What do you think?
Rate this book
Voyage: A Novel of 1896
A magnificent epic of the sea and a dynamic portrait of turn-of-the-century America.—Publishers Weekly
704 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
13 people are currently reading
426 people want to read
About the author
Sterling Hayden
10 books31 followersSterling Hayden was an American actor and author. For most of his career as a leading man, he specialized in westerns and film noir, such as Johnny Guitar, The Asphalt Jungle and The Killing. Later on he became noted as a character actor for such roles as Gen. Jack D. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). He also played the Irish-American policeman, Captain McCluskey, in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather in 1972, and the novelist Roger Wade in 1973's The Long Goodbye.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
December 1, 2012
sterling hayden, the man who wrote this book, was a man of many stripes. a quick read of his wikipedia page informs us that he stood 6 feet 5 inches tall, and that among his many pursuits he was a film actor in such films as, "The Asphalt Jungle", "Johnny Guitar" and Robert Altman's version of "The Long Goodbye" co-starring opposite elliot gould-- and then a soldier and spy in WWII and foremost, a "sailor man", the calling he felt most strongly. he wrote an autobiography entitled Wanderer which i am more eager to read after reading this novel that so obviously followed hemingway's write-what-you-know dictum. three different characters in this novel are 6'5" bear-like men, as hayden was, who loved the sea. what makes the novel great is verite behind it -- the person who told this story clearly lived in the world he attempted to fictionalize.
the novel is sometimes charmingly, sometimes horrifying rambling. the first 150 pages are spent introducing characters, some of which never really impact the rest of the novel: the repressed clerk lemuel sponagle (also referenced as lem q. sponagle) who has his big moment in trying to focus on the ships instead of the hot bear-like man meat that is hayden avatar number one, captain irons saul pendleton (variously described and aged as the book wears on -- though the action of the novel takes place over a year) and al kautsky, the guy who lived underground with a mule only to escape that life to take refuge inside the statue of liberty is listed as one of the men shanghaied onto the neptune's car but he never figures in any subsequent action. i felt sure that these were characters that hayden had met at some point or another and could not resist cramming into his book. i weighed the idea that this already 700-page brick was still longer when submitted for publication and an editorial hand might have reduced the novel so that characters like this -- forgive me -- felt at sea, but the novel is still so uneven that i am inclined to believe it was never seen by an editorial eye. it is all over the place, telling a myriad of stories, among them a murder aboard ship, a nymphomaniac searching for something to do off shore, a bunch of rich people going on a scientific exploration, maritime labour unions and movements, accidents, and mutiny. for the most part these strands are not resolved to any great satisfaction at the end of the voyage though of course landfall makes a natural end.
i laughed a lot when reading this book. the comic book hero meets charles dickens naming convention was hilarious: banning butler blanchard, simon basil harwar, carl carmack of the carnarsee carmacks, and montague reid cutting to list a few. there were also some very off-colour descriptions i enjoyed very much. when it tried to be serious the intentions were good, and some passages were lovely. i'd recommend it for fans of sterling hayden, for people who like a sometimes scurrilous, sometimes shocking, always sprawling novel as expansive as the seas that the author loved so well.
the novel is sometimes charmingly, sometimes horrifying rambling. the first 150 pages are spent introducing characters, some of which never really impact the rest of the novel: the repressed clerk lemuel sponagle (also referenced as lem q. sponagle) who has his big moment in trying to focus on the ships instead of the hot bear-like man meat that is hayden avatar number one, captain irons saul pendleton (variously described and aged as the book wears on -- though the action of the novel takes place over a year) and al kautsky, the guy who lived underground with a mule only to escape that life to take refuge inside the statue of liberty is listed as one of the men shanghaied onto the neptune's car but he never figures in any subsequent action. i felt sure that these were characters that hayden had met at some point or another and could not resist cramming into his book. i weighed the idea that this already 700-page brick was still longer when submitted for publication and an editorial hand might have reduced the novel so that characters like this -- forgive me -- felt at sea, but the novel is still so uneven that i am inclined to believe it was never seen by an editorial eye. it is all over the place, telling a myriad of stories, among them a murder aboard ship, a nymphomaniac searching for something to do off shore, a bunch of rich people going on a scientific exploration, maritime labour unions and movements, accidents, and mutiny. for the most part these strands are not resolved to any great satisfaction at the end of the voyage though of course landfall makes a natural end.
i laughed a lot when reading this book. the comic book hero meets charles dickens naming convention was hilarious: banning butler blanchard, simon basil harwar, carl carmack of the carnarsee carmacks, and montague reid cutting to list a few. there were also some very off-colour descriptions i enjoyed very much. when it tried to be serious the intentions were good, and some passages were lovely. i'd recommend it for fans of sterling hayden, for people who like a sometimes scurrilous, sometimes shocking, always sprawling novel as expansive as the seas that the author loved so well.
October 21, 2013
Voyage reads like Whitman and Melville in a drinking contest, recognizing the attraction and dangers of the sea, the highs and lows that come with living on your own terms. Hayden had lived most of his life on a boat. When he lived in France, he lived on a boat in various docks. His love for the sea began at Long Wharf in Boston and Sausalito is where Hayden set his last anchor. NY-born and patrician Bogart had a schooner named Santana, and Hayden had his schooner Wanderer. There is no doubt that Hayden was a flawed man of Lear contradictions: he drank, railed against many things, but it seemed that he distrusted the things that came easy to him...such as acting. He disliked the Hollywood factories for creating illusion; politicians, for perpetuating other illusions and; railed against what he was seeing America become. He was outspoken about his political activism, his drinking and occasional drug use in his interviews with Tom Synder, where he looks like the future Keith Richards, but betrays himself as a writer. Hayden lived his life at odds with the `American dream,' climbing up and down the ladder of success several times over. He was a nonconformist who believed in the examined life. It is impossible not to notice the pattern that just as he was about to touch the brass ring he would walk away; but in the writing he is simply majestic, poetic, and provocative. I'd argue that his prose rivals with the best of the twentieth century's best writers.
July 16, 2008
READ THIS BOOK. ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVORITES, BUT I'VE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO TALK ANYBODY ELSE INTO READING IT. AMERICAN BACKROOM POLITICS AND CLIPPER SHIPS IN 1896. REALLY GOOD READ.
July 27, 2011
This historical novel begins and ends with the marathon voyage of a four-masted barque from New England to San Francisco around Cape Horn, but the story reaches deep into the evolving moral and political fabric of the United States as the end of the 19th century approaches. While the maritime details obviously draw on Hayden's own experiences at sea, the characters and dramatic tensions are intense, from the level of internal dialog to that of societal self-definition. In the early pages the dense text requires some real concentration to keep straight the people and details, but the investment is well worth it by book's end.
This book can be enjoyed simply as a sea adventure, but the real struggle was man against man. Set during the 1896 election when the West and the working man first showed their political muscle, this book delves into the conditions behind that historic election. While the struggle between haves and have-nots had been going on long before and has continued ever since, this novel emphasizes some game-changing developments, such as the increasing use of steam and machinery, the organization of labor, and the creation of media not controlled by the wealthy.
Having grown up in a historic seaport in the Paciic Northwest, I especially found this book interesting for the connection it details between the maritime traditions of New England and the prominance of New England captains and sailors in West Coast history.
This book can be enjoyed simply as a sea adventure, but the real struggle was man against man. Set during the 1896 election when the West and the working man first showed their political muscle, this book delves into the conditions behind that historic election. While the struggle between haves and have-nots had been going on long before and has continued ever since, this novel emphasizes some game-changing developments, such as the increasing use of steam and machinery, the organization of labor, and the creation of media not controlled by the wealthy.
Having grown up in a historic seaport in the Paciic Northwest, I especially found this book interesting for the connection it details between the maritime traditions of New England and the prominance of New England captains and sailors in West Coast history.
September 1, 2014
Loved every moment of this book. The story is fresh, the writing magical, but,
September 17, 2017
Sterling Hayden was a journeyman actor appearing in such disparate fare as "The Asphalt Jungle", and "The Godfather".
With "Voyage" written in 1979, he has written a sailing saga worthy of Melville and Mailer. The book traces the maiden voyage of " Neptune's Car" from her christening in Maine through her almost year long sail around the Horn, ending in San Francisco in 1895.
There are scores of characters each with a rich backstory throughout its 700 pages. . We meet the owners of the ship, the captain, the evil mates, the poor shanghaied crew, socialist union leaders, even William Jennings Bryan.
You can feel the heat, the cold, even hear the wind.
Hayden's knowledge of sailing ships, navigation, politics, and human nature combine for a breathless read. Five Jimmys out of five.
With "Voyage" written in 1979, he has written a sailing saga worthy of Melville and Mailer. The book traces the maiden voyage of " Neptune's Car" from her christening in Maine through her almost year long sail around the Horn, ending in San Francisco in 1895.
There are scores of characters each with a rich backstory throughout its 700 pages. . We meet the owners of the ship, the captain, the evil mates, the poor shanghaied crew, socialist union leaders, even William Jennings Bryan.
You can feel the heat, the cold, even hear the wind.
Hayden's knowledge of sailing ships, navigation, politics, and human nature combine for a breathless read. Five Jimmys out of five.
August 17, 2020
Perhaps a more accomplished author than actor, Sterling Hayden never cared much for Hollywood, despite great success, and was a professional sailor before his lengthy acting career. Voyage is one of two forgotten classics that he wrote, the other is the memoir, Wanderer. An epic sea adventure set in 1896, Voyage is nearly the equal to Mutiny on the Bounty and though not as stylistically original, a more lively read than Moby Dick. Like Melville, Hayden was an expert on all aspects of sailing, but it is his plot and character development that make this work of historical fiction among the best in the seafaring genre.
September 25, 2021
Yes, this is Sterling Hayden, the magnificent actor (DR. STRANGELOVE, THE KILLING, THE GODFATHER). Betcha didn't know he was a gifted novelist too? This tale of the sea takes place in 1896; the year Hayden called the crossroad of American history when William Jennings Bryan ran for president against that old fool McKinley. This battle between proletarian and plutocratic America is also taking place on the ship, the harbors where she sets port and among the men and women who service her.
August 15, 2007
This is one of my favorite books. I had to search for it for several years. (this was before amazon.com) Sterling Hayden had an exciting life and this book shows his depth of knowledge of the sea and his imagination. It shows full well what a person puts at risk when they take the sea as a life.
July 4, 2011
An amazing book .. Great descriptions and dialog ... Engaging and unique characters ... Adventure and suspense galore ... An amazing portrait of America in 1896 ... I can't recommend it more highly!
March 21, 2014
AUTHENTIC AS YOU CAN GET. WRITTEN BY A REAL OCEAN SAILOR.
November 28, 2018
An amazingly good read. At times, it was difficult to put down. Sterling Hayden was an accomplished writer and story teller.
January 26, 2021
Should be 6 stars.
May 24, 2022
When I contemplate this novel, Voyage by Sterling Hayden, and I begin to sound the depths of my memory I am ferried to the port of a distant and obscure time when while staying at an Inn in Falmouth Cape Cod I had occasion to strike up a conversation with a veteran Merchant Marine. I was a young man and always on the lookout for any new adventure. This gentleman's account of the Merchant Marine service piqued my wonder and lust for the sea. By and by we got around to our favorite yarns of those who have braved Poseidon's realm. We covered everyone from Odysseus and Melville to Conrad and other lesser known accounts like Tristan Jones. Finally my interlocutor described a book he read while out at Sea on a vessel. During his down time in his quarters he was immensely entertained by this tale called 'Voyage'. After that brief but significant encounter with an itinerant seaman, although forgetting his name, the poignant description of this book never left me. After some years I followed up on the suggestion to read this tale. Now being an athletic and physically oriented young American man I gravitated to all things masculine and challenging. Growing up in a large Irish Catholic family in the Greater Boston area we heard plenty of Urban legends of the feats performed by men who were larger than life. It is no wonder that my inclinations for reading gravitated towards the likes of Jack London, Rudyard Kipling, Edgar Poe, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Dickens,1906 ECT. I really enjoy the rough and ready hero; and knowing what real hard manual labor is I appreciate those authors who champion the working class. It is for these reasons and more that I accredit this book among my all time favorites. Even though I am an ardent student off classical literature and I hold by a stringent ethic of what constitutes a literary classic I still feel that Hayden's story belongs in the company of great. This was the most ribald, raucous, and swashbuckling narrative of a turn off the century America right at the opus of the industrial revolution. Each character is alive and coursing with red blood, and not a few of them are ready to spill that same blood. The country is young and business is booming and the shipping industry needs men to run coal around the infamous Cape Horn from East coast to the West. The climate is ripe and ready for picking and those with enough brains and brawn can get a hold and make their stake. The big wigs know what they want and they will get it at all costs. This was a time before certain laws and workers rights, regulations, and political correctness. It was a time when a man could get a job just by signing on; or if he drank too much at a bar he might find himself walking up half way out to Sea on a steel hulled, square- rigged clipper with a blood-thirsty first mate in his ear threatening with a marlin Spike to split his already aching head if he didn't hop too and lively. Then there is the human element to this boisterous yarn. An under current lives within this story as it follows the dubious life of one man who is the protagonist being buffeted along lifes turbulent course as an able bodied seaman in America in the year 1906 on one of the last sailing ships of the sea. After many a drunken jag, living and working from one filthy barge to another; drumming up enough dough to get him that fine elixir to help ferry his tortured soul to Oblivion, that coveted port of call that all men running from guilt so desperately try to reach at the bottom of every bottle, only to find that it was only a mirage. A wicked trick played by the ruthless and rapacious creditor John Barelycorn. And so while our dubious hero runs hither and yon from himself and the daemons of his past, fate finds him upon one of the last fully rigged, steel hulled, sailing clipper ships scheduled to run a load of coal from Freeport Maine round the "Horn" up to San Francisco. Now our guy is a seasoned old salt. He's a big man and able to hold his own in most company, especially sober. But this trip is got aboard more than commerce for the west coast. This boat has a host of malingerers, drunkards taken unawares while recklessly imbibing spirits in some deplorable tavern. Petty criminals, violent criminals; mentally ill. Miscreants, malefactors dea-dogs of every color, stripe, and description. It is an unholy crew that's to help sail this coal through some of the most unforgiving seas on earth, aboard one of the last real clipper ships of it's kind. A daring and most dubious embarkation with a desperate band of life's orphaned men that only a ruthless and unforgiving mistress such as the Sea itself will accept. Likewise it will take a certain diabolical assemblage of
Ship's high command to conduct this rabble over the watery waste. And as it turns out this particular shipping agency has a nasty little history of hiring a psychopathic first mate all in the spirit of getting the job accomplished, no matter what the cost. As the tale unfolds we get a not so wholesome or censored view of the life and lives of those living and working in an America that inexorably moved forward like a juggernaut made up of many varied and different aspects and parts all feverishly trying to survive in a country with everything to offer but always at a cost. A gritty, rough often unforgiving storey about the men of an era in American history when the country was wide open with opportunities. Those who could rose to the top and those who lacked what it took to succeed at the beginning of the twentieth century were inevitably the lubricant for the analogous juggernaut that was success.When I contemplate this novel, Voyage by Sterling Hayden, and I begin to sound the depths of my memory I am ferried to the port of a distant and obscure time when while staying at an Inn in Falmouth Cape Cod I had occasion to strike up a conversation with a veteran Merchant Marine. I was a young man and always on the lookout for any new adventure. This gentleman's account of the Merchant Marine service piqued my wonder and lust for the sea. By and by we got around to our favorite yarns of those who have braved Poseidon's realm. We covered everyone from Odysseus and Melville to Conrad and other lesser known accounts like Tristan Jones. Finally my interlocutor described a book he read while out at Sea on a vessel. During his down time in his quarters he was immensely entertained by this tale called 'Voyage'. After that brief but significant encounter with an itinerant seaman, although forgetting his name, the poignant description of this book never left me. After some years I followed up on the suggestion to read this tale. Now being an athletic and physically oriented young American man I gravitated to all things masculine and challenging. Growing up in a large Irish Catholic family in the Greater Boston area we heard plenty of Urban legends of the feats performed by men who were larger than life. It is no wonder that my inclinations for reading gravitated towards the likes of Jack London, Rudyard Kipling, Edgar Poe, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Dickens, ECT. I really enjoy the rough and ready hero; and knowing what real hard manual labor is I appreciate those authors who champion the working class. It is for these reasons and more that I accredit this book among my all time favorites. Even though I am an ardent student off classical literature and I hold by a stringent ethic of what constitutes a literary classic I still feel that Hayden's story belongs in the company of great. This was the most ribald, raucous, and swashbuckling narrative of a turn off the century America right at the opus of the industrial revolution. Each character is alive and coursing with red blood, and not a few of them are ready to spill that same blood. The country is young and business is booming and the shipping industry needs men to run coal around the infamous Cape Horn from East coast to the West. The climate is ripe and ready for picking and those with enough brains and brawn can get a hold and make their stake. The big wigs know what they want and they will get it at all costs. This was a time before certain laws and workers rights, regulations, and political correctness. It was a time when a man could get a job just by signing on; or if he drank too much at a bar he might find himself walking up half way out to Sea on a steel hulled, square- rigged clipper with a blood-thirsty first mate in his ear threatening with a marlin Spike to split his already aching head if he didn't hop too and lively. Then there is the human element to this boisterous yarn. An under current lives within this story as it follows the dubious life of one man who is the protagonist being buffeted along lifes turbulent course as an able bodied seaman in America in the year 1906 on one of the last sailing ships of the sea. After many a drunken jag, living and working from one filthy barge to another; drumming up enough dough to get him that fine elixir to help ferry his tortured soul to Oblivion, that coveted port of call that all men running from guilt so desperately try to reach at the bottom of every bottle, only to find that it was only a mirage. A wicked trick played by the ruthless and rapacious creditor John Barelycorn. And so while our dubious hero runs hither and yon from himself and the daemons of his past, fate finds him upon one of the last fully rigged, steel hulled, sailing clipper ships scheduled to run a load of coal from Freeport Maine round the "Horn" up to San Francisco. Now our guy is a seasoned old salt. He's a big man and able to hold his own in most company, especially sober. But this trip is got aboard more than commerce for the west coast. This boat has a host of malingerers, drunkards taken unawares while recklessly imbibing spirits in some deplorable tavern. Petty criminals, violent criminals; mentally ill. Miscreants, malefactors dea-dogs of every color, stripe, and description. It is an unholy crew that's to help sail this coal through some of the most unforgiving seas on earth, aboard one of the last real clipper ships of it's kind. A daring and most dubious embarkation with a desperate band of life's orphaned men that only a ruthless and unforgiving mistress such as the Sea itself will accept. Likewise it will take a certain diabolical assemblage of
Ship's high command to conduct this rabble over the watery waste. And as it turns out this particular shipping agency has a nasty little history of hiring a psychopathic first mate all in the spirit of getting the job accomplished, no matter what the cost. As the tale unfolds we get a not so wholesome or censored view of the life and lives of those living and working in an America that inexorably moved forward like a juggernaut made up of many varied and different aspects and parts all feverishly trying to survive in a country with everything to offer but always at a cost. A gritty, rough often unforgiving storey about the men of an era in American history when the country was wide open with opportunities. Those who could rose to the top and those who lacked what it took to succeed at the beginning of the twentieth century were inevitably the lubricant for the analogous juggernaut that was success.
Ship's high command to conduct this rabble over the watery waste. And as it turns out this particular shipping agency has a nasty little history of hiring a psychopathic first mate all in the spirit of getting the job accomplished, no matter what the cost. As the tale unfolds we get a not so wholesome or censored view of the life and lives of those living and working in an America that inexorably moved forward like a juggernaut made up of many varied and different aspects and parts all feverishly trying to survive in a country with everything to offer but always at a cost. A gritty, rough often unforgiving storey about the men of an era in American history when the country was wide open with opportunities. Those who could rose to the top and those who lacked what it took to succeed at the beginning of the twentieth century were inevitably the lubricant for the analogous juggernaut that was success.When I contemplate this novel, Voyage by Sterling Hayden, and I begin to sound the depths of my memory I am ferried to the port of a distant and obscure time when while staying at an Inn in Falmouth Cape Cod I had occasion to strike up a conversation with a veteran Merchant Marine. I was a young man and always on the lookout for any new adventure. This gentleman's account of the Merchant Marine service piqued my wonder and lust for the sea. By and by we got around to our favorite yarns of those who have braved Poseidon's realm. We covered everyone from Odysseus and Melville to Conrad and other lesser known accounts like Tristan Jones. Finally my interlocutor described a book he read while out at Sea on a vessel. During his down time in his quarters he was immensely entertained by this tale called 'Voyage'. After that brief but significant encounter with an itinerant seaman, although forgetting his name, the poignant description of this book never left me. After some years I followed up on the suggestion to read this tale. Now being an athletic and physically oriented young American man I gravitated to all things masculine and challenging. Growing up in a large Irish Catholic family in the Greater Boston area we heard plenty of Urban legends of the feats performed by men who were larger than life. It is no wonder that my inclinations for reading gravitated towards the likes of Jack London, Rudyard Kipling, Edgar Poe, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Dickens, ECT. I really enjoy the rough and ready hero; and knowing what real hard manual labor is I appreciate those authors who champion the working class. It is for these reasons and more that I accredit this book among my all time favorites. Even though I am an ardent student off classical literature and I hold by a stringent ethic of what constitutes a literary classic I still feel that Hayden's story belongs in the company of great. This was the most ribald, raucous, and swashbuckling narrative of a turn off the century America right at the opus of the industrial revolution. Each character is alive and coursing with red blood, and not a few of them are ready to spill that same blood. The country is young and business is booming and the shipping industry needs men to run coal around the infamous Cape Horn from East coast to the West. The climate is ripe and ready for picking and those with enough brains and brawn can get a hold and make their stake. The big wigs know what they want and they will get it at all costs. This was a time before certain laws and workers rights, regulations, and political correctness. It was a time when a man could get a job just by signing on; or if he drank too much at a bar he might find himself walking up half way out to Sea on a steel hulled, square- rigged clipper with a blood-thirsty first mate in his ear threatening with a marlin Spike to split his already aching head if he didn't hop too and lively. Then there is the human element to this boisterous yarn. An under current lives within this story as it follows the dubious life of one man who is the protagonist being buffeted along lifes turbulent course as an able bodied seaman in America in the year 1906 on one of the last sailing ships of the sea. After many a drunken jag, living and working from one filthy barge to another; drumming up enough dough to get him that fine elixir to help ferry his tortured soul to Oblivion, that coveted port of call that all men running from guilt so desperately try to reach at the bottom of every bottle, only to find that it was only a mirage. A wicked trick played by the ruthless and rapacious creditor John Barelycorn. And so while our dubious hero runs hither and yon from himself and the daemons of his past, fate finds him upon one of the last fully rigged, steel hulled, sailing clipper ships scheduled to run a load of coal from Freeport Maine round the "Horn" up to San Francisco. Now our guy is a seasoned old salt. He's a big man and able to hold his own in most company, especially sober. But this trip is got aboard more than commerce for the west coast. This boat has a host of malingerers, drunkards taken unawares while recklessly imbibing spirits in some deplorable tavern. Petty criminals, violent criminals; mentally ill. Miscreants, malefactors dea-dogs of every color, stripe, and description. It is an unholy crew that's to help sail this coal through some of the most unforgiving seas on earth, aboard one of the last real clipper ships of it's kind. A daring and most dubious embarkation with a desperate band of life's orphaned men that only a ruthless and unforgiving mistress such as the Sea itself will accept. Likewise it will take a certain diabolical assemblage of
Ship's high command to conduct this rabble over the watery waste. And as it turns out this particular shipping agency has a nasty little history of hiring a psychopathic first mate all in the spirit of getting the job accomplished, no matter what the cost. As the tale unfolds we get a not so wholesome or censored view of the life and lives of those living and working in an America that inexorably moved forward like a juggernaut made up of many varied and different aspects and parts all feverishly trying to survive in a country with everything to offer but always at a cost. A gritty, rough often unforgiving storey about the men of an era in American history when the country was wide open with opportunities. Those who could rose to the top and those who lacked what it took to succeed at the beginning of the twentieth century were inevitably the lubricant for the analogous juggernaut that was success.
August 29, 2022
I'm pretty familiar with the noir classic The Asphalt Jungle. So the name "Sterling Hayden" as the author of the massive tome Voyage really jumped out at me, and I spent the better part of two days wading through the story of, principally, the maiden voyage of a steel-hulled sailing ship going around the Horn from Maine to San Francisco. I vaguely knew that Hayden had a maritime career prior to Hollywood, and I expected that this would provide a sound basis for the story.
Set in 1896, the tale tells of the crew's struggles with the elements and the sadistic mates. Additionally, about a dozen characters have a backstory, and there are side journeys into the presidential election pitting McKinley vs Wm Jennings Bryan, unions and union-busting, the cynical shipping owner and his clerk and brutal enforcer, the voyage of the owner's daughter to Japan and back to Hawaii, and a glamorous nymphomaniac. Actually, there are so many characters in the 700 pages that I'm sure that I omitted people.
The book was sailing to a five-star award until the final chapters. The 6'5" protagonist Simeon Harwar -- oh, did you know that Sterling Hayden was 6'5"? --hatched some sort of revenge scheme that fizzled. The lack of closure to an otherwise riveting story means a deduction.
As an aside, I pursued several video biographies and interviews regarding Sterling Hayden. Particularly intriguing is a black-and-white interview done partly in French: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkjQn...
Set in 1896, the tale tells of the crew's struggles with the elements and the sadistic mates. Additionally, about a dozen characters have a backstory, and there are side journeys into the presidential election pitting McKinley vs Wm Jennings Bryan, unions and union-busting, the cynical shipping owner and his clerk and brutal enforcer, the voyage of the owner's daughter to Japan and back to Hawaii, and a glamorous nymphomaniac. Actually, there are so many characters in the 700 pages that I'm sure that I omitted people.
The book was sailing to a five-star award until the final chapters. The 6'5" protagonist Simeon Harwar -- oh, did you know that Sterling Hayden was 6'5"? --hatched some sort of revenge scheme that fizzled. The lack of closure to an otherwise riveting story means a deduction.
As an aside, I pursued several video biographies and interviews regarding Sterling Hayden. Particularly intriguing is a black-and-white interview done partly in French: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkjQn...
March 23, 2025
There were parts of it I really enjoyed, but overall it was rambling and at times bordering on incoherent.
The highlights were definitely the chapters at sea, but there were so many other disparate threads that hardly led to anything?
A presidential election, including commentary about the Democratic Party at war with itself. Union busting corporate overlords. Wealthy socialites following an eclipse. Etc.
Not to mention the final act follows one of the sailors deciding to blow up the ship but then deciding not to?
It was hard to keep up sometimes as even mid chapter the narrative would switch perspectives. It was also difficult with how thick the nautical slang was, I had to pause many many times to look things up.
Despite all these issues though, the backdrop was engaging and it was worth reading.
The highlights were definitely the chapters at sea, but there were so many other disparate threads that hardly led to anything?
A presidential election, including commentary about the Democratic Party at war with itself. Union busting corporate overlords. Wealthy socialites following an eclipse. Etc.
Not to mention the final act follows one of the sailors deciding to blow up the ship but then deciding not to?
It was hard to keep up sometimes as even mid chapter the narrative would switch perspectives. It was also difficult with how thick the nautical slang was, I had to pause many many times to look things up.
Despite all these issues though, the backdrop was engaging and it was worth reading.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 24, 2020
3.5 Stars.....Ideally I would be giving this book that rating. I did enjoy it; but found it a bit challenging to keep tract of all of the various characters within it.
It is quite a sea adventure and the author seems to certainly have been a sailor himself, based on all the terminology used. This fact seems to lend the book credibility, but also made it sometimes challenging for me to fully grasp the picture which was being painted.
I enjoyed the contrast of the wealthy upper class life of leisure versus the common working man’s life. Some things never change.
It is quite a sea adventure and the author seems to certainly have been a sailor himself, based on all the terminology used. This fact seems to lend the book credibility, but also made it sometimes challenging for me to fully grasp the picture which was being painted.
I enjoyed the contrast of the wealthy upper class life of leisure versus the common working man’s life. Some things never change.
July 9, 2022
At times cumbersome but in the end with patience it reveals the clever organization at the end of the age of sail you are aboard a ship with a load of coal to San Fransisco with a crew a largely shanghaied. Whore houses explained life from the horse lattitudes to Hilo cape of Good hope Maine to San Fransico.
May 5, 2019
I read this book 38 years ago, so a review is perhaps a little belated at this point. Nonetheless, unlike most books that I read in 1981, this one stuck with me as a steaming load of crap. If you want something by Hayden, rewatch his performance in Dr. Strangelove; that was excellent. This is not.
November 22, 2020
Not a review, but I agree with most others that this could have greatly benefitted from editing. So, can’t really recommend it, but I did enjoy many nights reading of sea adventures and though slow to get through, definitely worth it.
October 20, 2020
In the high 3 stars like 3.75. The best parts were on the ship. The rest was ok. The first couple of pages I really didn't care for with all those characters, way to many. Still I recommend it.
March 17, 2022
One thing's f'r damn sure in this here world: I'll never drive myself to read Sterling Hayden's Voyage again.
April 28, 2022
Really enjoyed it! Great seafaring tale and period piece. End of the great sailing ships.
February 22, 2023
One of the best stories and writing I’ve ever experienced. Nothing more to say.
Want to read
June 3, 2024Yard sale find, back cover blurb had me like hmmm… only a quarter, so why not?! Onto the TBR it goes!
Read
May 14, 2025DNFed after page 25.
March 18, 2025
A page turner, this is not. Picked it up because I wanted a nautical adventure, but instead got a snapshot of America heading into the 20th century (still with some nautical adventure thrown in). I appreciate and respect the greater ambitions of Voyage, but I can't help but feel frustrated at its many, many excursions into lesser plotlines (some would say ramblings) that feel inconsequential even when viewed as added color. Our main thread takes place aboard the four-masted Neptune's Car and the plight of its many seamen under the tyrannical rule of its captain, Irons Saul Pendleton. This is where the novel truly shines, even when the seafaring terminology mixed with Hayden's prose makes your eyes glaze over. Their experience on their many-month trip is viewed as a microcosm of the many political and social changes happening elsewhere in the world. A quote from this review gives a small portion of the sheer volume of plotlines this book chooses to spend time on: a nymphomaniac searching for something to do off shore, a bunch of rich people going on a scientific exploration, maritime labour unions and movements, accidents, and mutiny. This doesn't mention the heavy coverage of the McKinley/Bryan election, the dive into the life of a prominent ship owner, or an odd aside about a captain that gets stuck with another man's wife. Even as I list these, I have the nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I'm forgetting a few. It's all so unwieldy and cumbersome, and enjoyment is really only found in the small moments. A book way too big for its britches. Boring is the word that comes to mind.
September 18, 2008
I think it was tedious. But don't quote me.
Want to read
January 5, 2009Who wouldn't want to read a novel penned by Sterling "children's ice cream" Hayden?
Read
March 21, 2019Did not finish could not really get into book
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews