Captain Blood is an adventure novel by Rafael Sabatini. The protagonist is the sharp-witted Dr. Peter Blood, a fictional Irish physician who had had a wide-ranging career as a soldier and sailor (including a commission as a captain under the Dutch admiral De Ruyter) before settling down to practice medicine in the town of Bridgwater in Somerset. The book opens with him attending to his geraniums while the town prepares to fight for the Duke of Monmouth....

Captain MacWhirr cannot fathom anything outside the facts of his own life. His first mate, Mr. Jukes, is the perfect contrast as an imaginative man prone to speaking in figurative language. Though they are opposites, MacWhirr and Jukes respect each other and run a tight ship, until the crew notices the barometer predicting a serve storm. Jukes and the crew suggest alternate paths to MacWhirr, but he is unconvinced. Since MacWhirr has not experienced...

While going through the possessions of a deceased guest who owed them money, the mistress of an inn and her son find a treasure map that leads to a pirate fortune as well as great danger.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a classic science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne published in 1870. The novel was originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870 in Pierre-Jules Hetzel's periodical, the Magasin d'Éducation et de Récréation. The deluxe illustrated edition, published by Hetzel in November 1871, included 111 illustrations by Alphonse de Neuville and Édouard Riou. The book was highly acclaimed, when released and...

First published in 1914, "The Mutiny of the Elsinore" is a novel by American writer Jack London that centers around the death of a ship's captain and the ensuing conflict that arises as a result of a split in leadership and loyalty. The story is partially based on London's own experiences voyaging around Cape Horn on a ship called "The Dirigo" in 1912. John Griffith London (1876 – 1916), commonly known as Jack London, was an American journalist,...

A new captain must lead his crew to safety and face his own internal struggles as he works to overcome disrespect, insanity, and coming-of-age all while sailing on an unforgiving sea. There is an invisible line that divides life into a before and after-adolescence and adulthood. The unnamed narrator of The Shadow Line is painfully aware of this, but is unsure where the line lies in his life. He recalls a number of rash decisions he has made, some...

A renewed interest in "Moby-Dick" in the early 20th century would help to establish it as an outstanding work of Romanticism and the American Renaissance, firmly placing it amongst the greatest of all American novels. Based on the real life events depicted in the "Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex" and the legend of "Mocha Dick", an albino sperm whale, whose killing is described in the May 1839 issue...

The Mortzestus is reputed to be haunted but the crew dismisses the rumors as preposterous - at first. Two weeks out of port the rigging suddenly goes slack, a ghostly form arises from the sea, and shadows thicken around the vessel. The frightened sailors, convinced that supernatural powers are afoot, plot mutiny and demand to be set ashore. But a dense mist descends around the ship, threatening to swallow the craft and its men without a trace. The...

A young sea captain tests his mettle off the coast of Siam in this nineteenth-century psychological tale from the author of Heart of Darkness.   When his sailing ship is anchored in the Gulf of Siam-now Thailand-a first-time sea captain questions his ability to command. Anxious and eager for his crew to like him, he takes the first shift of the night watch. Alone in the dark, he encounters a mysterious man swimming alongside the vessel. The captain...