Best Nautical Books for the Merchant Mariner

**wmoser** · February 4th, 2009, 03:21 AM

Guy Gilpatric's Glencannon series is a favorite among engineers. I think you can find an excerpt online. I also highly recommend "Ocean Titans: Journeys in Search of the Soul of a Ship" which was a good read dealing with the question of if ships have souls. I try to read anything about the merchant marine or commercial ships unfortunately we're often overshadowed by books about Naval vessels and seamanship.

**Captainmugsy** · February 4th, 2009, 04:01 AM

I know it was a movie and I know it is an older book , But "The Sea Wolf" was a enjoyable read.

**ThirdMate** · March 30th, 2009, 05:42 PM

One of my all-time favorites: "The Mutiny on the Globe". I think there is more than one author on this story, not sure which one I read though.

**Windjammer** · March 31st, 2009, 01:19 AM

Endurance - F. A. Worsley
Demon of the Waters: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Whaleship Globe - Gregory Gibson

**oldguy** · March 31st, 2009, 03:13 AM

Many fascinating books already mentioned, but here are some more:

1) The Cape Horn Breed, by William H.S. Jones, Master Mariner, who was a cadet on the ship here. The period is 1905, if I remember, a year when many, many ships were lost trying to make it around the Horn. The ship here lost one man, who fell from a yard into wild seas, and of course the ship couldn't do anything to pick him up. A great part of the book talks about one Nathan Flint, bucko mate, a New Englander on a British ship, a competent "giant" but a very hard, mean guy who hated liverpool dock rats. Some years after reading this, I found mention of the captain in a book by Alan Villiers, who didn't have much regard for the skipper of this ship, nor much regard for British square riggers, which were usually flush deck ships that were dangerous for seamen leaving their focs'ls in heavy seas. Villiers thought the French and German ships were better--and better captained and crewed.
2) OF WHALES AND MEN, by R.R. Robertson. True story, like the above. A Scottish doctor makes a season in the 1950s in the south Atlantic on a Norwegian factory ship. Some of the oddest characters you'll ever read about, such as Mansell, who seemed to speak all languages and know about everything, but whose real identity and origins forever remained a secret. Or the master bridge player and the best flenser, who never spoke to anyone (no one knew his name) and who remained all the time in his cabin until time to flense. Sailors with Thordahl A/S, the Norwegian whaleship company, maintain a very interesting website. They have a club, called the "hvalgrabbers" club. (Site is in Norwegian, though)
3) The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck, by B. Trevelyan (spelling, anyone?). This was made into a black and white movie. Great reading, great photos.
4) The Voyage of the Armada: The Spanish Story, the Spanish Story, by David Howarth. Nonfiction. From the Spanish point of view, required reading.
5) Yankee Whalers in the South Seas, by A.B.C. Whipple. Nonfiction, a totally enthalling account of an era.
6) The Log of the Skipper's Wife, by James W. Balano. Nonfiction. The author is the son of the woman who kept the log, here, as she traveled around the world with her husband on one of the last of the Maine windjammers.
7) Looking for a Ship, by John McPhee. Required reading. I assume many of those looking into this site have read this book.
8) The Moonrakers, by Robert Carse. Nonfiction.
9) Yankee Surveyors in the Shogun's Seas, Records of the United States Surveying Expedition to the North Pacific Ocean, 1853-1856, editor, Allan B. Cole.
10) A Deckboy's Diary, by John Richardson. British freighters in the 1950's. More required reading.
11) Passage, From Sail to Steam, by Captain L.R.W. Beavis. Large format, fascinating accounts and great photos.
12) This Was Seafaring, a Sea Chest of Salty Memories, by Ralph W. Andrews and Harry A. Kirwin. Kirwin is the great Pacific Northwest photographer, so you can guess what this book looks like.
13) Under Full Sail, by Morris Rosenfeld. Great black and white photos of yachts and sailing ships. Probably a very hard to find book.
14) Dangerous Voyage (in paperback--original title was Williwaw), by Gore Vidal, who was himself in the Navy in the Aleutians. This was his first novel but there's nothing fake, here.
15) Voyage, a Novel of 1896, by Sterling Hayden.

Here is true masterpiece of fiction, by the mysterious B. Traven
(author of Treasure of the Sierra Madre, etc) The Death Ship. said to be "the Moby Dick of the stokehold." If you never read anything else, here, read this!

And here is another must-have for a collector. My wife was an editor of this book. Ferryboats: A legend on Puget Sound, by M.S. Kline and G.A. Bayless. It was first published in 1983 and might be a rather expensive book, now, I'm not sure.

**Merchant Marine** · March 31st, 2009, 08:38 AM

Until the Sea Shall Free Them: Life, Death, and Survival in the Merchant Marine - Great read and amazing story
In Peril: A Daring Decision, a Captain's Resolve, and the Salvage that Made History- Amazing story of the famous salvage of the space shuttle's main fuel tank by the tanker "Cherry Valley" and the resulting admiralty case.

**water** · June 7th, 2009, 09:58 AM

To the Last Salute: Memories of an Austrian U-Boat Commander by Georg von Trapp. Memories of an Austrian U-boat commander in WWI. The book was originally published in German in 1935, and was translated into English by his granddaugher in 2007.

Interesting read from the commander of U-boats during WWI and the collapse of the Austrian-Hungary empire.

This is the "Captain" from the "Sound of Music". Interesting background of the Trapp family, which immigrated to the USA when Hitler came to power.

**Capt_Anonymous** · June 7th, 2009, 10:51 AM

Sea Shepherd
by Paul Watson.

**Capt. Fran** · June 7th, 2009, 09:43 PM

[QUOTE=EbbTide;7160]The difference between a Sea Story and a Fairy Tale..
Fairy Tale begins, "Once upon a time."
Sea Story begins, "Now this ain't no shit."

And then a sea story continues, "There I was..."

**Capt. Fran** · June 7th, 2009, 09:49 PM

I definitely second all of Capt. Anon's list and concur with the inclusion of Two Years Before the Mast.

My four cents:

Moby Dick - gotta be on the list
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex - by Philbrick - reads like a novel but tells the account of the inspiration for Moby Dick
Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea - by Kinder - great true life modern treasure hunting story and includes some great history

And if you sail around SE Alaska:

Sinking of the Princess Sophia: Taking the North Down with Her - by Coates

**john** · June 7th, 2009, 11:37 PM

Ok, I just finished linking every book to the corresponding page on Amazon. Many are on sale for less than a dollar so you have no excuse not to pick a few of them up.

I agree with most of the suggestions and don't want to repeat so here are a few that seem to be missing:

**albertpachino** · June 8th, 2009, 12:16 AM

Originally Posted by john

Ok, I just finished linking every book to the corresponding page on Amazon.

Thanks John but I like to keep the reading light with classic novels like: When a Loose Cannon Flogs a Dead Horse There's the Devil to Pay: Seafaring Words in Everyday Speech
and Moby Dick (Classics Comics Edition)

**Dredgemate** · June 8th, 2009, 11:02 AM

I notice no one mentioned 'Don't Stop the Carnival' by Herman Wouk. I know it's not strictly a maritime book, but I always found it a useful manual if I needed a second career.

**weski** · June 8th, 2009, 12:36 PM

Hope gCaptain gets a nickel or more for each link purchase!

**EbbTide** · June 8th, 2009, 01:17 PM

Thanks DredgeMate
I've ordered, Don't Stop the Carnival. I remember when Wouk and Buffett were collaborating on the Broadway show, same title. Too bad it didn't have a long run. Boat jobs and Broadway jobs, both tough on long term employment.

This is a great forum topic, keep the titles coming.

**cttief** · June 8th, 2009, 01:24 PM

Bottoms Up!: Toasts, Tales & Traditions Of Drinking's Long History As A Nautical Pastime-By Robert McKenna

**captobie** · June 8th, 2009, 05:24 PM

Captain Richard Cahill's two excellent volumes, Collisions and Their Causes and Strandings and Their Causes, both available from the Nautical Institute.

One of my all time favorite novels, The Caine Mutiny.

I hate to stick with the Navy theme, but Away All Boats by Kenneth Dodson is excellent. If it helps, Dodson was a master who volunteered for the Navy during World War II, and merchant seamen serving in the Navy are prominent in the book.

You can see the nautical books in my library here.

**john** · June 8th, 2009, 07:03 PM

Originally Posted by weski

Hope gCaptain gets a nickel or more for each link purchase!

It ranges from 4-6%, which isn't much on books but, if you click on a book then order something else (like a new plasma tv

) we get the same % on everything in your shopping cart. Not bad, eh?

**Capt. Fran** · June 8th, 2009, 09:10 PM

Thanks for all the links, John!

**Dredgemate** · June 9th, 2009, 06:54 AM

Originally Posted by EbbTide

Thanks DredgeMate
I've ordered, Don't Stop the Carnival. I remember when Wouk and Buffett were collaborating on the Broadway show, same title. Too bad it didn't have a long run. Boat jobs and Broadway jobs, both tough on long term employment.

This is a great forum topic, keep the titles coming.

Agreed! This is a great topic. Once I'm done slogging through an Alexander Hamilton Biography, I'm going to start ticking this off (and buying them through amazon.com of course

)