In the Sargasso Sea A Novel

by Thomas A. Janvier

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

178 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1898

About the author

Thomas Allibone Janvier was an American story-writer and historian

Reviews

[Cheryl]

Excellent nautical tale of a man who survives a storm at sea only to be stranded in the miles of tangled seaweed that makes up the Sargasso Sea. Great psychological writing, with eerie descriptions of the many abandoned vessels the protagonist must explore to get needed supplies.

[Thibault Busschots]

Interesting little survival novel about a man stuck in the Sargasso Sea. He’s forced to search through the many abandoned ships stranded in the tangled webs of seaweed for supplies while desperately longing to find the outer edge so he can escape the Sargasso Sea.

[Irving Waters]

I loved this book. The language from the turn of the Century is good fun. My mother had some of that vernacular in her daily speak too.
The story telling was much better than some of the light novels I've been reading for research lately.

[Wreade1872]

Ok that was pretty good.. a bit weaker in the later sections but still pretty good. As i mentioned in an update i thought it might go in the direction of Startrek Elite Force but it does not, instead we get distinctive vibes of Piranesi. Part Piranesi, part Robinson Crusoe and also definitely Gothic tones. Probably the only highseas adventure tale you could truly call gothic.

The author tries to be very psychological, which is part of the gothic tone, of course hallucinations, dreamsequences etc. are also present in Robinson Crusoe. The author here isn’t great at it, he’s not bad.. but considering what a pivotal part it plays in the tale, the author just doesn’t have the vocabulary to really make this element sing. However it does have a certain cumulative effect.

I guess i should also explaining what the Sargasso Sea even is. Well it is to the 18th/19th century what the Great Pacific Garbage patch is to today (the sargasso is still around, just not in the popular imagination). Except instead of plastics the Sargasso is a patch of mostly seaweed, and other floating woody material. Steamboats obviously avoided it for fear of getting their propellers clogged and sailing boats hated it as it was supposed (probably as an explanation of why it didn’t disperse) to mostly be a dead calm (it isn't).

Anyway the reason i mention all this is that we are dealing here with an entirely unrealistic version of the Sargasso. There where a few moments when the absurdity would take me out of the tale but overall it works quite well.

High 3-stars, i enjoyed it.

Made available by the Merril Collection.

[Christy]

There’s an area in the north Atlantic where four ocean currents come together and swirl around, so anything trapped in the middle stays there. Right now it’s all plastic debris and garbage, but in the 1800's, it was supposedly the wreckages of abandoned ships, going back three or four hundred years. So the hero of this story, through one misadventure after another, gets trapped in the middle of it all, and hops from one ship to the next, finding moldy skeletons in some, rotten food in some, and in one very ancient wreckage, a vast treasure of gold bars and jewels. He doesn’t take much, since his goal is to get to the outer edge of the whole mess and be rescued, somehow. How he accomplishes this (with the help of a cat he rescues) makes for a terrific story. And thanks to Amazon for making so many of these lesser-known classics available as free Kindle downloads.

[L]

The author does a good job of making you feel all of the discomforts and fears of the main character. You actually actively wish for his redemption.
This story reminds me a little of Dante's inferno; the circles of hell, each containing those with different sins.

[Hugh Yonn]

I'm not understanding the description as a 'children's book'...?
Not by a long shot.
I'm now 35% into it. This may be one of the most interesting and well written books I've ever read.
Don't miss it.

[Doug Frizzle]

This book was written in 1898; it is a wonderful descriptive account of being shipwrecked and trapped in the Sargasso Sea. The story flows quite beautifully and I recommend it to young and old.

[Fiona]

Intriguing!

Told in the first person, a young engineer man is looking for ship that will take him from New York to Loango (someplace in west Africa) to start his new job with palm oil company. Year is probably late 1800s.

He finds a ride on the Golden Hind. While sailing across the Atlantic he learns about sailing and boats. The captain asks him to join the crew. When he replies no, they throw him overboard. Another ship picks him up and gives him time to heal. However, this ship eventually has an emergency and every goes to the rescue boats. He's stuck in the infirmary and can't escape. When he finally does, he's the sole person on the ship and it moors itself to other "dead" ships in the weed-strewn Sargasso Sea.

There are other ships stuck and stranded in this sea. He climbs from one ship to another, some are 200 years old or so. He finds 2 other survivors who die, food on another ship, gold bullions and jewels, and a companion cat. How can he get out of this prison? Thankfully, he is an engineer and he finds a machine shop on one of the ships. Much detail goes into machinery and ship building. Does he and the cat make it out of this deadly sea prison?

This story is similar to Tom Hanks' Castaway: a man left alone but alive and no easy way to civilization. I enjoyed this book.

[ForestGardenGal]

An adventure against all odds!

Our hero may begin this tale being a classic example of TSTL, but he wisens up in time to not only survive extreme circumstances, but indeed to do so in a spectacular show of courage, steadfastness, ingenuity and intelligence. High marks.

PG for attempted murder at sea, slave smuggling, and vivid descriptions of corpses found on derelict ships lost at sea. No sex, no language, mild but not graphic violence.

[Ms Consuelo]

Serendipity for nautical stories' lovers

I found this title while working on a maritime research for a novel. What a treasure! I couldn't put it down. It is about a 23 years old American man's fight and struggle to survive in a sea of wrecked ship from his time to about 300 years earlier, while he was thrown into the Sargasso Sea. Try it!

[larry m. rich]

Good but not great

Enjoyed the book but overall it was an average read. Too many just in time saves and coincidence for my tastes.

[Sylvia]

Ship Lovers Only

If you love details about 18th and 19th century ships, this is the book for you. Otherwise, a bit tedious. But I had to finish it just to see what happened.

[Andy Hallberg]

Great adventure story; reminiscent of Robinson Crusoe.

While there are many dated expressions, one quickly settles in to the style and language. The author has obviously spent considerable time at sea and his description of sailing vessels and early steam powered ships is extensive. The story is unusual, fast-paced and highly entertaining.

[Leena Patel]

Short story

On the whole it was interesting.
I thought the good thing was the way the story was flowing.
I didn’t like the structure or presentation, I couldn’t understand Roman numerals and other language in it.

[David A Noble]

Annoying request

I don't like being asked to write reviews especially for an old books like sargasso. Suffice to say I liked it.

[Joanna]

Good book

I really enjoyed this one. It’s about a young man who gets on a boat and gets into one perilous situation after another.

[Paul Ross]

I thoroughly enjoyed this story and rated it 4 stars. Glad that this book came to my attention. But there are too many fantastical, and predictable, occurances. Probably will not read anything more by this author.