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Nautical Fiction Index

Authors T - Tom

Talbot, Michael (1932- )

To the Ends of the Earth. Knopf, 1986. 519 pages

Carrying convicts to Botany bay, Australia, one step ahead of France in a battle for dominion over the South Pacific in the 1780s.

 

 

 

 

Tanner, Mack

Target: Subic Bay. Kensington, 1992. 320 pages

A bloody coup in the Philippines threatens a USN base at Subic Bay. The base commander, shunned by the Pentagon, partners up with a Soviet fleet for a counterattack.

 

 

 

 

Tanner, Tony (Editor)

The Oxford Book of Sea Stories. Oxford Univ. Press, 1994. 410 pages

Initiation / Joseph Conrad -- The Voyage / Washington Irving -- A Descent into the Maelstrom / Edgar Allan Poe -- I have been Drowned / Tom Hopkinson -- Mocha Dick / J.N. Reynolds -- The Chase / Herman Melville -- A Tragedy of Error / Henry James -- High-Water Mark / Francis Bret Harte -- The Open Boat / Stephen Crane -- Make Westing / Jack London -- A Matter of Fact / Rudyard Kipling -- In the Abyss / H.G. Wells -- The Cruise of the Willing Mind / A.E.W. Mason -- The Terror of the Sea Caves / Charles G.D. Roberts -- False Colours / W.W. Jacobs -- The Secret Sharer / Joseph Conrad -- The Ghost Ship / Richard Middleton -- Ambitious Jimmy Hicks / John Masefield -- Poor Old Man! / A.E. Dingle -- Easting Down / Shalimar -- The Story of the Siren / E.M. Forster -- The Rough Crossing / F. Scott Fitzgerald -- After the Storm / Ernest Hemingway -- The Bravest Boat / Malcolm Lowry -- The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck / C.S. Forester -- Turnabout / William Faulkner -- The Frontiers of the Sea / Peter Ustinov.

 

Taylor, Charles D. (1938- )

Show of Force. St. Martin's, 1980. 281 pages

Update of James Fenimore Cooper's tale, The Two Admirals. Here, U.S. and Russian admirals and their fleets square off over a missile base in the Indian Ocean.


 

 

 

The Sunset Patriots. Charter, 1982. 450 pages

Why is a US-Soviet fleet steaming into the East China Sea? Inquiring Chinese want to know. A US admiral also wants to know why the 7th fleet is visiting Vladivostock, biggest navy base in the USSR.


 

 

 

First Salvo. Charter, 1985. 311 pages

Strange incidents in Long Island Sound and the Sea of Japan say the Soviets are up to something... like WW III! Should we strike first?


 

 

 

Silent Hunter. Berkeley, 1987. 338 pages

A super large submersible cruises the ocean floor with all the latest weapons. The Soviets are going after it in the Arctic.


 

 

 

War Ship. Berkley, 1989. 307 pages

Russian agents sieze USS GETTYSBURG, sail her to Cam Ranh Bay in Viet Nam. Seals go to the rescue.


 

 

 

Boomer. Pocket, 1990. 335 pages

20 years ago, KGB planted an agent in the USN; now he's skipper of a nuclear attack sub. The plot thickens.


 

 

 

Deep Sting. Pocket, 1991. 371 pages

Russian spies with mini-subs seeks to destroy the Trident sub base in Bangor, Washington. Navy Seals are in pursuit.


 

 

 

Summit. Pocket, 1996. 355 pages

When fourteen world leaders gather aboard a high-security yacht to discuss peace terms, the negotiations are threatened by a deadly terrorist plot involving a rogue submarine.

 

 

 

 

Taylor, J. E.

At Close Quarters. Sampson Low, Marston, 1949. 286 pages

Spells out sympathetically the reason why the USA felt it necessary to go to war in 1812 against Britain's arrogance at sea. Broadbank with the privateer AVENGER joins in the war from the beginning but gets off to a poor start and loses the ship and an arm. He is a shorebound spectator to the SHANNON-CHESAPEAKE fight and in the confusion is able to escape his captors and rejoin the British and go on to organise at Lake Champlain a small but tactically important mini-fleet that prevents the Americans from invading Canada.


 

By Force of Arms : a sea novel. Sampson Low, Marston, 1943. 246 pages

"This stirring sea story of the Napoleonic Wars follows the fortunes of Captain Broadbank, and his privateer schooner the AVENGER, his life, his aims, and the love that came to him so strangely, told against a broad exciting background of the lives and conditions of ships and seamen of that great maritime era." [from the bookjacket].

 

 

Taylor, Theodore (1921-2006)

The Cay. Doubleday, 1969. 137 pages

When the freighter on which they are traveling is torpedoed by a German submarine during World War II, an adolescent white boy, blinded by a blow on the head, and an old black man are stranded on a tiny Caribbean island where the boy acquires a new kind of vision, courage, and love from his old companion.


 

 

Cape Hatteras trilogy:

  1. Teetoncey. Doubleday, 1974. 153 pages

    Eleven-year-old Ben rescues an English girl from a shipwreck off the Outer Banks of North Carolina; and, though she becomes part of his family, she never speaks.

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  3. Teetoncey and Ben O'Neal. Doubleday, 1975. 185 pages

    When the English girl Ben saved from a shipwreck recovers her memory and speech and reveals to him that two chests full of silver went down with the ship, Ben and his friends try to recover them without arousing suspicions.

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  5. The Odyssey of Ben O'Neal. Doubleday, 1977. 208 pages

    The further adventures of Ben and Teetoncey as they take to the sea-- he, to find his brother, and she to escape a forced return to England.


 

 

 

To Kill the Leopard. Harcourt Brace, 1993. 297 pages

Merchant mariner Sully Jordan never dreamed that he would be actively involved in United States naval defense against Hitler's U-boat onslaught in World War II. Not until his tankers are torpedoed twice--by the same relentless, stealthy submarine with snarling leopards painted on its conning tower. What ensues is one man's gritty battle against an invincible U-boat.


 

 

Timothy of the Cay. Harcourt Brace, 1993. 161 pages

Prequel annd Sequel to The Cay. Having survived being blinded and shipwrecked on a tiny Caribbean island with the old black man Timothy, twelve-year-old white Phillip is rescued and hopes to regain his sight with an operation. Alternate chapters follow the life of Timothy from his days as a young cabin boy.

 

 

 

 

Taylor, Tom

The Sin Bearer. Word, 1986. 170 pages

Novelization of a biblical adventure and love story, told in Acts 27:1-28:11, about a merchant ship that is commandeered by the Romans to take prisoners to Rome.

 

 

 

 

Teihet, Darwin L. (1904-1964)

Steamboat on the River. Slone, 1952. 256 pages

A novel about the steamboat Talisman. It was to be the first steamboat going from Cincinnati to Portland Landing near Springfield, IL, on the Sangamon River in the year 1832 with the help of the later President Abraham Lincoln.

 

 

 

 

Tennyson, Alfred, Lord (1809-1892)

The Kraken. in "Poems, Chiefly Lyrical". Effingham Wilson, 1830.

Short poem about the hideous beast.


 

 

 

The Revenge : a ballad of the fleet. in "Ballads and Other Poems". C. Kegan Paul, 1880.

"In Flores in the Azores, Sir Richard Grenville lay... dum de dum de dum..." classic narrative poem, stirring stuff. In 1591 Grenville bravely tried to fight his undermanned ship, the REVENGE, through a powerful Spanish fleet, being defeated only after 15 hour of battle!


 

 

Crossing the Bar. in "Demeter, and other poems". Macmillan, 1889.

Death as an ocean voyage, classic short poem.

 

 

 

 

 

Terman, Douglas (1933-1999)

Enemy Territory. Bantam, 1989. 402 pages

U.K. title: Star Shot. Hi-tech, hi-seas clash between ex Vietnam War POW, now skippering a charterboat in Caribbean, and the Commie who brainwashed and tortured him, with sabotage of an SDI trial at stake.

 

 

 

 

Terrill, Rogers (Editor)

The Argosy Book of Sea Stories. A.S. Barnes, 1953. 328 pages

A collection of fairly light-weight adventure stories published in the magazine between 1943 and 1953. Contents: Pull, you lubbers! / Brian O'Brien -- Ship from nowhere / A. Bertram Chanlder -- Captain's prisoner / Calvin J. Clements -- Congo Cargo / T. T. Flynn -- Jonah curse / J. F. Wallace -- Alone men / Vincent McHugh -- Taste of command / Steve Hail -- One for O'Brien / George P. Morrill -- Pirate and the gamecock / Howard Bloomfield -- Mutiny below / Cedric Mentiplay -- Nitro ship / William Holder -- Bound for the bottom / J. F. Wallace -- Bayou bait / Leslie T. White.

 

 

Thacher, Russell (1919-1990)

The Captain. Macmillan, 1951. 280 pages

The unnamed protagonist is assigned the command of a LST - a "Large Slow Target." Despite his integrity and courage, he undergoes a series of misfortunes and ends up a victim.


 

 

 

A Break in the Clouds. Lippincott, 1957. 256 pages

Rick Dedrick is a Naval Air Corps cadet during the Korean War. He finds he does not share the sense of purpose that motivated his father's combat experience during World War II.

 

 

 

 

 

Thiess, Frank (1890-1977)

The Voyage of Forgotten Men. Bobbs-Merrill, 1937. 415 pages

Translation from the German Tsushima: Der Roman eines Seekrieges (1936). The epic journey of the Russian Second Pacific Squadron, under the command of Admiral Rozhestvensky, from the Baltic Sea to the Sea of Japan, and its defeat by the Japanese fleet at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905.

 

 

 

 

Thirkell, Angela (1890-1961)

Trooper to the Southern Cross. Faber & Faber, 1934. 293 pages

A World War I officer relates his time aboard a troop-carrying "hell ship" on his way home to Australia. Her former German crew has sabotaged the vessel from stem to stern and the returning troops conspire to turn the voyage into a three month long drinking binge. Hijinks ensue.

 

 

 

 

Thomas, Craig [pseud. David Craig Owen Thomas] (1942-2011)

Emerald Decision. Michael Joseph, 1980. 393 pages

A 40-year-old covert mine field in the Irish Sea contains a shattering secret that investigators must dig out of old WW II records and witnesses. First published under the pseudonym David Grant.


 

 

 

The Sea Leopard. Viking, 1981. 316 pages

British nuclear sub with sonar "cloaking device."

 

 

 

 

 

Thomas, David (editor)

Teen-age Sea Stories. Lantern, 1948. 252 pages

The shores of Tripoli / Daniel Hawthorne -- Galley slave / Charles Gilson -- Mutineers be hanged / John F. Hinternhoff -- Two chests of treasure / Merritt P. Allen -- Sailor's pay / Robert Carse -- Salvage / Paschal N. Strong -- An eye for an eye / Robb White -- Ensign Carson, USCGR / George C. Lane -- Submarine jitters / Arnold Bateman -- Tanker man / Millard Ward -- Running dark / Paschal N. Strong -- Rig ship for diving / Arnold Bateman -- Shantyboat pirate / Paschal N. Strong.

 

 

 

Thomas, Edwin (1977- )

Martin Jerrold series:

  1. The Blighted Cliffs. Bantam, 2003. 289 pages

    Lieutenant Martin Jerrold emerged from Trafalgar with not an ounce of credit. In February 1806, he comes to Dover with one final chance to redeem his reputation. Before he has been there a day, however, he finds himself standing over a body that is too far from the cliffs to have fallen accidentally. Jerrold is suspected of murder. Only the fact that no one can identify the corpse prolongs his freedom. When word reaches Jerrold's uncle at the Admiralty, the choice is he must clear his name or be cut off without a guinea.

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  3. The Chains of Albion. Bantam, 2004. 330 pages

    It was July, 1806. Commanding a prison- hulk in the Medway guarding French captives, Martin Jerrold thinks his war can't get much better. He's far away from storm, battle and the other disagreeable elements of naval life, and he can keep his mistress, Isobel, close at hand. Then he loses a prisoner and all Hell breaks loose.

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  5. Treason's River. Bantam, 2006. 339 pages

    There are rumours of a conspiracy in America and Jerrold's mission is to infiltrate the conspirators and stop them. His journey takes him across the seas, the wilderness and down the Mississippi river. Enemies are ranged against him, agents of Spain and America are trying to kill him, and the plotters are growing suspicious of his intentions.

 

 

 

Thompson, Earl

Caldo Largo. Putnam, 1976. 285 pages

Mystery novel set in Brownsville, Texas, upper Mexican coast aboard a shrimper. Tough, rough, a little raw sex.

 

 

 

 

 

Thompson, Edward (1738?-1786)

Sailor's letters, written to his select friends in England during his voyages and travels in Europe, Asia, Africa and America from the year 1754 to 1759. T. Becket and P.A. De Hondt, W. Flexney and C. Moran, 1767. 2 volumes

Serialised anonymously in The London Magazine it followes the pattern set by Smollett's The Adventures of Roderick Random in realistically illustrating naval life.

 

 

Thompson, E. V. (Ernest Victor) (1931-2012)

The Restless Sea. Macmillan, 1983. 399 pages

Fishing and smuggling off the Cornish coast occupy prizefighter Nathan Jugo. Set about 1810.

 

 

 

 

 

Thompson, Richard

The Tiger Cruise. Knox Jones Enterprizes, 1999. 280 pages

The USS Woodbridge, a Los Angeles-class nuclear-attack submarine, leaves Norfolk on a routine two-day tiger cruise, with fourteen civilians aboard. There is a massive earthquake in the mid-Atlantic, and large tsunamis strike the East Coast of the United States. Iraq immediately deploys a submarine loaded with lethal anthrax toward the shores of America. The U.S. Navy, completely crippled by the large tidal waves, calls on the USS Woodbridge for help. The damanged submarine, manned by a reduced crew and the fourteen family members, is America's only hope.

 

 

 

Thorndike, Arthur Russell (1885-1972)

Doctor Syn series:

After his wife is kidnapped by pirates, an English cleric takes to the high seas in pursuit of them. In the process, he assumes the persona of a pirate, Captain Clegg. He eventually hunts the pirates down only to learn that his wife is dead and that a price has been placed on his head by King George. After some years, and two books, of high seas adventures, he returns to rural England to shed his past and assume a posting as vicar of Dymchurch. He is accompanied, however, by his former ship's carpenter, Mr. Mipps, who quickly becomes involved in the local smuggling ring. Dr. Syn, fearing for the life of his friend and others, decides to bring the ragtag group of smugglers together by becoming their masked leader, The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh. The remaining books in the series address his adventures as leader of this group, and the Crown's efforts to capture and kill him.


  1. Doctor Syn : A Tale of the Rommey Marsh. Doubleday, Page, 1915. 301 pages

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  3. Dr. Syn on the High Seas. Rich & Cowan, 1935. 279 pages

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  5. Dr. Syn Returns. Rich & Cowan, 1935. 248 pages

    Expanded edition: The Scarecrow Rides. Dial, 1935. 344 pages. Incorporates material from Dr. Syn on the High Seas

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  7. Further Adventures of Dr. Syn. Rich & Cowan, 1936. 275 pages

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  9. Amazing Quest of Doctor Syn. Rich & Cowan, 1938. 288 pages

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  11. Courageous Exploits of Dr. Syn. Rich & Cowan, 1939. 282 pages

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  13. Shadow of Doctor Syn. Rich & Cowan, 1944. 168 pages

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thorne, Anthony

I'm a Stranger Here Myself. William Heinemann, 1943. 188 pages

Fictionalised but obviously autobiographical account of service on the lower deck of the Royal Navy as a "Y" Scheme entrant in the early days of WW II. His messmates are vividly brought to life in this enjoyable tale of the hardships and boredom of war in an armed merchant cruiser. Service on the lower deck was the norm for "Y" Scheme entrants prior to being selected for officer training. It is interesting to see that the book is bound in light navy blue cloth and along the edges of the top board are three white stripes making it look like a matelot's collar. All this under the Book Production War Economy Standard!

 

 

 

Thorne, Guy [pseud. Cyril Arthur Edward Ranger Gull] (1876-1923)

The Secret Service Submarine: A story of the present war. Sully & Kleinteich, 1915. 190 pages

The story involves a teacher, unable to join the services because of a leg damaged playing rugby at university, who reluctantly settles down to seeing the war out at a boys school on England’s east coast. Things are not as quiet as they seem - he suspects his headmaster is a spy - his brother commands a submarine - all a good Boy’s Own adventure complete with maps, secret codes etc.!

 

 

 

Thurston, Harold

Ocean Avenger: Voyage into the Millenium. Morris, 1999. 360 pages

The author's fictionalized memoirs in the manner of Taffrail.

 

 

 

 

 

Tier, Alexander

Britannia Rules the Waves. Westminster Press, 1944. 86 pages

The author and another Lieutenant, RNVR, Charles Page, who was responsible for the delightful illustrations, had their work serialised in THE FLEET, the journal of the British Navy, prior to its publication in book form. In this story of an alternative war-time Royal Navy, The WRENS make up the crew of HMS ARDENT, a battleship, much to the disgust of the squadron's other battleship's Captain the Hon. Aloysius Waldemar Fitz-Urse who is the bete noire of ARDENT's Commandant Sneeryng-Robarts. The Marines are also women, Marinettes in fact.... They do meet the enemy and amazingly, the Germans are written up, particularly bearing in mind the time, as only human... A lighthearted and affectionate send-up.

 

 

Tillman, Barrett

The Sixth Battle. Bantam, 1991. 562 pages

Rear Admiral Chuck Gideon served his country in Vietnam and in the Gulf-- but he faces his greatest challenge as the commander of a task force in the Indian Ocean, off the South African coast, where a geopolitical time bomb is primed and ready to explode. In a new era of instability the Soviet Union has become the Union of Eurasian Republics, South Africa is prey to UER-sponsored invaders, and the former policeman to the world, Uncle Sam,is called out of "retirement" to bring his most potent air, sea, and land power to bear on a crisis in the making. At the point of the spear thrust for freedom is Admiral Gideon, who orders his flyers into action off an aging aircraft carrier and into the annals of military heroism.


Dauntless : A Novel of Midway and Guadacanal. Bantam, 1992. 412 pages

Marine and naval aviators -- both USN and IJN -- at war during the battle of Midway and the battles for Guadacanal. Emphasis on sea warfare and the customs of the sea.

 

 

 

 

 

Tilsley, Frank (1904-1957)

Mutiny. Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1958. 264 pages

Story of a mutiny on British frigate in 1796. Filmed as DAMN THE DEFIANT! ("H.M.S. Defiant" in the UK) in 1962 starring Alec Guiness.

 

 

 

 

 

Tomlinson, H. M. (Henry Major) (1873-1958)

Gallions Reach : a Romance. Harper, 1927. 283 pages

A Joseph Conrad pastiche. Jimmy Colet commits a serious crime and, despite originally intending to give himself up, leaves London by ship bound for the Indian Ocean.

 

 

 

 

Pipe All Hands. Harper, 1937. 326 pages

U.K. title All Hands! The small, shabby-British freighter Hestia was unlucky because she was named after a goddess (of the hearth). She had run aground, collided with a Russian ship, caught fire. Now they were waiting off Celebes to replace a captain who had just died full of ominous mutterings. Into this setting enters the lean, elderly, Thoreau-like Captain Doughty.

 

 

 


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