Sea story

A sea story is a work of fiction or non-fiction set largely at sea.

Contents 1 Description 2 Themes 3 Works 3.1 Novels 3.2 Novellas 3.3 Periodicals 4 References 5 See also

Description

The enclosed setting of life aboard a ship allows an author to portray a social world in miniature, with characters cut off from the outside world and forced to interact in cramped and stressful conditions.

The form has been popular from Homer's Odyssey onwards.

Themes

Themes can include:

• Interpersonal difficulties and interactions:
  • Differences between seamen and officers
  • Bullying behavior
  • Mutiny
  • Bawdy liaisons with bar-girls in exotic locales
• Inter-ship difficulties, and ship goals:
  • Piracy
  • Naval activity and battles
  • Commercial fishing
  • Boat racing
• Natural difficulties:
  • Struggles against treacherous weather and sea conditions
  • Shipwrecks
  • Explorations of inhospitable areas

Works

Novels

Notable exponents of the sea story include:

• William Cardell (1780–1828): The Story of Jack Halyard and other works
• Captain Frederick Marryat (1792–1848): Peter Simple
• Herman Melville (1819–1891): Moby-Dick
• Joseph Conrad (1857–1924): The Nigger of the 'Narcissus', Lord Jim, Typhoon, The Shadow Line, The Rescue
• Jack London (1876–1916): The Sea Wolf
• C. S. Forester (1899–1966): Horatio Hornblower series
• Nicholas Monsarrat (1910–1979): The Cruel Sea
• Patrick O'Brian (1914–2000): Aubrey–Maturin series
• Dudley Pope (1925–1997): Lord Ramage series

Novellas

Notable novellas include:

• Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961): The Old Man and the Sea

Periodicals

In the twentieth century, sea stories were popular subjects for the pulp magazines. Adventure ^[1] and Blue Book ^[2] often ran sea stories by writers such as J. Allan Dunn and H. Bedford-Jones as part of their selection of fiction. More specialized periodicals include:

• The Ocean, one of the first specialized pulp magazines (March 1907 to January 1908)^[3]
• Sea Stories, a Street & Smith pulp (February 1922 to June 1930)
• Sea Novel Magazine, a Frank A. Munsey pulp (2 issues, November 1940, January 1941)
• Sea Story Annual and Sea Story Anthology, 1940's Street & Smith large-size reprint pulps
• Tales of the Sea, digest (Spring 1953)

References

1. ^ Jones, Robert Kenneth. The Lure of Adventure. Starmont House,1989 ISBN 1557421439 (p.40)
2. ^ Horace Vondys, Best Sea Stories from Bluebook, , introduced by Donald Kennicott. New York: The McBride Company, 1954.
3. ^ "Lost at Sea: The Story of The Ocean," introduction to The Ocean: 100th Anniversary Collection (Off-Trail Publications, 2008).

See also

• Submarine film
• Robinsonade