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Astounding Sea Stories: Fifteen Ripping Good Tales
“1789 Just before sun-rising, Mr. Christian, with the master at arms, gunner’s mate, and Thomas Burket, seaman, came into my cabin while I was asleep, and seizing me, tied my hands with a cord behind my back and threatened me with instant death if I spoke or made the least noise.”
So began William Bligh’s explanation of the infamous mutiny aboard the Bounty . His account of his capture and his phenomenal navigation of a small boat filled with men desperate to survive is one of the greatest sailing stories ever told.
It is just one account readers will find in Astounding Sea Stories —many that have been sitting unread for decades. Some are from master writers whose deserved fame rests on works and characters who lived far from the sea. Here are sea stories from Jack London, his first published work, written miles from the frozen north that he loved and wrote about often—and from Charles Dickens without Scrooge, Victor Hugo far from Paris, and Arthur Conan Doyle on the deck of a ship without Sherlock or Watson. All are hidden gems that make you wish they had written and the sea and ships. Here also are marquee names like Melville and Richard Henry Dana, the official report of the sinking of the Titanic , a first-person account of the wreck of the Medusa , and a story by an unknown captain written after his ship was sunk by a whale. Imagine that.
This eclectic collection will not disappoint any armchair seafarer.
So began William Bligh’s explanation of the infamous mutiny aboard the Bounty . His account of his capture and his phenomenal navigation of a small boat filled with men desperate to survive is one of the greatest sailing stories ever told.
It is just one account readers will find in Astounding Sea Stories —many that have been sitting unread for decades. Some are from master writers whose deserved fame rests on works and characters who lived far from the sea. Here are sea stories from Jack London, his first published work, written miles from the frozen north that he loved and wrote about often—and from Charles Dickens without Scrooge, Victor Hugo far from Paris, and Arthur Conan Doyle on the deck of a ship without Sherlock or Watson. All are hidden gems that make you wish they had written and the sea and ships. Here also are marquee names like Melville and Richard Henry Dana, the official report of the sinking of the Titanic , a first-person account of the wreck of the Medusa , and a story by an unknown captain written after his ship was sunk by a whale. Imagine that.
This eclectic collection will not disappoint any armchair seafarer.
- GenresNonfiction
280 pages, Paperback
Published August 8, 2017
31 people are currently reading
28 people want to read
About the author
Tom McCarthy
106 books495 followersTom McCarthy — “English fiction’s new laureate of disappointment” (Time Out, September 2007) — is a writer and artist. He was born in 1969 and lives in a tower-block in London. Tom grew up in Greenwich, south London, and studied English at New College, Oxford. After a couple of years in Prague in the early 1990s, he lived in Amsterdam as literary editor of the local Time Out, and later worked in British television as well as co-editing Mute magazine.
His debut novel Remainder was first published in November 2005 by Paris-based art press Metronome. After becoming a cult hit championed first by British webzines (it was 3:AM Magazine’s Book of the Year for 2005) and then by the literary press, Remainder was republished by Alma Books in the UK (2006) and Vintage in the US (2007). A French version is to be followed by editions in Japanese, Korean, Greek, Spanish and Croatian.
A work of literary criticism, Tintin and the Secret of Literature, was released by Granta Books in June 2006. It also came out in France and an American edition is in the offing.
Tom’s second novel, Men in Space came out in 2007.
He has published numerous stories, essays and articles on literature, philosophy and art in publications including The Observer, The Times Literary Supplement and Contemporary Magazine, as well as in anthologies such as London from Punk to Blair (Reaktion Books), Theology and the Political (Duke University Press) and The Milgram Experiment (Jan van Eyck Press). His story, “Kool Thing, Or Why I Want to Fuck Patty Hearst” appeared in The Empty Page: Fiction Inspired By Sonic Youth (Serpent’s Tail) in 2008.
His ongoing project the International Necronautical Society, a semi-fictitious avant-garde network that surfaces through publications, proclamations, denunciations and live events, has been described by Untitled Magazine as ‘the most comprehensive total art work we have seen in years’ and by Art Monthly as ‘a platform for fantastically mobile thinking’. In 2003 the INS broke into the BBC website and inserted propaganda into its source-code. The following year, they set up a broadcasting unit at the ICA from which more than forty ‘agents’ generated non-stop poem-codes which were transmitted over FM radio in London and by internet to collaborating radio stations around the world.
Tom has also tutored and lectured at various institutions including the Architectural Association, Central Saint Martins School of Art, the Royal College of Art, Goldsmiths College and Southern California Institute of Architecture. He recently taught a course on ‘Catastrophe’ with Marko Daniel at the London Consortium.
His debut novel Remainder was first published in November 2005 by Paris-based art press Metronome. After becoming a cult hit championed first by British webzines (it was 3:AM Magazine’s Book of the Year for 2005) and then by the literary press, Remainder was republished by Alma Books in the UK (2006) and Vintage in the US (2007). A French version is to be followed by editions in Japanese, Korean, Greek, Spanish and Croatian.
A work of literary criticism, Tintin and the Secret of Literature, was released by Granta Books in June 2006. It also came out in France and an American edition is in the offing.
Tom’s second novel, Men in Space came out in 2007.
He has published numerous stories, essays and articles on literature, philosophy and art in publications including The Observer, The Times Literary Supplement and Contemporary Magazine, as well as in anthologies such as London from Punk to Blair (Reaktion Books), Theology and the Political (Duke University Press) and The Milgram Experiment (Jan van Eyck Press). His story, “Kool Thing, Or Why I Want to Fuck Patty Hearst” appeared in The Empty Page: Fiction Inspired By Sonic Youth (Serpent’s Tail) in 2008.
His ongoing project the International Necronautical Society, a semi-fictitious avant-garde network that surfaces through publications, proclamations, denunciations and live events, has been described by Untitled Magazine as ‘the most comprehensive total art work we have seen in years’ and by Art Monthly as ‘a platform for fantastically mobile thinking’. In 2003 the INS broke into the BBC website and inserted propaganda into its source-code. The following year, they set up a broadcasting unit at the ICA from which more than forty ‘agents’ generated non-stop poem-codes which were transmitted over FM radio in London and by internet to collaborating radio stations around the world.
Tom has also tutored and lectured at various institutions including the Architectural Association, Central Saint Martins School of Art, the Royal College of Art, Goldsmiths College and Southern California Institute of Architecture. He recently taught a course on ‘Catastrophe’ with Marko Daniel at the London Consortium.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 13, 2025
(Lido em Inglês)
Neste livro, Tom McCarthy regroupa
15 de histórias de mar: naufrágios, motins, sacrifícios e vários outros intrigantes contos de mar. Existe algo especial sobre a linguagem marítima que, muito específica, também é surpreendentemente interessante. Todas as histórias selecionadas são no mínimo interessante, porém existe sim uma ou duas que me deixaram super entediado, principalmente a do Tufão na costa do Japão, pelo Jack London. Dito isso, os outros contos são fantásticos: coloco ênfase principalmente no relato oficial do governo britânico quanto ao acidente do Titanic, a história do monstro horrível de Victor Hugo e ao mistério em alto-mar do Conan Doyle.
Neste livro, Tom McCarthy regroupa
15 de histórias de mar: naufrágios, motins, sacrifícios e vários outros intrigantes contos de mar. Existe algo especial sobre a linguagem marítima que, muito específica, também é surpreendentemente interessante. Todas as histórias selecionadas são no mínimo interessante, porém existe sim uma ou duas que me deixaram super entediado, principalmente a do Tufão na costa do Japão, pelo Jack London. Dito isso, os outros contos são fantásticos: coloco ênfase principalmente no relato oficial do governo britânico quanto ao acidente do Titanic, a história do monstro horrível de Victor Hugo e ao mistério em alto-mar do Conan Doyle.
June 2, 2023
A collection of tales, real and fictional, about people’s experiences at sea. Shipwrecks, whale attacks, mutinies, etc. Some stories I enjoyed, but some were written in “old nautical-ese, and so were difficult (or too boring!) to read. In fact some nautical phrases were so obscure I couldn’t get the meanings to come up in Google. Mixed reviews on this book.
April 4, 2020
Good collection of sea stories
A good collection of short stories and excerpts that are well-chosen and provide insight into life aboard sailing vessels, arctic expeditions and historical incidents, such as the Titanic report. I enjoyed the voyage.
A good collection of short stories and excerpts that are well-chosen and provide insight into life aboard sailing vessels, arctic expeditions and historical incidents, such as the Titanic report. I enjoyed the voyage.
August 26, 2019
Classic Tales
Excerpts from mostly well-known authors and famous occurrences at sea. An introduction to the many calamities experienced by those who travel the world’s seas.
Excerpts from mostly well-known authors and famous occurrences at sea. An introduction to the many calamities experienced by those who travel the world’s seas.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews