Adventure on the high seas! I want to read more!

April 28, 2004 3:13 PM

I have recently read An Island to Oneself and Confessions of a Long Distance Sailor and really enjoyed both of these. Can anyone recommend some other online (non-fiction) stories about adventures on the seas or deserted islands?
posted by maceo to Media & Arts (15 answers total)

The canon is full of 'em! Robinson Crusoe is based on real-life. Mutiny on the Bounty is, I understand, almost entirely factual (except, of course, the conversations, etc.) What's more, the Mutiny books are awesome. Outstanding. Great reads. Seriously.

Patrick O'Brien's work is fictional, of course, but much of it is based on real-life. His pre-Aubrey and Maturin novels, The Golden Ocean and The Unknown Shore both detail the ill-fated voyage of Commodore Anson as he attempted to circumnavigate the globe. Great stuff, again.

There's always Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki stuff, too. (And if you've got Netflix, you can get the hour-long film documentary of his voyage across the Pacific on raft.) And don't forget all the great stuff about expeditions to Antarctica. Is it Endurance that relates all of Shackleton's woes. Again, great real-life adventure.

Moby Dick is, believe it or not, also based on fact. And, to the woe of readers everywhere, is filled with more actual fact than people usually care to read. ("The whiteness of the whale? No thanks...")

I'm anxious to read other replies. I love nautical fiction and non-fiction. It's stirring stuff.
posted by jdroth at 4:16 PM on April 28, 2004

D'oh!

You said on-line.

sigh

Sorry.
posted by jdroth at 4:17 PM on April 28, 2004

I also have nothing for you online, but Gabriel Garcia Marquez's The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor should be right up your alley, if you're willing to throw down $2 on a used copy.
posted by saladin at 4:33 PM on April 28, 2004

Robinson Crusoe is based on real-life.

Sepcifically, on a man named Alexander Selkirk. Lots of info online about him.
posted by scarabic at 4:50 PM on April 28, 2004

This ain't online either (that I could quickly google up), but Adrift is a great read about a guy who's sailboat goes down and he jumps into a liferaft. On which he stays for 76 days. He has all kinda adventures -- making fresh water. Eating. Getting bedsores from sleeping in the raft day after day. The sharks.

Good times.
posted by zpousman at 5:39 PM on April 28, 2004

Not noticing the part about 'on-line' either, I came in to mention Adrift, and find that zpousman beat me to it. I knew these people about 30 miles away who had drumming nights regularly at their house, which I attended from time to time, and Steven the guy who wrote Adrift was a regular there. (His wife also is best friends with a friend of mine.) He's a good guy, and it's an amazing tale. He's also helped some other people write their own sea adventures.
posted by LeLiLo at 6:39 PM on April 28, 2004

If online's a must, ye olde Project Gutenberg has the goods: Moby Dick; Robinson Crusoe; South: the story of Shackleton's 1914-1917 expedition.
posted by zsazsa at 8:10 PM on April 28, 2004

I second jdroth's mention of Heyerdahl's work ... a quick google brings up Kon-Tiki. The Ra Expeditions is a great read too.
posted by nomis at 8:35 PM on April 28, 2004

Sailing Alone Around the World, by Sir Joshua Slocum.
posted by Vidiot at 9:30 PM on April 28, 2004

Slocum's Alone around the world is one of my perenial gifting books. (Curses to you vidiot for beating me). Guy goes on a crazy adventure because of (what I'm sure was) a drunken wager. He gets famous along the way and goes more than a little bit insane. Great read.
posted by jmgorman at 9:50 PM on April 28, 2004

(yeah, I can't believe no one had beaten me to Slocum.)
posted by Vidiot at 10:22 PM on April 28, 2004

Two Years Before the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana. Prolly also available at Gutenberg.

Historically important in popularizing Californee amongst the Yanks.

Also noted for impenetrable technobabble, with:

"Then the starboard watch board the main tack, and the larboard watch lay forward and board the fore tack and haul down the jib sheet, clapping a tackle upon it if it blows very fresh."

and

"When all was right, the bunts were triced well up, the yard-arm gaskets passed, so as not to leave a wrinkle forward of the yard -- short gaskets, with turns close together."

being among my farv-oh-rits. It's fresh!
posted by mwhybark at 11:17 PM on April 28, 2004

I've written a couple of short posts in the past at my site about my sailing days on the Pacific coast of Mexico and in the Sea of Cortez, but they're hardly worth linking here.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 2:39 AM on April 29, 2004

Wow, thanks for all the replies. These should really keep me busy for awhile.
posted by maceo at 8:11 AM on April 29, 2004

8 Men and a Duck isn't online, but it's an excellent read that is similar to Confessions of a Long Distance Sailor (which, BTW, I've read about half of so far and absolutely love, thanks!).
posted by thebabelfish at 12:29 PM on April 29, 2004