993)

Death Of An Admiral. Hale, 1988. 191 pages

In this novel the author gives his explanation for the events of the nine fateful days between Admiral Sir Tom Phillips' arrival in Singapore to assume command of the British Force Z and December 10, 1941. On this day the Admiral was lost, along with a thousand other men when the Japanese sank the British battleships HMS PRINCE OF WALES and HMS REPULSE in the South China Sea.



 

 

 

Gilpatric, Guy (1896-1950)

Glencannon series:

Dipsomaniac Scots Chief Engineer Glencannon makes life difficult for Captain Ball and everyone else aboard the British tramp steamer INCHCLIFFE CASTLE, especially First Mate Montgomery. Duggan's Dew of Kirkintilloch, "most gorgeous of all liquids that ever dripped golden from the nozzle of a still to mingle its perfume with that of the heather in the cold highland mists", leads Glencannon into and, amazingly, sometimes out of, all kinds of trouble.


  1. Scotch and Water. Dodd, Mead, 1931. 248 pages

    Contents: Scotch And Water -- Mary, Queen Of Scots -- The Lost Limerick -- The Missing Link -- He Might Have Been A Rooshan -- The Snyke In The Grass -- The Bold Man Of Dunvegan -- Cock O' The North -- The Flaming Chariot -- The Genii Of Gibraltar.

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  3. Half-Seas Over. Dodd, Mead, 1932. 227 pages

    Contents: Odds And Ends -- The Glasgow Smasher -- The Loathsome Captain Skinkly -- Barking Dog -- Knavery At Naples -- Scones Upon The Waters -- The Ash Cat -- The Crafty Jerko-Slovaks -- The Fountain Of Youth -- Just Between Shipmates.

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  5. Mr Glencannon. Dodd, Mead, 1934. 246 pages

    Contents: The ladies of Catsmeat Yard -- Broilers of the sea -- Hams across the sea -- One good tern -- One way to Mecca -- Pardon the French -- A plugged brass farthing -- The iron mare -- The admiral of Africa -- The roast beef of old England.

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  7. Three Sheets in the Wind. Dodd, Mead, 1936. 243 pages

    Contents: The Rolling Stone -- A Nosegay For Mr. Montgomery -- Chinaman's Chance -- Champagne Charlie -- The Pearl Of Panama -- Star Dust And Corn -- The Toothless Hag Of Cadiz -- Three Lovesick Swains Of Gibraltar -- Mud Bottom Mulligan.

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  9. The Gentleman with the Walrus Mustache : in which are set forth numerous stirring events in the exemplary life & charitable works of Mr. Colin Glencannon, chief engineer of the S.S. Inchcliffe Castle. Dodd, Mead, 1939. 275 pages

    Contents: Gabriel's trumpet -- The toad men of Tumbaroo -- Captain Snooty-off-the-yacht -- At the sign of the Brass Knuckle -- Double, double deal and trouble -- Mutiny on the Inchcliffe Castle -- The yogi of West Ninth Street -- The donkeyman's widow -- The mean man of Genoa -- The wailing lady of Limehouse.

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  11. Glencannon Afloat: or, Golden rule and brass knuckles on the S.S. Inchcliffe Castle. Dodd, Mead, 1941. 240 pages

    Contents: The Rum Blossom -- The Ancient Mariner -- The Way of a Man with a Mermaid -- The Loving Cup -- The Monte Carlo Massacre -- The Smugglers of San Diego -- The Scot from Scotland Yard -- The Hunting of the Haggis.

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  13. Mr Glencannon Ignores the War. E.P. Dutton, 1944. 157 pages

    The Scot takes on the Japanese Navy. Originally a 5 part serial in "The Saturday Evening Post".

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  15. The Canny Mr. Glencannon: in which is set forth a true account of numerous recent and stirring events in the exemplary life & charitable works of Colin St. Andrew MacThrockle Glencannon, Esq., chief engineer of the S.S. Inchcliffe Castle. E.P. Dutton, 1948. 215 pages

    Contents: Where early fa's the dew -- The Glasgow fantom -- Monkey business at Gibraltar -- The home stretch -- Crocodile tears -- The Glencannon collection -- Mr. Glencannon and the ailing cockroach -- Souse of the border -- The masked monster -- The artful Mr. Glencannon -- Glenconnon ignores the war.

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  17. Glencannon Meets Tugboat Annie. Harper, 1950. 214 pages

    Written with Norman Reilly Raine. Mostly a Tugboat Annie Puget Sound story with a guest appearence by Glencannon.

 

 

 

 


Action in the North Atlantic. E.P. Dutton, 1943. 189 pages

A Liberty Ship heading for Murmansk during WW II becomes separated from the rest of the convoy. Published in conjunction with the Warner Bros film.

 

 

 

 

Gladd, Arthur Anthony (1913- )

Galleys East! Dodd, Mead, 1961. 270 pages

Greek-Venetian lad, forced to become a sponge fisher after his father's disappearance, meets Miguel de Cervantes, finds Barbarossa's treasure, gets shipwrecked by a storm, captured by the Turks, and forced to become a galley slave. Escaping from the Turks, he goes to the Holy League fleet camped outside of Lepanto, warns them of a Turkish trap, and fights at the battle of Lepanto alongside Cervantes, rescuing his father and restoring the family fortune. Seems more plausible as you read the story, than when you encapsulate it.

 

 

 

Glanville, Alec (1902-1976) [pseud. Alexander Haig Glanville Grieve]

Death Goes Ashore. Harrap, 1936. 288 pages

 

 

 

 


Death in Our Wake. Harrap, 1937. 280 pages


The Body in the Trawl. Harrap, 1938. 316 pages


 

 

 

 

Master's Ticket. Herbert Jenkins, 1940. 282 pages

Published under the pseudonym Brassbounder


 

 

 

Out of the Shadow. Jenkins, 1951. 221 pages

Robin Fraser, one time submarine commander and Japanese prisoner of war is down on his luck. Then he is asked to participate in the recovery of treasure from a ship sunk during the French Revolution and accepts the job. The story of the salvage operations is hair raising in itself but in addition there is a story of intrigue and double dealing and finally of murder.


 

 

 

Glanzman, Sam (1924-2017)

A Sailor's Story. Marvel Entertainment Group, 1987. 1 volume

Graphic novel about service aboard a FLETCHER class destroyer during WW II. The ship was equipped with a catapult for an OS2U Kingfisher aircraft. "...very well done, and very evocative of a sailor's life on a 'tin can' in the Pacific."


 

 

 

Wind, Dreams, and Dragons. Marvel Entertainment Group, 1989. 1 volume

A Sailor's Story, book two. Covers the kamikaze period of WW II in the Pacific in more detail.

 

 

 

 

 

Glascock, William Nugent, Captain RN, (1787?-1847)

Naval Sketch-Book; or, The Service Afloat And Ashore : with characteristic reminiscences, fragments and opinions on professional and political subjects. H. Colburn, 1826. 2 volumes

"...A curious olla-podrida of 'galley' stories, criticisms on naval books, and miscellanies,... It is not very well written, and is in parts very dull, but provides some genuine things." [Saintsbury's Nineteenth Century Literature]


 

 

 

Sailors and Saints, or Matrimonial Manoeuvres. H. Colburn, 1829. 3 volumes


Tales of a Tar, with Characteristic Anecdotes. H. Colburn and R. Bentley, 1830. 333 pages


Land Sharks and Sea Gulls. R. Bentley, 1838. 3 volumes

 

 

 

Gobbell, John J.

Todd Ingram Series:

  1. The Last Lieutenant. St. Martin's, 1995. 360 pages

    A spy story in the Philippines during World War II. A German agent has obtained American battle plans for an attack on a Japanese fleet off Midway, information which could lead to an American defeat and a Japanese invasion of the U.S. An American lieutenant races to catch the agent.

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  3. A Code for Tomorrow. St. Martin's, 1999. 316 pages

    As the war in the South Pacific heats up, Lieutenant Ingram gets a new assignment to the destroyer U.S.S. Howell, on which he will serve as executive officer. Thrown into two epic naval battles of World War II, the battle of Cape Esperance and the battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, a young but already battle-weary Todd Ingram is also in the middle of a personal nightmare: his girlfriend, Army nurse Helen Durand, is trapped behind enemy lines, fighting for the resistance on Mindanao. With Soviet espionage activity hindering his attempted rescue of Helen, Lieutenant Ingram is at an impasse.

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  5. When Duty Whispers Low. St. Martin's, 2002. 343 pages

    It's 1943, and the U.S. Navy is caught in a fierce battle against the Japanese in the South Pacific. At stake, is the Allies' newly won Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. But Isoroku Yamamoto, admiral of the Combined Fleet and architect of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, desperately wants Guadalcanal back and prepares to launch a series of bombing raids in the Solomons.

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  7. The Neptune Strategy. St. Martin's, 2004. 344 pages

    In 1944, the Allies have delivered a stunning blow to Hitler's Western front. In the Pacific, Admiral Raymond A. Spruance's Fifth fleet is poised to eviscerate the Japanese Navy - and begin a new war for the occupied islands. But in the center of this world-spanning drama, a lone Japanese submarine is on a mission of a very different kind. And on board is Todd Ingram, a prisoner of war and captive of fate.

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  9. The Edge of Valor. Naval Institute Press, 2014. 324 pages

    Todd Ingram has just saved his ship from a kamikaze raid. While seeking repairs in Okinawa, he hears news of the war’s end...and then receives mysterious orders to defuse an imminent Soviet attack. In the process, he is to rescue a Red Cross representative with irrefutable proof of Japanese war crimes.

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  11. Dead Man Launch. StarboardSide, 2017. 383 pages

    In 1968, a US traitor sells top-secret codes to the Soviet Union. Then a Soviet submarine disappears in the North Pacific...and as the Russians mobilize to find it, a US nuclear submarine goes missing as well. Vice Admiral Todd Ingram is caught in the morass—and so is his son, Navy Lieutenant Jerry Ingram.

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  13. Somewhere in the South Pacific. Severn River, 2021. 292 pages

    Fresh from Stateside training, Lieutenant JG John Kennedy takes command of the PT 109, a torpedo boat in desperate need of repairs. When a disastrous attempt to interrupt Japanese supply lines slices Kennedy’s PT 109 in half, Ingram and his six destroyers must pick up where Kennedy left off.

 

 

 


The Brutus Lie. Scribner's, 1991. 357 pages

Reunited after thirty-five years of Cold War, brothers and bitter enemies Lofton and Dobrynyn pursue their individual goals of outwitting each other, unaware that their deaths have been ordered at the highest government levels. Much of the action takes place on submarines.

 

 

 

A Call to Colors: A Novel of the Leyte Gulf. Ballantine, 2006. 487 pages

Commander Mike Donovan is a veteran haunted by earlier savage battles. What Donovan doesn't know is that Vice Admiral Takao Kurita of Japan has laid an ingenious trap as the Matthew heads for the treacherous waters of Leyte Gulf. But Donovan faces something even deadlier than Kurita's battleships: Explosives secretly slipped on board American ships by saboteurs are set to detonate at any time.

 

 

 

 

Golding, William (1911-1993)

Pincher Martin; The Two Deaths of Christopher Martin. Faber & Faber, 1956. 208 pages

Torpedoed RN officer washes up on a barren rock in the middle of the Atlantic. Strange.

 

 

 

 

 

To the Ends of the Earth trilogy:

Old Napoleonic Wars warship hauls passengers to the Antipodes.


  1. Rites of Passage. Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1980. 270 pages

    An account of a trip to Australia in the form of a journal written by Edmund Talbot, a young, aristocratic passenger aboard the British warship HMS Pandora. His influential godfather, having secured him employment with the Governor General in Australia, presents him with the journal in which to record the significant events of the journey. The journal quickly becomes concerned with the account of the downfall of a passenger, the Reverend Colley. Winner of the Man Booker Prize.

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  3. Close Quarters. Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1987. 281 pages

    This book begins with Edmund Talbot starting a new journal, but with a different tone as this was not to be presented to his godfather. The plot focuses upon the romantic feelings of a clearly unwell Talbot for a young woman whom he meets on a different ship they come across, HMS Alcyone, and fears about the seaworthiness of the Pandora to complete her journey.

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  5. Fire Down Below. Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1989. 313 pages

    Continues the ever-more perilous voyage of the old ship and charts, amongst other things, Talbot's ongoing maturation and growing admiration for the Prettimans, the rivalry between the two principal officers (Summers and Benét) for Captain Anderson's respect and trust and the conclusion to Edmund's affaire of the heart with Miss Chumley.

 

 

 



Goldman, Eric (1949- )

Napoleon's Gambit. [self published], 2008. 373 pages

A modern sailor is recruited by the Royal Navy and finds himself on the deck of HMS Impérieuse in 1813, as she sails into battle against overwhelming odds. At stake are $5 billion in gold and the fate of the modern world.

 

 

 

 

Goldman, Francsico (1954- )

The Ordinary Seaman. Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997. 387 pages

Fifteen desperate men lured from Central America by the promise of work aboard a freighter find themselves trapped on a rusting, rat- and roach-infested hulk without plumbing, heat or electricity, abandoned at an isolated Brooklyn pier. Placated by the promise that they will eventually be paid, the crew work for six months under horrifying conditions: half starved, filthy, sick and humiliated, they're victims of their own poverty and the chicanery of others.

 

 

 

Goldsmith, John

Return to Treasure Island. Berkley, 1985. 251 pages

Jim Hawkins, now an adult in the employ of Squire trelawney, is set to travel to Jamaica to discover why the Trelawny's estate there is not making money when Long John Silver resurfaces. It seems that Silver is after the rest of Flint's treasure left behind on the first expedition, and the key lies in Jim's map. Naturally, Trelawny's estate manager -- and his partner, the Governor of Jamaica -- are cheating Trelawny, and know about the treasure map... need more be said?

 

 

 

Good, James

Sub Wars series:

  1. Target Delta V. Zebra, 1982. 216 pages

    Russians send super sub on a cruise, and the US sends our hero after it with orders to capture or sink it.

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  3. Target Susus. Zebra, 1982. 223 pages



 

 

 

 

 

Goodrich, Marcus (1897-1991)

Delilah. Popular Library, 1941. 558 pages

Life on an early US destroyer on the eve of World War I. Much of the book constitutes detailed descriptions of various characters, punctuated by plot developments associated with the ship's mission in general support of maintaining order in the southern islands of the Filipino archipelago, populated by Muslim natives dissatisfied with the center of government in the northern island of Luzon. The relationship between the enlisted men and the officers on board the Delilah receives special treatment. This relationship can be seen as a logical link between the strict stratification of naval personnel in the age of sail and the more egalitarian navy that emerged following World War II.One of the great classics of naval literature.

 

 

 

Gordon, Richard (Gordon Ostlere) (1921-2017)

Doctor At Sea. M. Joseph, 1953. 219 pages

A newly qualified doctor signs on as ship's doctor in a merchant ship for a voyage from Liverpool to South America and back. Loosely based on the author's experiences as a ship's doctor. It was filmed with Dirk Bogarde as the doctor and James Robertson Justice as the ship's captain.

 

 

 

The Captain's Table. Harcourt, Brace, 1954. 224 pages

Rough diamond cargo ship captain is given command of the company's passenger ship.


 

 

 

 

Gordon-Stables, W. (Gordon Stables) (1840-1910)

The Meteor Flag of England : The Story of a Coming Conflict. James Nisbet & Co, 1905. 332 pages

Written for boys and set in 1980-1! The French, the Germans and the Russians invade Britain: The French the South, the Germans and Russians Scotland. The technical advances are a bit out to say the least, 300 knot coal burning ships and giant subs etc. But underlying all this the author was greatly concerned about the vulnerability of Scotland to invasion because of the governments parsimonious attitude to modernising the fleet and in his work with youth (boys) organisations he advocated they should be encouraged to shoot and own rifles to defend the country in that event.

 

 

 

Gould, Alan (1949- )

The Man Who Stayed Below. Angus & Robertson, 1984. 201 pages

A raw 16 year old apprentice is on a wool clipper from Melbourne bound for London via Cape Horn. He is intoxicated with the glamour of the sea and ships until he encounters the malign Captain Trygg.

 

 

 


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