Wilson, Erle (1898- )
Adams of the Bounty. Criterion, 1958. 316 pages
Another view of the mutiny, from POV of seaman John Adams. Mr. Christian and Captain Bligh portrayed somewhat differently than in other novels.
Wilson, Hazel [Hutchins] (1898-1992)
Tall Ships. Little, Brown, 1958. 234 pages
A 16-year-old Maine boy is pressed into service on an English Man-of-War in the days of the Embargo Act
Wilson, John Fleming (1877-1922)
Across the Latitudes. Little, Brown, 1911. 376 pages
Short stories
Somewhere at Sea and Other Tales. E,P. Dutton, 1923. 423 pages
Posthumous collection of a dozen nautical tales
Wilson, Margaret (1882-1973)
The Valiant Wife. Doubleday, Doran, 1934. 309 pages
U.K. title The Cardinal Points. During the War of 1812, an American privateer is sentenced to Dartmoor Prison. His Quaker bride travels to England to sercure his release
Wilson, Sloan (1920-2003)
Voyage to Somewhere. A.A. Wyn, 1946. 252 pages
Somewhat less than awe-inspiring lieutenant takes command of brand new very small supply ship during WW II. His crew was assigned from the bottom of some alphabetical list; all their names start with "W" except for a couple of the officers. They cruise around the Pacific with assorted unimportant cargoes, never quite catching up with the war. Very good.
Ice Brothers. Arbor House, 1979. 517 pages
Coast Guard ice trawler on Greenland patrol during WW II.
The Greatest Crime. Arbor House, 1980. 306 pages
Fair-alcoholic charter yacht skipper and his travails.
Pacific Interlude. Arbor House, 1982. 317 pages
Veteran of the Greenland patrol commands gasoline tanker in the South Pacific during WW II.
Wilton, Robert
Comptrollerate-General for Scrutiny and Survey series:
Reprinted as Treason's Tide. The armies of France have only to sail to England to complete Napoleon's domination over Europe. Britain is militarily weak, politically divided, unsettled by her rioting poor. Into this feverish environment comes a dead man. Pulled half-drowned from a shipwreck, his past erased, Tom Roscarrock is put to work for the Comptrollerate-General for Scrutiny and Survey, a shadowy Government bureau. He is thrown into a bewildering world of political intrigue and violence. [N.B. The remaining novels in this series are not maritime related]
Wingate, John Allen (1920-2008)
Submariner Sinclair series:
Below the Horizon. St. Martin's, 1975. 195 pages
Set in the very near future, this tells the story of the Third Cod War (there have been two real cod wars already). Iceland, having fished itself fishless within its three-mile limit, then its newer twelve-mile limit, has announced that now there is a 50-mile limit around the island and that all foreign trawlers either will be arrested or sunk. British skipper Hooky Walker, an overweight giant, does not recognize the new limit and says the fish beyond the twelve-mile limit are in international waters. He plays cat-and-mouse with the armed gunboat Hekla, sometimes getting a good haul, at others going home with little to show the company. And trawling is expensive. His worries mount. We follow his English Campion through a terrible blow and freak wave that nearly sinks them. On another trip he is fired upon by the Hekla but escapes in a fog. During the disastrous final voyage, a fellow trawler is fired upon and, out of his mind, Hooky rams the gunboat. Both ships sink in icy waters. But the tragedy is as much about the savaging of fish and rape of the world's greatest protein supply as it is about toilers of the sea.
The Sea Above Them. Barker, 1975. 186 pages
A British hunter-killer nuclear sub goes down off Novaya Zemlya on the Russian coast.
Oil Strike. St. Martin's, 1976. 197 pages
Building an oil rig off the coast of Scotland.
Cold War Trilogy:
Describes the deterioration of relations between the Soviet and Western blocks in a plausible and comprehensive scenario and spells out in some detail the NATO strategy to contain the Soviet submarine threat and keep open the sea lanes between Europe and the States in the pre-all-out-nuclear stage of the lead up to WW III. The stories concentrate mainly on the vessels named in the titles during the confrontation. The operation and deployment of the weapons systems and the ships performance during the various assignments come across as being realistic. This realism is carried through to the dialogue used by the characters and the makes an interesting comparison to the language used in naval war novels set in WW I and WW II.
A confrontation between a Soviet sub and a NATO exercise brings an end to the Cold War at sea and the beginning of perhaps WW3. Anti-submarine tactics, weapon capabilities and details of naval life give authenticity to the story of the eponymous LEANDER class frigate and her part in containing the Soviet submarine threat in the early stages of the sea war.
This takes up the story where it was left in FRIGATE, but from the perspective of an ageing British aircraft carrier as it plays its part in trying to keep the sea lanes to the US open and providing the necessary air cover to prevent Soviet subs getting at the convoys taking reinforcements to Europe.
The crisis is escalating and Armageddon looks inevitable. A Royal Navy conventional submarine is sent on a mission to decoy a Soviet super sub from its Northern Polar lair to its destruction by a nuclear hunter killer.
Go Deep. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1985. 191 pages
An authentic fictional account of the tough 10th Submarine Flotilla that defended Malta in WW II.
The Windship Race. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1987. 206 pages
A somewhat futuristic novel about sail-assisted ships. Illustrated with drawings by the author.
Wingate, William
Fireplay. Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1977. 252 pages
CIA tries to salvage Soviet missile- carrying submarine sunk in 16,600' of water.
Winkler, Anthony C.
The Great Yacht Race. Kingston, 1992. 321 pages
The book is mostly about Jamaica in the 1950's and secondarily about a holy week yacht race from Lucia to Montego Bay. Interweaves the lives of five Montegonians: Fitzpatrick the barrister, Angwin the magistrate, O'Hara the hotelier, Biddle the reporter - all of whom eventually compete in an annual yacht race - and Father Huck, the American priest who ministers over them and tries his best to understand them, while battling with his own conflicts.
Winston, Michael
Jonathan Kinkaid series:
Jonathan Kincaid finds himself serving as First Lieutenant aboard the American frigate Randolph of 32 guns, blockaded in the port of Philadelphia during the winter of 1776-77. Tasked with orders to undertake "independent action" in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic against a mighty British convoy, she manages to elude enemy warships long enough to transform her crew-from the crusty boatswain O'Toole to the teenage midshipman Billy Weatherby-into an effective fighting force.
Kinkaid is given command of his own ship, Swift, of sixteen guns. His assignment is threefold: to deliver a diplomat bearing a copy of the Declaration of Independence to the Dutch free port of St. Eustatia in the Caribbean, to assist a major of marines with a mysterious assignment that takes them to the jungle island of Dominica, inhabited by cannabalistic Carib Indians, and to gain information of any pirate activity in the Virgin Islands that may interfere with American shipping from St. Eustatia to American shores.
Kinkaid is in command of the 18-gun sloop of war, Ranger, tasked with scouting duties for the Continental Fleet. Braving not only the foul and frigid weather of northern waters, Kinkaid must contend with an inexperienced crew, a badly leaking ship, and personality clashes among senior officers; one of them being the bold and aggressive John Paul Jones, in command of the Frigate Alfred, not to mention trying to evade a strong and powerful British force that hopes to trap and destroy the fleet in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Captain Kinkaid and his seagoing patriots take the news of the great victory at Saratoga to Benjamin Franklin in Paris. The newly married Kinkaid wrestles with his own demons as well as enemies of the cause.
Our intrepid captain is given command of America's premier warship, one of the finest ships ever produced during the Revolutionary War, the large and powerful 40-gun frigate Alliance, her mission to deliver 100,000 Spanish milled dollars from the Caribbean port of Havana, Cuba to the coffers of Congress. Needless to say there are many forces that hope to grab this fortune for themselves and others would be just as happy to ensure it never reaches American shores.
Deals with Kinkaid's first assignment as a young officer when he is sent to advise and assist General Benedict Arnold in the building and fighting of an Inland Fleet on Lake Champlain in the summer of 1776 when the war breaks out.
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