“I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book,” wrote J.K. Rowling, British author and creator of the popular Harry Potter series. Although published long ago, the following sea books (in PDF format) have not lost their magic. They should resonate with today’s mariners and anyone who loves a good book.
A Cadet of the Black Star Line
by Ralph D. Paine
Published in 1922
David Downes, a 17-year-old cadet on the Black Star liner Roanoke, struggles with self-doubts and the hardships of life at sea. But he eventually comes to the realisation that the world of seafaring, with all its trials and tribulations, is where he belongs.
Excerpts:
The cadet crouched in the lee of the wheelhouse while the night dragged on, now and then scrambling below on errands of duty until four o’clock sounded on the ship’s bell. Then he went below, drenched and shivering, to lie awake for some time and feel the great ship rear and tremble to the shock of the charging seas.
Through a long night the Roanoke groped her way over a shrouded sea on which the fog hung so thick that the ghostly figures on the bridge could not see the bow of their own ship. It was no better when daylight wiped the blackness from the fog. The steamer was wrapped in a blind world in which there was no sound except the bellowing of the automatic whistle.
CLICK HERE to download this book.
Lost Ships and Lonely Seas
by Ralph D. Paine
Published in 1921
In 17 true stories of sea mishaps, American journalist Ralph Delahaye Paine throws light on the perils of 19th century seafaring.
Excerpts:
The wild gale smote them in the darkness of night. They tried to heave the vessel to, but she was battered and wrenched without mercy. Stout canvas was whirled away in fragments. The seams of the hull opened as she labored, and six feet of water flooded the hold. Leaking like a sieve, the Polly would never see port again.
“I think it most likely that we shall die here soon, David, but as some one of us may survive to carry the tidings to our friends, if you have anything to say respecting your family, now is the time.”
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The Mirror of the Sea
by Joseph Conrad
Published in 1906
This is a collection of autobiographical essays by Polish-British writer Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) based on his life as a merchant sailor for almost 20 years.
Excerpts:
For all that has been said of the love that certain natures (on shore) have professed to feel for it, for all the celebrations it had been the object of in prose and song, the sea has never been friendly to man. At most it has been the accomplice of human restlessness, and playing the part of dangerous abettor of world-wide ambitions.
To see! to see! — this is the craving of the sailor, as of the rest of blind humanity. To have his path made clear for him is the aspiration of every human being in our beclouded and tempestuous existence.
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Home from the Sea
by Sir Arthur H. Rostron
Published in 1931
‘Home from the Sea’ is a compelling memoir by Sir Arthur Henry Rostron, best remembered as the captain of the RMS Carpathia that rescued hundreds of Titanic survivors.
Excerpts:
One thing that puts a young man off, I suppose, is the loss of home life. If you feel you must get home to your meals, then the sea is not for you. At one period in my career four years went by during which I did not have forty-eight consecutive hours’ leave.
For twenty-two hours we ran before it, then it freshened to hurricane force, seas grew heavier and more dangerous again, great rolling mountains under our stern simply pushed us and passed on, the crests breaking and tumbling and roaring like avalanches.
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~ Barista Uno
