Authors Sha - Sma
Shannon, Dell [pseud. Elizabeth Linington] (1921-1988)
The Scalpel and the Sword. Morrow, 1987. 392 pages
Irish surgeon moves to London in 1803 to improve his fortune, then does a stint as a Royal Navy surgeon. He serves in the Mediterranean, and sees action at Trafalgar.
Shay, Edith Foley (1893-1961) and Smith, Katherine Foster (1896-1947)
The Private Adventure of Captain Shaw. Houghton Mifflin, 1945. 255 pages
Cape Cod captain's curious adventure in 1790s France leads to a prosperous voyage. Katherine Smith was the wife of John Dos Passos.
Shea, Philip
The Devil's Captain. Windsor, 1992. 318 pages
Bartholemew Roberts, forced to become a pirate when captured by them, becomes captain Black Bart Roberts, scourge of the Atlantic. Improbable but fun pirate adventure set during War of Jenkins' Ear.
Sheckley, Robert (1928-2005)
The Man in the Water : a novel of great tension. Regency, 1961. 158 pages
Two men struggle for possession of a small boat alone on the wasteland of the Sargasso Sea.
Sheldon, Charlie
The Boomerang Heist. Writer's Showcase, 2003. 286 pages
An investigative reporter is forced to take a voyage on a container ship crossing the Pacific to Seattle. A promotional cargo container, the Boomerang Box, which has been traveling the world as a high school project, will arrive in Seattle aboard that same ship and will be met by the President and seventeen other heads of state. Two hours after leaving Kobe, Japan, the ship is hijacked by terrorists.
Shellabarger, Samuel (1888-1954)
Lord Vanity. Little, Brown, 1953. 367 pages
From galley slave to the most dangerous swordsman in Europe in the 1750s.
Shelley, Sidney (1921- )
The Bowmanville Break. Delacorte, 1968. 242 pages
German prisoners of war are plotting a daring escape, and it's up to a brash Allied officer to stop them. The novel recounts the elaborate escape strategies used by the prisoners and the tactics the prison camp officials employed to track the escapees to the U-boats that were to carry them back to Germany. Filmed and reprinted as The McKenzie Break.
Shepard, Lucius (1943-2014)
Viator Plus. PS Publishing, 2009. 355 pages
Hoping a salvage job on VIATOR, an abandoned ship off the coast of Alaska, will be a springboard to a new life, Thomas Wilander is disturbed to find that his four workmates are behaving erratically, perhaps suffering from mental instability. With the help of Arlene, a woman in the nearby town of Kaliaska, Wilander investigates VIATOR's past and the origins of the mysterious man who hired him, eventually learning that some of the answers may lie in his own dreams, which seem to be coming true. The text in this collection is the author's perfered version.
Shepherd, Peter
The Saturn Experiment. W. H. Allen, 1988. 192 pages
NATO nuclear submarine "Saturn" and the Soviet battleship "Kharkov" face-off in Soviet waters--in a battle that could mean not only the lives of the crewmen aboard but the loss of world freedom.
Shepperd, Stephen
For All the Tea in China. Tudor, 1988. 477 pages
Two rogue captains are challenged to sail the tea route from China to England in a race against a steamship. The Winner makes a fortune, gets the girl, and keeps his ship.
Sherlock, John (1932-2002) and Westheimer, David (1917-2005)
The Amindra Gamble. Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1982. 319 pages
Cargo ship smuggles England's gold reserves to the Canada in fall 1940 struggles to avoid capture by Germans.
Shirreffs, Gordon D. (1914-1996)
Roanoke Raiders. Westminster, 1959. 160 pages
William Barker Cushing fits out a spar torpedoboat to destroy the newly launched Confederate ram ALBEMARLE, lying eight miles up North Carolina's Roanoke River. Based on an actual exploit.
The Gray Sea Raiders. Chilton, 1961. 160 pages
Civil War adventure for young readers.
The Mosquito Fleet. Chilton, 1961. 184 pages
The siege of Vicksburg, for young readers.
Powder Boy of the Monitor. Westminster, 1961. 188 pages
Civil War adventure for young readers.
Bob Dunbar and Gary Lunt
The Cold Seas Beyond. Westminster, 1963. 192 pages
Teens Bob Dunbar and Gary Lunt join the ragtag crew supporting the U.S. forces during World War II in a quiet corner of the Aleutians--unaware that the Japanese are about to invade.
The Hostile Beaches. Westminster, 1964. 192 pages
Bob Dunbar and Gary Lunt join a destroyer during the Solomons campaign,
The Enemy Seas. Westminster, 1965. 190 pages
Rescued by a submarine, Bob Dunbar and Gary Lunt take part in the boat's perilous mission against the Japanese.
The Bolo Battalion Westminster, 1966. 218 pages
Bob Dunbar and Gary Lunt get off the submarine to participate in jungle warfare and guerrilla fighting in the Philippines during World War II
Torpedoes Away! Westminster, 1967. 206 pages
Bob Dunbar and Gary Lunt get back on board the submarine GRAYFIN just in time for its third patrol in World War II, a special mission in the Java Sea to seek out and destroy enemy ships.
The Killer Sea. Westminster, 1968. 192 pages
Discharged from the Navy after World War II but not yet ready to exchange sea life for college life, two young men join the crew of a salvage tug, and find themselves trying to salvage a Canadian ship taken over by twenty Japanese who do not know the war is over. For young readers.
Captain Cutlass. Fawcett Gold Medal, 1978. 352 pages
Giant pirate battles other pirates, Spanish ships and two women. Somewhat erotic at times.
Shute, Nevil (Nevil Shute Norway) (1899-1960)
Most Secret. W. Morrow, 1945. 310 pages
A flamethrower is fitted to a fishing boat as a secret weapon during WW II.
The Breaking Wave. Morrow, 1955. 282 pages
U.K. title: Requiem for a Wren. Australian veteran of WW II returns home to discover his parent's housekeeper has just died through an overdose of sleeping pills. In attempting to unearth her true identity he discovers that she was his late brother's fiance, a WREN during the War. Much of the novel takes place ashore, but the central events are linked to the sea, whether in harbor or on the English Channel.
The Trustee from the Toolroom. Morrow, 1960. 311 pages
Machinist goes to the South Seas to salvage a yacht and settle an estate.
What Happened to the Corbetts . Heinemann, 1939. 267 pages
USA title: Ordeal. With London being bombed and cholera breaking out, the Corbett family escaped to Sonia, their old, gaff-rigged cutter, and set sail.
Sigurðardóttir, Yrsa (1963- )
The Silence of the Sea. Hodder & Stoughton, 2011. 420 pages
Translation of Brakið. A luxury yacht arrives in Reykjavik harbor with nobody on board. What has happened to the crew, and to the family who were on board when it left Lisbon? Series character Þóra Guðmundsdóttir (Thora Gudmundsdottir) is hired by the young father's parents to investigate, and is soon drawn deeper into the mystery.
Silliphant, Stirling (1918-1996)
Steel Tiger. Ballentine, 1983. 318 pages
Our hero, an ex-cop and Vietnam vet, sails off to the South Pacific, smack into a mystery of brutal killings that he has to solve.
Silver, Richard
Captain Shark series:
By Pirates' Blood. Pinnacle, 1975. 158 pages
Introduces, Sebastian Shark, pirate captain in the dying days of the buccaneers -- who sailed with Morgan to Panama in his youth and now commands various ships, generally named DRACO. He buckles a swash across the Spanish Main in various scrapes and contretemps. Ahrrg, me hearties!
Jaws of Death. Pinnacle, 1975. 184 pages
Picks up from By Pirates' Blood with Shark escaping from Spanish captivity, embarking on a wide variety of stereotypical buccaneering activities, and finally going in search of Morgan's treasure.
Silverberg, Robert (1935- )
Lord of Darkness. Arbor House, 1983. 558 pages
In the late 16th century a young British seaman is captured by the Portuguese and shipped to Angola, where he's forced to act as pilot for slavers. He gets drawn into African Satanic rites, and confronts the Lord of Darkness.
Simenon, Georges (1903-1989)
Maigret Keeps a Rendezvous. (Margaret Ludwig, translator). Harcort, Brace & Co., 1941. 312 pages
Collection which includes "The Sailors' Rendezvous" (Au rendez-vous des Terre-Neuvas). Inspector Maigret investigates the death of Captain Fallut after the disasterous voyage of the trawler Océan.
Simmons, Dan (1948- )
The Crook Factory. Morrow, 1999. 448 pages
Fictionalized version of the real life counter-espionage and spy ring, known as the Crook Factory, that was set up by Ernest Hemingway in Cuba during World War II. Here Papa manages to sink a German U-Boat.
The Terror. Little, Brown, 2007. 769 pages
Captain Francis Crozier, searching for the Northwest Passage commands HMS Terror and has to overcome bad food, poor leadership, even poorer subordinates, mutinous sailors, cold, scurvy and a Monster, in order to reconcile himself with the future that he has seen but fails to understand. Adapted for television in 2018.
Simon, Philip Jerome (1901- )
Log of the Mayflower. Priam, 1956. 208 pages
Account of the Mayflower from the aborted attempts to sail from England with the Speedwell, to the final ocean voyage are portrayed through log records of the Mayflower. The story ends with the Pilgrims about to embark at Plymouth.
Simpson, George E. and Burger, Neal R.
Ghostboat. Dell, 1976. 412 pages
Fantasy. US Submarine CANDLEFISH disappears on December 11, 1944 and reappears on October 5, 1974 with everything in perfect working condition - but no crew. A new crew assembles to retrace the last voyage.
Thin Air. Dell, 1978. 318 pages
Shades of The Philadelphia Experiment! A ship disappears during tests, the crew reappear 25 years later. Investigation of Navy coverup of secret weapon tests ensues.
Skouen, Arne (1913-2003)
Stokers' Mess. A.A. Knopf, 1948. 237 pages
Norwegian sailors on Norwegian-flagged cargo ships. Originally published in Norway as Fest i Port des Galets.
Slater, Ian (1941- )
Firespill. Bantam, 1977. 309 pages
An oil spill ignites off the Canadian coast, turns into an inferno.
Deep Chill. Worldwide, 1989. 378 pages
USN submarine is disabled on the bottom of the North Pacific. An oceanographer is sent to help and a Soviet sub is ready to pounce.
Slaughter, Frank G. [pseud. C. V. Terry] (1908-2001)
Fort Everglades. Doubleday, 1951. 340 pages
Set during the Seminole Wars in Florida, which was fought by small U.S. Navy and marine boat parties.
Buccaneer Surgeon. Hanover House, 1954. 309 pages
Originally published using the pseudonym C.V. Terry. Footloose British-Spanish surgeon's adventures as a spy, adventurer, and ship's captain serving Francis Drake as "El Draco" raids Santo Domingo and Cartegena in the years leading up to the Armada. A Captain Blood knock-off, but not a particularly good one.
Darien Venture. Hanover House, 1955. 286 pages
Originally published using the pseudonym C.V. Terry. English who used his buccaneering income to become a surgeon. Unable to set up a practice is Edinburgh, he gets dragged against his better judgment into a Scots attempt to buccaneer and settle in the Darien coast (Panama). Events take place in 1698-1700.
Flight from Natchez. Doubleday, 1955. 285 pages
In 1781 Dr. Powers, unjustly dismissed from his British regiment in Florida, makes his way to Natchez. When that city was threatened by the Spanish colonists, Powers leads a band of Loyalists in a hazardous flight through the wilderness of the lower Mississippi Valley
The Warrior. Doubleday, 1956. 255 pages
An American adopted as a blood brother by Chief Osceola, tries to save the deteriorating situation between the Seminoles and the encroaching white settlers
The Mapmaker : a novel of the days of Prince Henry, the Navigator. Doubleday, 1957. 320 pages
Andrea Bianco escapes from slavery on a Moorish galley to become a navigator in the service of Prince Henry of Portugal. Between fending off the treachery of his half-brother, he discovers the Senegal River and Cuba -- before Columbus. Fun and plausibly told. Very loosely based on the life of a noted cartographer: Andrea Bianco.
The Golden Ones. Hanover House, 1957. 285 pages
Originally published using the pseudonym C.V. Terry. A Sabatini-esque romance with a Sir Francis Drake stand-in
The Deadly Lady of Madagascar. Doubleday, 1959. 264 pages
A C. V. Terry book. Bonita, daughter of pirate pirate Red Carter, buckles swashes with the best of them, mesmerizes British captain, and steals gold.
Pilgrims in Paradise. Doubleday, 1960. 319 pages
Puritan expedition to settle Eleuthera in the 1650s. Book pivots around the interaction of the expedition's surgeon, a freethinking doctor, and its leader, the surgeon's bluenosed brother. Action includes plagues and pirates at sea, survey of a coastline, shipwreck, and escape on a raft, a battle against a Spanish ship that attempts to raid the colony, and a witchcraft trial.
The Purple Quest, a novel of seafaring adventure in the ancient world. Doubleday, 1965. 301 pages
The Phonecian merchant-prince Stabon -- who is not a surgeon -- helps Queen Dido establish Carthage, after himself establishing a Phonecian colony in Spain. Sea battles, shipbuilding and ocean voyages a plenty, but as with most Slaughter sea novels, most of the action occurs on shore. Enjoyable read.
Plague Ship. Doubleday, 1976. 254 pages
An archeologist releases an Ebola-like disease from an ancient burial site in Peru. Only the archeologist's brother, a Nobel-winning epidemiologist, and a clapped-out hospital ship with a bad engine, offer a chance to control the virus before it becomes a world-wide epidemic. Then the superstitious population of the port at which the ship is berthed force it out to sea into the path of a Pacific storm. Good medical detective read, but doesn't get to sea for the first 2/3rds of the story.
Smalley, Peter
Hayter-Rennie series:
HMS Expedient. Century, 2005. 402 pages
In 1786: Captain William Rennie is on the beach and on half pay. Things weren't always so bad for him. So Rennie is amazed when he's given a prime commission: HMS Expedient is a 36 gun frigate; she is to be sent to the South Seas on a scientific expedition. Then a long series of mysterious accidents and setbacks occur as Expedient sails south.
Port Royal. Century, 2006. 386 pages
It is the year 1788. HMS Expedient has returned from a perilous secret mission to the Pacific Ocean. Her Captain, William Rennie, and First Lieutenant James Hayter should be wealthy men, but their patron has seen that their rewards are meager at best. The most they can hope for is a new commission, and soon Expedient is on her way to Port Royal, Jamaica, to protect the British Colony from possible attack. Finding a society founded on the unimaginable riches of slavery and the plantations, Rennie and Hayter also discover a complex enemy plot taking place at the Governor's residence.
Barbary Coast. Century, 2007. 366 pages
Lieutenant James Hayter and Captain William Rennie are to sail to the Mediterranean, to assist Britain's ally Rashid Bey of Rabhet. Murky politics, threatened mutiny, desperate sea actions and imprisonment follow on the sweltering North African Coast, where the rules of European warfare no longer apply and the victor will take everything.
The Hawk. Century, 2008. 354 pages
1790 and England is on the cusp of war with Revolutionary France. The night-time Channel is the scene of intense smuggling activity and the passage of spies from one coast to another. Lieutenant James Hayter has achieved his heart's desire - his first independent command, His Majesty's 'Hawk' cutter, 10 guns.
The Gathering Storm. Century, 2009. 370 pages
Spring 1791. Though deeply disturbed by a terrible incident during his previous commission, James Hayter is nevertheless on the verge of taking command of HMS Sloop Eglantine as Master and Commander when personal tragedy shatters his life. The twin blows convince Hayter that he is not fit to command and he must turn his back on the sea forever.
The Pursuit. Century, 2010. 366 pages
Spring 1792. HMS Expedient and her crew have survived their most perilous commission yet: the dead have been buried and the battle scars repaired. Captain James Rennie is anxious to be active again after a year on the beach. And this time he longs for regular service with the Fleet as opposed to the dangerous detached missions. His friend, Lieutenant James Hayter, is haunted by his past and he too longs for the sea. Both will find their escape, but not in the circumstances they would have wished. Once more the summons comes for a secret voyage, in pursuit of a heavily armed neutral vessel. Aboard the ship lies a secret that could change the course of the coming war for Britain, and the loss of which could tip the balance irrevocably in favour of Revolutionary France. Rennie and Hayter must play a deadly game involving sea battles, mutiny and breathtaking deception.
- The Marvellous Sea. Amazon Digital, 2014. 374 pages
The year is 1793 and while England mobilises her navy and looks East across the Channel and into the Mediterranean, a mission is being planned by Mr. Brough Mappin, administrator of the Secret Service Fund. Once again in command of the frigate HMS Expedient (36) Captain William Rennie and his Lieutenant, James Hayter, find themselves under secret orders and with an independent commission steering a course deep into the South Atlantic.
- The Following Wind. Amazon Digital, 2018. 572 pages
- The Privateer. Amazon Digital, 2021. 434 pages