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Song of the Sirens
Song of the Sirens is a classic. Newsweek
Few men have lived a life of such challenge and adventure as Ernest K. Gann. Most of all, this is the story of Gann's most beloved vessels, his seventeen sirens, from the beautiful 117-ton brigantine Albatros to the incredible Butterfly - hardly more than a raft with patchwork sails - and the diminutive and flawless Thetis, who could charm even porpoises out of the sea. Filled with moments of both drama and reflective calm, Gann's ode to his seventeen sirens reveals the true romantic within every sailor.
318 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
About the author
Ernest K. Gann
50 books104 followersErnest K Gann was an aviator, author, filmmaker, sailor, fisherman and conservationist.
After earning his pilot license, Gann spent his much of his free time aloft, flying for pleasure. The continuing Great Depression soon cost him his job and he was unable to find another position in the movie business. In search of work, he decided to move his family to California. Gann was able to find odd jobs at Burbank Airport, and also began to write short stories. A friend managed to get him a part-time job as a co-pilot with a local airline company and it was there that he flew his first trips as a professional aviator. In the late 1930s many airlines were hiring as many pilots as they could find; after hearing of these opportunities, Gann and his family returned to New York where he managed to get hired by American Airlines to fly the Douglas DC-2 and Douglas DC-3.
For several years Gann enjoyed flying routes in the northeast for American. In 1942, many U.S. airlines' pilots and aircraft were absorbed into the Air Transport Command of the U.S. Army Air Forces to assist in the War Effort. Gann and many of his co-workers at American volunteered to join the group. He flew DC-3s, Douglas DC-4s and Consolidated C-87 Liberator Express transports (the cargo version of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber). His wartime trips took him across the North Atlantic to Europe, and then on to Africa, South America, India, and other exotic places. Some of his most harrowing experiences came while flying The Hump airlift across the Himalayas into China. In the years to come Gann's worldwide travels and various adventures would become the inspiration for many of his novels and screenplays.
At the end of World War II, the Air Transport Command released the civilian pilots and aircraft back to their airlines. Gann decided to leave American Airlines in search of new adventures. He was quickly hired as a pilot with a new company called Matson Airlines that was a venture of the Matson steamship line. He flew from the U.S. West Coast across the Pacific to Honolulu. This experience spawned ideas that were developed into one of his best-known works, 'The High and the Mighty.' Matson ultimately soon fell prey to the politically well-connected Pan American Airlines and failed. After a few more short-lived flying jobs, Gann became discouraged with aviation and he turned to writing as a full-time occupation.
Gann's major works include the novel The High and the Mighty and his aviation focused, near-autobiography Fate Is the Hunter. Notes and short stories scribbled down during long layovers on his pioneering trips across the North Atlantic became the source for his first serious fiction novel, Island in the Sky (1944), which was inspired by an actual Arctic rescue mission. It became an immediate best-seller as did Blaze of Noon (1946), a story about early air mail operations. In 1978, he published his comprehensive autobiography, entitled A Hostage to Fortune.
Although many of his 21 best-selling novels show Gann’s devotion to aviation, others, including Twilight for the Gods, and Fiddler's Green reflect his love of the sea. His experiences as a fisherman, skipper and sailor, all contributed storylines and depth to his nautical fiction. He later wrote an autobiography of his sailing life called Song of the Sirens.
Gann wrote, or adapted from his books, the stories and screenplays for several movies and television shows. For some of these productions he also served as a consultant and technical adviser during filming. Although it received positive reviews, Gann was displeased with the film version of Fate Is the Hunter, and removed his name from the credits. (He later lamented that this decision cost him a "fortune" in royalties, as the film played repeatedly on television for years afterward.) He wrote the story for the television miniseries Masada, based on 'The Antagonists.'
After earning his pilot license, Gann spent his much of his free time aloft, flying for pleasure. The continuing Great Depression soon cost him his job and he was unable to find another position in the movie business. In search of work, he decided to move his family to California. Gann was able to find odd jobs at Burbank Airport, and also began to write short stories. A friend managed to get him a part-time job as a co-pilot with a local airline company and it was there that he flew his first trips as a professional aviator. In the late 1930s many airlines were hiring as many pilots as they could find; after hearing of these opportunities, Gann and his family returned to New York where he managed to get hired by American Airlines to fly the Douglas DC-2 and Douglas DC-3.
For several years Gann enjoyed flying routes in the northeast for American. In 1942, many U.S. airlines' pilots and aircraft were absorbed into the Air Transport Command of the U.S. Army Air Forces to assist in the War Effort. Gann and many of his co-workers at American volunteered to join the group. He flew DC-3s, Douglas DC-4s and Consolidated C-87 Liberator Express transports (the cargo version of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber). His wartime trips took him across the North Atlantic to Europe, and then on to Africa, South America, India, and other exotic places. Some of his most harrowing experiences came while flying The Hump airlift across the Himalayas into China. In the years to come Gann's worldwide travels and various adventures would become the inspiration for many of his novels and screenplays.
At the end of World War II, the Air Transport Command released the civilian pilots and aircraft back to their airlines. Gann decided to leave American Airlines in search of new adventures. He was quickly hired as a pilot with a new company called Matson Airlines that was a venture of the Matson steamship line. He flew from the U.S. West Coast across the Pacific to Honolulu. This experience spawned ideas that were developed into one of his best-known works, 'The High and the Mighty.' Matson ultimately soon fell prey to the politically well-connected Pan American Airlines and failed. After a few more short-lived flying jobs, Gann became discouraged with aviation and he turned to writing as a full-time occupation.
Gann's major works include the novel The High and the Mighty and his aviation focused, near-autobiography Fate Is the Hunter. Notes and short stories scribbled down during long layovers on his pioneering trips across the North Atlantic became the source for his first serious fiction novel, Island in the Sky (1944), which was inspired by an actual Arctic rescue mission. It became an immediate best-seller as did Blaze of Noon (1946), a story about early air mail operations. In 1978, he published his comprehensive autobiography, entitled A Hostage to Fortune.
Although many of his 21 best-selling novels show Gann’s devotion to aviation, others, including Twilight for the Gods, and Fiddler's Green reflect his love of the sea. His experiences as a fisherman, skipper and sailor, all contributed storylines and depth to his nautical fiction. He later wrote an autobiography of his sailing life called Song of the Sirens.
Gann wrote, or adapted from his books, the stories and screenplays for several movies and television shows. For some of these productions he also served as a consultant and technical adviser during filming. Although it received positive reviews, Gann was displeased with the film version of Fate Is the Hunter, and removed his name from the credits. (He later lamented that this decision cost him a "fortune" in royalties, as the film played repeatedly on television for years afterward.) He wrote the story for the television miniseries Masada, based on 'The Antagonists.'
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 17, 2009
Ernest Gann had a love affair with the sky; he was also infatuated with the sea. The Albatross was a former Dutch training vessel that required a crew of several hardy young windjammers. Her beam was twenty feet, and from stem to stem her length was either 117 feet (jibboom to stem) or 84 feet (waterline), depending whether Gann was paying docking fees or not. The idea was to sail her back across the North Atlantic and on to California with a crew of sail lovers, who had flown themselves to Holland at their own expense. Some were pilots who had never been to sea. The only paid member of the crew was the cook meal preparation at sea being something of a crapshoot.
They set sail and were beset immediately with nerve-racking gremlins: the river pilot, supervising his last harbor exit, managed to spear a police boat with the schooner's jib and the flushing mechanism on the twin heads by the bow had frozen open, dowsing the delicate, unprotected surfaces at a most inconvenient time. And then there was seasickness. Most serious was the failure of the Junkers engine - "a collection of spare parts flying in loose formation" - to start; aside from charging the batteries that provided electricity, it supplied power to the pumps that emptied the bilge and compressed air to turn over the main engine that moved the ship when the wind did not blow - a torture for sailing men. This was not . necessarily a total disaster except that hurricanes were beginning to form for their annual march up the Atlantic.
There are some singular advantages that accrue to those who take to the sea in small ships (A boat is a vessel small enough to be carried by a ship.) The absence of many items considered to be necessities on land, and the impossibility of obtaining them, causes man to lose "the pox of desire and its inevitable scabs of greed. To observe human beings without pressing desire is to rediscover mankind, and it is at times so encouraging that one is not ashamed to walk on two legs."
They arrive in San Francisco after a voyage of some one hundred eighty days. Gann decides to turn the Albatross into a square-rigged ship. He is exceedingly lucky to obtain the services of several older gentlemen who had, in their youth, worked on the few remaining sailing vessels. They were delighted to help rework his ship when they discovered he wanted to remake it into a real sailing ship, rather than a high rise of wet bars. It was not an easy task. The lumberyard foremen fell into fits of hysteria when they learned that a forty-five foot length of lumber eighteen inches by eighteen was required to be turned into one of the yards - a yard is the cross-piece on the mast that holds the sail - claiming such a piece of wood did not exist anymore. Two former yard makers were finally found who happened to have a lathe that would actually turn such a monstrosity and who also had some old friends in the lumber business. Another master carpenter removed all the old metal rails and replaced them with beautiful wood taffrails, completely rebuilding the deck.
Then Gann attempted, as best he could, to train some of the would-be sailors.in the ways of scrambling up the ratlines and shrouds, and· to scramble out on the yards. It must be rather intimidating to leave the relative safety of the mast and walk on a thin foot-rope hanging 3 feet 6 inches below the gradually thinning yards. I get queasy just thinking about the process: "Using his belly as a pad against the yard itself, he will venture ever larger rotations about its. axis, so that when he leans far forward down for a fistful of sail his feet swing up behind him on the foot rope, then swing back again as he straightens and heaves up with both hands." - this synchronized with his comrades also hanging on the yards, and perhaps during a thunderstorm. Gann sailed this anachronism into the -South Pacific, a marvelously peaceful voyage except for a harrowing experience when they were caught by a typhoon with too much sail on. Throughout the voyage Gann reminisces about the many boats and ships he has sailed or owned. Anyone who has loved his books about flying will find this book equally satisfying.
They set sail and were beset immediately with nerve-racking gremlins: the river pilot, supervising his last harbor exit, managed to spear a police boat with the schooner's jib and the flushing mechanism on the twin heads by the bow had frozen open, dowsing the delicate, unprotected surfaces at a most inconvenient time. And then there was seasickness. Most serious was the failure of the Junkers engine - "a collection of spare parts flying in loose formation" - to start; aside from charging the batteries that provided electricity, it supplied power to the pumps that emptied the bilge and compressed air to turn over the main engine that moved the ship when the wind did not blow - a torture for sailing men. This was not . necessarily a total disaster except that hurricanes were beginning to form for their annual march up the Atlantic.
There are some singular advantages that accrue to those who take to the sea in small ships (A boat is a vessel small enough to be carried by a ship.) The absence of many items considered to be necessities on land, and the impossibility of obtaining them, causes man to lose "the pox of desire and its inevitable scabs of greed. To observe human beings without pressing desire is to rediscover mankind, and it is at times so encouraging that one is not ashamed to walk on two legs."
They arrive in San Francisco after a voyage of some one hundred eighty days. Gann decides to turn the Albatross into a square-rigged ship. He is exceedingly lucky to obtain the services of several older gentlemen who had, in their youth, worked on the few remaining sailing vessels. They were delighted to help rework his ship when they discovered he wanted to remake it into a real sailing ship, rather than a high rise of wet bars. It was not an easy task. The lumberyard foremen fell into fits of hysteria when they learned that a forty-five foot length of lumber eighteen inches by eighteen was required to be turned into one of the yards - a yard is the cross-piece on the mast that holds the sail - claiming such a piece of wood did not exist anymore. Two former yard makers were finally found who happened to have a lathe that would actually turn such a monstrosity and who also had some old friends in the lumber business. Another master carpenter removed all the old metal rails and replaced them with beautiful wood taffrails, completely rebuilding the deck.
Then Gann attempted, as best he could, to train some of the would-be sailors.in the ways of scrambling up the ratlines and shrouds, and· to scramble out on the yards. It must be rather intimidating to leave the relative safety of the mast and walk on a thin foot-rope hanging 3 feet 6 inches below the gradually thinning yards. I get queasy just thinking about the process: "Using his belly as a pad against the yard itself, he will venture ever larger rotations about its. axis, so that when he leans far forward down for a fistful of sail his feet swing up behind him on the foot rope, then swing back again as he straightens and heaves up with both hands." - this synchronized with his comrades also hanging on the yards, and perhaps during a thunderstorm. Gann sailed this anachronism into the -South Pacific, a marvelously peaceful voyage except for a harrowing experience when they were caught by a typhoon with too much sail on. Throughout the voyage Gann reminisces about the many boats and ships he has sailed or owned. Anyone who has loved his books about flying will find this book equally satisfying.
November 29, 2011
I was immediately swept in to this glorious, intimate account of a man's time spent on the sea in his most favorite sailing ship, the Albatros. As Gann describes his adventures sailing the Albatros with a small crew across the Atlantic, along the West Coast, and into the South Pacific, he also recounts the many other "sirens" in his life, each ship having a special, unique meaning and memory. This is a beautiful book about a love affair unlike any other. Gann's writing is poetic and the pages just fly by.
Favorite quotes: "For the oceans are exactly like anyone's life, at times tranquil and easy, and at other times turbulent, and exasperating and occasionally frightening."
Favorite quotes: "For the oceans are exactly like anyone's life, at times tranquil and easy, and at other times turbulent, and exasperating and occasionally frightening."
July 24, 2018
I devoured it. Published in 1963, this book in a style that you wouldn’t find in a book written today. The author takes his time spinning his yarn. It feels leisurely, and complete. Here are true sailing stories, not romanticized version of an ideal, but they are so funny, and so charming, the pull of the dream, and the beauty that really is in it, still come through.
March 17, 2025
An interesting and entertaining account of trans oceanic sailing before the era of GPS. Throw in some rumination about the allure of seafaring.
The author, Gann, was a man of his times so modern readers may not like occasional misogynistic references to vessels, e.g. “harlots, whores,” etc. Think of it as the sensibility of someone from the MadMen era gone to sea.
The author also pre supposes the reader has a working knowledge of nautical nomenclature, e.g., “leech, clew, fiferail, taffrail, luff, gaff”, etc.
I think Song of the Sirens is out of print. I found my copy in a second hand store.
Overall, it’s mass market rather than high brow literature but it’s interesting.
The author, Gann, was a man of his times so modern readers may not like occasional misogynistic references to vessels, e.g. “harlots, whores,” etc. Think of it as the sensibility of someone from the MadMen era gone to sea.
The author also pre supposes the reader has a working knowledge of nautical nomenclature, e.g., “leech, clew, fiferail, taffrail, luff, gaff”, etc.
I think Song of the Sirens is out of print. I found my copy in a second hand store.
Overall, it’s mass market rather than high brow literature but it’s interesting.
January 28, 2023
Fate is The Hunter, but in boats!
Gann wears his heart on his sleeve when writing, occasionally says some weird things ("our sperm tastes like the sea" is not how I expected chapter 2 to open), frequently veers maudlin, and often suffers from purple prose--in all of his books and especially his two memoirs. Yet, both memoirs are fantastic and filled with gripping tales and true emotions.
Gann wears his heart on his sleeve when writing, occasionally says some weird things ("our sperm tastes like the sea" is not how I expected chapter 2 to open), frequently veers maudlin, and often suffers from purple prose--in all of his books and especially his two memoirs. Yet, both memoirs are fantastic and filled with gripping tales and true emotions.
March 13, 2020
Beautifully written story about all of the sailboats owned by Ernest K. Gann.
March 15, 2009
Not the genre I usually go for. However, this is a masterful telling of the history of flight (which *is* one of my passions), coupled with the story of a man who was both very lucky and very good. Reading this book will take the reader through the skies of WWII and the growth of passenger aviation.
Gann places the reader squarely in the left seat, 50 feet above the roiling white-caps, and makes them feel everything that he did.
Gann places the reader squarely in the left seat, 50 feet above the roiling white-caps, and makes them feel everything that he did.
May 25, 2014
Intelligently written account of the authors' seafaring experiences with sailing boats, floats, skiffs and schooners. If you have any interest in sailing, this is an essential book, and even if you don't, Gann's writing is highly readable, his observations sharp, and his turn of the phrase elevates this far above average.
January 8, 2015
Gann's writing is wonderful - descriptive as well as introspective. His descriptions of life at sea aboard a relatively small boat are poetic as well as realistic.
One turnoff for me was Gann's occasional references to women that were unflattering and old school. He grew up in pre WW2 times and his attitudes reflect it.
Sad to hear of the end of his boat - Albatross. The sea can be cruel!
One turnoff for me was Gann's occasional references to women that were unflattering and old school. He grew up in pre WW2 times and his attitudes reflect it.
Sad to hear of the end of his boat - Albatross. The sea can be cruel!
August 4, 2010
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which tells of the different boats that Gann owned. He obviously loved them all in different ways and his life revolving around them was fascinating. I know he also flew aeroplanes, and wonder how he managed to fit it all in.
July 8, 2012
For anyone who loves the sea, this is a must read.
It gets a little boring in the middle but the excitment of the story will carry tour through.
The Story is well named since the sea does call men to it. Men can also love the ships they sail on. They are called she.
It gets a little boring in the middle but the excitment of the story will carry tour through.
The Story is well named since the sea does call men to it. Men can also love the ships they sail on. They are called she.
January 5, 2009
I started reading this book some time ago and could not finish it. I found it very boring. Just not my cup of tea. My husband is currently reading it and is enjoying it very much.
January 26, 2009
If you've ever been tempted to spend your life savings on a sailboat for to sail the south seas--read this book. If you think commercial fishing is your dream job--read this book.
November 2, 2012
The many yarns of a man who spent his life on the sea.
December 27, 2014
A beautifully written book for anyone who loves the sea and adventure.
January 20, 2025
One of my favorite books of all time. I’ve read it numerous times over the years.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews