Scortia, Thomas N. (1926-1986) and Robinson, Frank M. (1926-2014)
The Gold Crew. Warner, 1980. 435 pages
Psycological experiment (crew is led to believe the USSR has attacked the US) aboard a US Navy SSBN leads to big trouble under the Arctic Ocean.
Scott, Douglas [pseud. Douglas Smith] (1926-1996)
The Burning of the Ships. Secker & Warburg, 1980. 436 pages
A merchant captain, surviving a torpedoing, gets rescued by Vichy forces attempting to recover Italian survivors from a torpedoed liner -- shades of the LACONIA. This gets him involved in a web of intrigue involving Vichy collaboration with the Germans, a sabotage ring burning Allied merchant ships, and a Soviet spy seeking to wreck Anglo-Allied cooperation.
Die for the Queen. Secker & Warburg, 1981. 300 pages
The British Admiralty sends the liner QUEEN ELIZABETH - the world’s then-largest liner - on her secret 1940 maiden voyage from Great Britain to the United States in what turned out to be a successful attempt to elude the German U-boats which were waiting for her.
Chains. Secker & Warburg, 1984. 342 pages
Merchant captain, captured by a German U-Boat crew after his ship is torpedoed and sunk, escapes from a special POW camp in France and finds himself enmeshed in a web of espionage and treachery in the days leading up to Allied invasion of Sicily.
The Albtross Run. Secker & Warburg, 1986. 300 pages
American war correspondent, recuperating from airplane crash injuries in Bombay get swept into the orbit of a hard-bitten, self-taught merchant captain who befriends the correspondent. The captain arranges for the correspondent -- who is trying to get to Sierra Leone -- to travel on his merchantman, which is making an unescorted passage from Bombay to Durban in the face of German and Japanese opposition. The captain faces down a Japanese raider, a typhoon, and a hostile crew, before the correspondent discovers that this hero is being destroyed by personal burdens. Good read.
Scott, J. M. (James Maurice) (1906-1986)
Heather Mary: a Novel of the Sea. Dutton, 1953. 224 pages
A voyage from England to Bermuda by the narrator and four other men in the narrator's yacht, named after his wife, Heather Mary. Each of the crew knew her.
Sea-Wyf and Biscuit. Heinemann, 1955. 191 pages
Refugees from the fall of Singapore survive in an open raft. One has a secret. Filmed in 1957 as Sea Wife
The Lady and the Corsair. Dutton, 1958. 203 pages
An indomitable British woman survives a Sicilian pirate attack and seeks revenge in 1820
The Devil You Don't. Heinemann, 1967. 243 pages
Three Britons take a 20 ton yawl to South Trinidad Island off Brazil in search of treasure stolen during the Peruvian war of independence.
Scott, Justin (1952- )
The Shipkiller. Dial, 1978. 340 pages
The story of a man whose sailboat was rammed by the largest tanker in the world. He lost his wife and swears that he is going to sink the ship. Will he make it? The story takes you all over the world. A well documented fiction but not far from reality.
Normandie Triangle. Arbor House, 1981. 475 pages
German saboteur who sank the NORMANDIE plans an encore by sinking the QUEEN MARY in New York harbor with 12,000 soldiers aboard. A naval architect working on salvaging the Normandie discovers the plot. Later reprinted under the Author's preferred title The Man Who Loved the Normandie
The Empty Eye of the Sea. HarperCollins, 1993. 245 pages
Mary Fulton and her father are trying to save their failing family salvage business. Captained by Kevin Patrick, The Bowery Queen, their ageing tugboat, is towing a barge to Novia Scotia. There they lose the barge contract but learn of an abandoned freighter adrift in the high seas.
Scott, Michael (1789-1835)
Tom Cringle's Log. T. Cadell, 1833. 2 volumes
First published as a series of sketches in Blackwood's Magazine 1829-33. Scott puts Tom in the Royal Navy in the years 1805-1812. Tom has many nautical adventures though the book is as much a travelogue as a nautical log. In some ways the book is reminiscent of Marryat and in other respects a precursor of O'Brian.
The Cruise of the Midge. Carey & Hart, 1834. 2 volumes
First published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine 1834-35.
Scott, Sir Walter (1771-1832)
The Pirate. Constable, 1822. 3 volumes
Makes the list due to some fifteen pages of shipboard activity and the fact that Scott's inaccurate picture of ocean life inspired James Fenimore Cooper to write THE PILOT (q.v.) as a corrective.
Seaborn, Captain Adam [pseud. John Cleves Symmes] (1780-1829)
Symzonia : a Voyage of Discovery. J. Seymour, 1820. 248 pages
During an Antarctic expedition to prove the hollow Earth theory, Seaborn discovers a benevolent, Utopian society that he names Symzonia.
Seafarer [pseud. C. [Clarence] Hedley Barker]
Make Way for а Sailor. Ward, Lock, 1947. 224 pages
Bold Buccaneer. Ward, Lock, 1953. 207 pages
Voyage into Peril. Ward, Lock, 1954. 203 pages
Santa Maria: the Tale of a Sea-Tramp. Ward, Lock, 1955. 191 pages
The Haunted Ship. Ward, Lock, 1956. 191 pages
The Sailor and the Widow. Ward, Lock, 1957. 190 pages
Firebrace and the Java Queen. Ward, Lock, 1958. 192 pages
Captain Firebrace. Ward, Lock, 1958. 190 pages
Firebrace and Father Kelly. Ward, Lock, 1959. 190 pages
Smuggler's Pay for Firebrace. Ward, Lock, 1959. 191 pages
Crook's Cruise. Ward, Lock, 1960 183 pages
Seawell, Molly Elliot (1860-1916)
Little Jarvis. D. Appleton, 1890. 64 pages
Midshipman Paulding. D. Appleton, 1891. 133 pages
Through Thick and Thin, and the Midshipmen's Mess; a Soldier story and a Sailor story. D. Lothrop, 1893. 215 pages
Paul Jones. D. Appleton, 1893. 166 pages
Decatur and Somers. D. Appleton, 1894. 169 pages
Quarterdeck and Fok'sle : Stories of the Sea. W.A. Wilde, 1895. 272 pages
The Rock of the Lion. Harper, 1897. 333 pages
The Imprisoned Midshipmen. D. Appleton, 1908. 245 pages
Sea-Wrack [pseud. E.H. (Edward Horace) Crebbin] (1896-1961)
Sea Trails. Hutchinson, 1935. 286 pages
Six Bells: a Volume of Naval Stories. Rich & Cowan, 1942. 190 pages
Searls, Hank (1922-2017)
The Hero Ship. World, 1969. 302 pages
A retired mustang USN Captain seeks to block the CNO appointment of an officer that served under him during WW II because of an act of cowardice committed by the CNO candidate during a raid on Japan where their carrier gets hit by multiple kamikazes. The captain had backed off punishing the officer in 1945 because he was the only witness, and the officer had had an affair with the captain's wife while a midshipman at Annapolis.
Overboard. Norton, 1977. 283 pages
Yachtsman sailing the Pacific wakes up to discover that his wife has fallen overboard. Seventy miles from Tahiti he searches for her along the yacht's path.
Sounding. Random House, 1982. 214 pages
A sperm whale that wants to communicate with humans encounters a sonar officer in a Soviet nuclear submarine stranded on the ocean's bottom. Object: survival.
Seifert, Shirley (1888-1971)
River Out of Eden. M.S. Mill, 1940. 432 pages
Adventures of a young boatman on the Mississippi in 1763
Waters of the Wilderness. J.P. Lippincott, 1941. 523 pages
George Rogers Clark attempts to open the Spanish-controlled Mississippi River to American traffic
Those Who Go Against the Current. J.P. Lippincott, 1943. 612 pages
Southwestern Spanish explorer Manuel Lisa maps the Missouri River
The Proud Way. J.P. Lippincott, 1948. 316 pages
The courtship between Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his second wife, Varina Howell, set along the Mississippi River.
Seligman, Adrian (1909-2003)
Thunder Reef. Hodder & Stoughton, 1950. 255 pages
Thunder in the Bay. Hodder & Stoughton, 1951. 223 pages
A Mountain of Gold. Hodder & Stoughton, 1952. 223 pages
Trafalgar '49 : an adventure for Boys and Girls. Hodder & Stoughton, 1953. 192 pages
Sellwood, A. V.
Stand By to Die! White Lion, 1961. 128 pages
Extremely improbable novel about a Royal Navy river gunboat, built for China service but withdrawn to Singapore in 1940, that is trapped behind Japanese lines when Singapore falls. The crew attempts to escape to Australia, but encounters a Japanese invasion fleet in Indonesia, and goes down in a blaze of glory, with the survivors then continuing their efforts in small boats and with native assistance.
Senseney, Dan
Scanlon of the Sub Service. Doubleday, 1963. 142 pages
Teen joins the Navy, following family tradition by striking for submarines, experiences submarine training, and is posted on a nuclear sub heading for the North Pole. For young Readers.
Sepetys, Ruta
Salt to the Sea. Philomel, 2016. 391 pages
Young adult novel about four refugee teenagers attempting to flee Germany aboard the doomed Wilhelm Gustloff.
Sercombe, Ronald G. (1893-1965)
"Bessie Arbruster Goes Fishing" Liberty, September 12, 1942.
Bessie Arbruster is Liberty's knockoff of Tugboat Annie, set in a Maine backwater port. Other titles: "Bessie Arbruster Bucks a Blow" (October 16, 1943), "Bessie Arbruster Goes A-Scuttlin’" (May 27, 1944), "Bessie Arbruster Snags a Whuppersnapper" (September 9, 1944), "Bessie Arbruster Goes Super-Snooping" (October 7, 1944) & "Bessie Arbruster Plugs a Chain-Gunger" (January 13, 1945)
Serraillier, Ian (1912-1994)
They Raced for Treasure : a novel for children. Jonathan Cape, 1946. 237 pages
Captain Bounsaboard and the Pirates. Jonathan Cape, 1949. 252 pages
Setlowe, Richard (1933-2022)
The Black Sea. Ticknor & Fields, 1991. 413 pages
The Soviet luxury liner BLACK SEA is highjacked by Moslem fundamentalist pirates in the Singapore Strait, who then hide her up an uncharted jungle river. A US destroyer captain tries his darndest to find and rescue the hostages. A thriller about the new world order.
Severin, Tim
The Pirate Adventures of Hector Lynch:
1677, on a late summer’s evening two ships lurk off the coast of southwest Ireland. They are Barbary corsairs from North Africa, slave catchers. Hector Lynch wakes to the sound of a pistol shot and moments later he is taken prisoner.
Sailing across the Caribbean Hector Lynch falls into the hands of the notorious buccaneer, Captain John Coxon. Coxon delivers Hector to Sir Henry Morgan, a bitter enemy of Governor Lynch. Coxon seeks to revenge himself on Hector and the young seafarer finds himself on the run again.
Hector Lynch follows his quest for the young Spanish woman, Maria, with whom he has fallen in love. His search takes him and his friends on a nightmare passage around Cape Horn where they come across a small warship entombed on an icefloe.
Hector Lynch and his companions are in the Caribbean, diving to plunder a wreck, when they are spotted by a passing Spanish ship. To prevent news of their activities getting out, they cripple the Spanish vessel by burning her sails. But a chance encounter at sea means that Hector runs afoul of Laurens de Graff - renowned swashbuckling mercenary captain - now in command of a royal French frigate.
Hector Lynch, wanted by the authorities in London for piracy, has come to St Mary's Island, on his search for the elusive Libertalia - a settlement where it is said that all are allowed to live freely. Here, he meets Captain Henry Avery, who is sailing north through the Indian Ocean in search of a huge haul of gold.
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