Saint Overboard

The Saint #16

by Leslie Charteris

, 319 pages, map at front endpapers

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Adventure, Suspense, British Literature, Crime, Thriller

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1935

About the author

Born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin, Leslie Charteris was a half-Chinese, half English author of primarily mystery fiction, as well as a screenwriter. He was best known for his many books chronicling the adventures of Simon Templar, alias "The Saint."

Reviews

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

The rating, any status updates, and those bookshelves, indicate my feelings for this book.

[Nandakishore Mridula · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Idiot Saint

In which the Saint makes an ass of himself over a girl, and survives only because the villain of the piece is a bigger ass

That's about it, folks. 😕

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

From BBC Radio 4 Extra:
The haloed adventurer goes to sea in search of deliberately sunk bullion ships. Stars Paul Rhys and Geoffrey Whitehead.

[Simon Mcleish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally published on my blog here& in August 2000.

Today, Saint Overboard seems one of the most dated of all the Saint stories. It relies heavily for plot and atmosphere on a form of technology which has undergone great development in the past sixty years - diving equipment. In the late thirties, diving suits were cumbersome and expensive; neither the aqualung nor the wetsuit had been invented, and the diver relied on massive metal helmets connected to the surface by an all important air hose which could easily become entangled or cut. Diving was not, as it is today, something which could be undertaken as a leisure activity by any reasonably fit person after a short course of training; it was the province of specialists.

Saint Overboard is probably the earliest mainstream thriller to use what was to become a fairly commonplace plot: a conflict between legitimate and criminal attempts to salvage treasure from a wreck, in this case from the strongroom of the Chalfont Castle, on the seabed near Guernsey. Simon Templar becomes involved when he rescues a pretty girl, an investigator for maritime insurers Ingerbecks. There is a strong romantic element in the novel, as indeed there was in the previous one in the series (The Saint In New York); no mention is made of Simon's long time companion Patricia Holm. In The Saint in New York, romance plays an important part in the plot, but here it is more of an encumbrance, and it is not the sort of writing which suited Charteris.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came across the book at a stall in Tbilisi. It cost a little more than the 3/6 marked on the back (3 shillings and 6 old pence…17.5 new pence) but only a couple of lari (£0.56).

The book was first published way back in 1936, this edition was the 1967 edition. The scuba diving gear on the front cover wasn’t invented until the mid forties, Simon Templar (The Saint) does dive in the book but in a more antiquated diving suit.

The Saint also smokes an awful lot, he is often tapping his cigarettes or lighting them throughout the book. The character is a little similar to James Bond, described in the blurb as a “buccaneer”, the action is set around the Channel Islands where the baddie, Vogel wants to salvage the gold from the strongroom of a sunken ship.

The plot seems a bit quaint now and dated, our heroes these days are usually less immaculately turned out and less likely to be punching the villains on the jaw to lay them out for a couple of hours.

There is a strong love interest for the Saint in the form of Loretta Page, an investigator for maritime insurers Ingerbecks, suspicious at the lack of booty found on salvaged vessels.

Simon has his own yacht, fittingly called “The Corsair” complete with his butler Orace. No cars in this escapade. Too early for the Volvo, which I remember as a Corgi Car in my childhood.

[Paul Magnussen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This full-length Saint adventure finds Simon in search of sunken treasure — or rather, in search of people in search of it.

The background to the story is impeccably set up. The breadth of Charteris’s knowledge was astonishing: there is even a passing reference to verifying Wegener’s Theory of Continental Drift, which at that point (1936) had collected nothing but ridicule.

In terms of continuity there are several references to earlier Saintly adventures, Orace figures prominently, and Roger Conway and Peter Quentin join in.

Nevertheless, I like this book much less than other Saint stories of the same period. But I’m not sure why, unless it’s the predictability of the plot and the ordinariness of the heroine; or perhaps there just isn’t as much fun in it.

So only three stars, for me. Your mileage may differ.

[Bear · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, as always. I did miss Patricia Holm in this story, but I suppose I knew it was coming...phooey.

[Rick Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Major characters:
Kurt Vogel, master criminal
Professor Wesley Yule
Otto Arnheim, a henchman
Loretta Page, insurance detective
Simon Templar, The Saint
'Orace, associate of The Saint
Locale: the coast of France

Synopsis: Simon Templar is visiting the French coast on his boat, The Corsair. One night a woman swimming approaches his boat, it is Loretta Page. She is a private detective for an insurance agency, investigating recent thefts of maritime salvage in which the thieves make off with assets from sunken vessels before salvage operations can commence.

Loretta has traced the thefts to Kurt Vogel on board the Falkenberg, and had been watching it. The Falkenberg is outfitted for deep sea recovery. Vogel has a guest, Professor Wesley Yule, inventor of a deep diving outfit called the "bathystol"; which Vogel wants.

The Saint and Loretta team up to infiltrate the Falkenberg.

Review: This thriller with The Saint, the beautiful woman, and the master criminal is somewhat predictable but still fun. The settings on the ocean are well done and descriptions bring us all the sights and sounds of the French coast. The love interest between Simon and Loretta is detailed much more than the later stories with Patricia Holm. Vogel is calm and cold, and focused on his treasure stealing empire. The finalé comes with The Saint and Vogel both diving to Vogel's undersea treasure trove. This is a pure thriller - no mysteries to be had. 'Orace lends a supporting role, Peter Quentin and Roger Conway make brief appearances.

[Enzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I still wish to have "Half Stars" this would be 3.5 stars.

So Leslie Charteris is known as the man who wrote "The Saint" aka Simon Templer. I remember seeing the black and white programme back in the day. Yes, dating myself a bit there. But I always figured that was the resume Roger Moore required to take over from Sir Sean Connery. James Bond is a very similar character. But back to the book.
On this book the Saint is looking into a group pirating around Guernsey and as always finds his way into the fray by a woman. Loretta Page tells her story and Simon with the help of Orace gets ready for some underwater action.
If you like the Saint you'll enjoy the book. Its a simpler James Bond. Templer already trying to prevent another War and the villain on queue is Vogel.

[Daniela Sorgente · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book in the Saint series that I have read and I liked it much more than the first (it was Alias the Saint). Also in this case we must consider that it is a book written in 1936 and we must overlook some things, such as obsolete technology and some descriptions of the Saint and his flashing blue eyes or things like his steel wire strength or his effortless natural stealth of a great cat 😄
Here the Saint finds himself busting an international racket. He also falls in love (but didn't he have a girlfriend?).
Regardless, it was an intriguing and entertaining read.

[Paul Cornelius · Rating 3 out of 5]

How disappointing after The Saint in New York to encounter this much inferior work as the next in the series. Charteris returns to many of his bad habits. Florid prose that goes nowhere and long passages where he never advances the plot. And for some reason, he's decided to write a love story. Until now, the women in the Saint's life have been an equal match, hardened, smart, and rebellious--even if they pay with their lives. The Saint Overboard introduces Loretta Page, an insurance investigator with whom the Saint goes head over heals. She sort of reciprocates. It's not that a love story is a bad idea. It's just that when this one takes root, the story stalls and sputters. By the time tension reasserts itself at the end, do you even care? I didn't. The one novelty in the story is that almost all the action takes place shipboard, either at sea or in harbor. That doesn't help things. Neither did having yet another stereotypical German villain committing villainy in a most villainous manner.

[Rob Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Saint Overboard is a 1936 mystery novel by Leslie Charteris, one of a long series of novels featuring Charteris' creation Simon Templar, alias "The Saint". It was originally published in magazines as The Pirate Saint; some paperback editions append the article The to the title (The Saint Overboard).

Simon Templar, alias The Saint, is enjoying a pleasure cruise along the French coast aboard his yacht, the Corsair when he is awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of gunfire and shouting from another vessel (the Falkenberg) anchored nearby.

The source of the commotion is a group of men pursuing a young woman who is swimming frantically away from the other ship. Templar rescues the woman who, after some considerable hesitation, identifies herself as Loretta Page, a private detective who is investigating the mysterious disappearance of sunken treasure from the Atlantic. When she learns her rescuer is The Saint, she enlists his help in tracking down a group of modern-day pirates. These pirates, led by Kurt Vogel, are using newly developed bathyscape technology to reach the sea floor and scour recent shipwrecks for gold and other booty before officially sanctioned salvage operations arrive. And Vogel is not against committing cold-blooded murder to keep his operation going.

Hampered by Loretta's detective firm superior, who harbors a deep distrust of Templar, as well as Simon's growing love for Loretta, The Saint sets out to stop Vogel's operation. In the process he reunites with some of his colleagues from previous adventures Roger Conway and Peter Quentin. Orace, Templar's longtime manservant, makes his first major appearance since the very first Saint novel, Meet - The Tiger!. And it is Orace who complicates Templar's mission when he accidentally kills one of Vogel's men, which leads to Vogel forcing Templar (on pain of Loretta's possible death) to take the dead man's place on a salvage operation in the Channel Islands.


Today, Saint Overboard seems one of the most dated of all the Saint stories. It relies heavily for plot and atmosphere on a form of technology which has undergone great development in the past sixty years - diving equipment. In the late thirties, diving suits were cumbersome and expensive; neither the aqualung nor the wetsuit had been invented, and the diver relied on massive metal helmets connected to the surface by an all important air hose which could easily become entangled or cut. Diving was not, as it is today, something which could be undertaken as a leisure activity by any reasonably fit person after a short course of training; it was the province of specialists.

Saint Overboard is probably the earliest mainstream thriller to use what was to become a fairly commonplace plot: a conflict between legitimate and criminal attempts to salvage treasure from a wreck, in this case from the strongroom of the Chalfont Castle, on the seabed near Guernsey. Simon Templar becomes involved when he rescues a pretty girl, an investigator for maritime insurers Ingerbecks. There is a strong romantic element in the novel, as indeed there was in the previous one in the series (The Saint In New York); no mention is made of Simon's long time companion Patricia Holm. In The Saint in New York, romance plays an important part in the plot, but here it is more of an encumbrance, and it is not the sort of writing which suited Charteris.

A fun if somewhat predictable thriller.

[Hilary Tesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a teenager when I last read a Saint adventure - so about 50years ago! Maybe that’s why the perpetual lighting of cigarettes by Simon Templar didn’t seem quite so dated and out of place as it does now. The regular description of his inner thought processes became wearing too in an adventure that takes the Saint to the limit of his daredevil abilities to save the woman he meets in the first few pages of the book. (Posted to me by Lisa after she picked it up in a charity shop and read it herself)

[William Crosby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Things don't always go the way the Saint wants.

This one had too much lovey-dovey stuff.

[Harry Kane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Smashing book; one of my favorite of the more 'mature' style of Mr. Charteris, together with The Saint in New York.

In one episode of Big Bang Theory Sheldon keeps obsessing over the historical inaccuracies of a renaissance fair he visits with his friends. Everything is 'wrong' for the period. Finally, they tell him to imagine he is a Star Trek crew member visiting a planet that only vaguely looks like Earth in the past, and this mental trick allows him to stop obsessing, and start to enjoy himself.

I would like to suggest something along those lines to people who read this, or any other vintage book, and feel they enjoy it less because it's "dated" in the sense of technology, popular culture, and social mores: just bleeding imagine it's a steampunk fantasy, or a dieselpunk fantasy, or an alternative history fantasy, OK? That way it won't be "dated" anymore, just "flight of fancy".

If growing up and enjoying books on their own terms is not an option then at least a bit of mental trickery can maybe heighten the enjoyment.

[N · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think Charteris would have benefited from a better editor or knowing when to kill his darlings. It's not that he can't write well, but he doesn't let his sentences breathe. Each sentence seems to be clamoring for attention, jam-packed with metaphors, and imagery, when sometimes easy would have done it. Interesting plot premise at the beginning, but it becomes a little trite along the way.

[Tiina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this book (in Finnish language) in an old books' store. The plot is quaint and a bit old-fashioned, but the writing is solid, enjoyable to read. This one was a real blast from the past - but a good blast.

[Rob Messenger · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Saint goes marching in...again...

[Patty · Rating 3 out of 5]

fun, dated, reminiscent of James Bond...not sure why this is the first one I've read, will look for more. Romance, danger, exotic locales, takes place mainly on board yachts.

[Federico Kereki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not one of Charteris' best efforts... the dialogue is fine, but the story is weak.

[colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

read 07.05.85