Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Ahab's Wife: Or, The Star-gazer: A Novel (P.S.)

Ahab's Wife: Or, The Star-gazer: A Novel (P.S.)

by Sena Jeter Naslund

From the opening line—"Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last"—you will know that you are in the hands of a master storyteller and in the company of a fascinating woman hero. Inspired by a brief passage in Moby-Dick , Sena Jeter Naslund has created an enthralling and compellingly readable saga, spanning a rich, eventful, and dramatic life. At once a family drama, a romantic adventure, and a... (more)

THE SEA-WOLF

by Jack London

Humphrey Van Weyden, rescued by the crew of the Ghost, becomes an unwilling sailor under the command of Wolf Larsen.

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch

by Jean Lee Latham

Readers today are still fascinated by "Nat," an eighteenth-century nautical wonder and mathematical wizard. Nathaniel Bowditch grew up in a sailor"s world—Salem in the early days, when tall-masted ships from foreign ports crowded the wharves. But Nat didn"t promise to have the makings of a sailor; he was too physically small. Nat may have been slight of build, but no one guessed that he had the persistence and... (more)

Ahab's Wife

by Sena Jeter Naslund

Woodcut illustrations by Christopher Wormell. A novel inspired by Herman Melville's Moby Dick. 9 inches tall, 668 pages.

Over the Edge of the World

Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe

by Laurence Bergreen

Ferdinand Magellan's daring circumnavigation of the globe in the sixteenth century was a three-year odyssey filled with sex, violence, and amazing adventure. Now in Over the Edge of the World , prize-winning biographer and journalist Laurence Bergreen entwines a variety of candid, firsthand accounts, bringing to life this groundbreaking and majestic tale of discovery that changed both the way explorers would... (more)

In the Heart of the Sea

The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex

by Nathaniel Philbrick

The ordeal of the whaleship Essex was an event as mythic in the nineteenth century as the sinking of the Titanic was in the twentieth. In 1819, the Essex left Nantucket for the South Pacific with twenty crew members aboard. In the middle of the South Pacific the ship was rammed and sunk by an angry sperm whale. The crew drifted for more than ninety days in three tiny whaleboats, succumbing to weather,... (more)

The Bounty : The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty

The Bounty : The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty

by Caroline Alexander

The bestselling author of The Endurance reveals the startling truth behind the legend of the Mutiny on the Bounty -- the most famous sea story of all time. More than two centuries have passed since Fletcher Christian mutinied against Lt. Bligh on a small armed transport vessel called Bounty. Why the details of this obscure adventure at the end of the world remain vivid and enthralling is as intriguing as the truth... (more)

The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition

The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition

by Caroline Alexander

In August 1914, days before the outbreak of the First World War, the renowned explorer Ernest Shackleton and a crew of twenty-seven set sail for the South Atlantic in pursuit of the last unclaimed prize in the history of exploration: the first crossing on foot of the Antarctic continent. Weaving a treacherous path through the freezing Weddell Sea, they had come within eighty-five miles of their destination when... (more)

Kidnapped

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Shipwreck. Murder. Flight. Intrigue. And of course, kidnapping. David Balfour¹s adventures on the high seas are among the most evocative in classic literature.

Mutiny on the Bounty: A Novel

by Charles Nordhoff, James Norman Hall

MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY is the thrilling account of the strange, eventful, and tragic voyage of His Majesty's Ship Bounty in 17881789, which culminated in Fletcher Christian's mutiny against Captain Bligh.

Billy Budd

by Miriam Minkowitz, Herman Melville

Featured in this volume are "Billy Budd", Melville's posthumously published novella, the story of the rivalry between a handsome sailor and his demonic captain; the tale of the apathetic "Bartleby, the Scrivener; " the riveting "Benito Cereno", the story of a slave ship mutiny written at the time of the Amistad case and "The Town-Ho's Story", a chapter from Melville's masterpiece, "Moby Dick". Introduction by... (more)

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

by Samuel Coleridge

A suberbly illustrated edition of the classic poem. Samuel Taylor Coleridge produced nearly all of his best poetry in a two year period, 1797-1798, including The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan. After writing Ode to Dejection (1802), his farewell to the Muse of Poetry, he wrote few poems and concentrated almost exclusively on literary criticism and political, philosophical, and theological essays.

Foundling: Book One (Monster Blood Tattoo)

Monster Blood Tattoo: Book 1

Foundling: Book One (Monster Blood Tattoo)

by D. M. Cornish

Meet Rossamünd—a foundling, a boy with a girl’s name who is about to begin a dangerous life in the service of the Emperor of the Half-Continent. What starts as a simple journey becomes a dangerous and complicated set of battles and decisions. Humans, monsters, unearthly creatures . . . who among these can Rossamünd trust? D. M. Cornish has created an entirely original world, grounded in his own deft,... (more)

Two years before the mast

by Richard Henry Dana

Tracing an awe-inspiring oceanic route from Boston, around Cape Horn, to the California coast, Two Years Before the Mast is both a riveting story of adventure and the most eloquent, insightful account we have of life at sea in the early nineteenth century. Richard Henry Dana is only nineteen when he abandons the patrician world of Boston and Harvard for an arduous voyage among real sailors, amid genuine danger.... (more)

Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea (Vintage)

Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea (Vintage)

by Gary Kinder

"White knuckle reading...with generous portions of adventure, intrigue, heroism, and high technology interwoven."-- Los Angeles Times Book Review This enthralling true story of maritime tragedy and visionary science begins with a disaster to rival the sinking of the Titanic. In September 1857, the S.S. Central America, a side-wheel steamer carrying passengers returning from the gold fields of California, went... (more)

Longitude

The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of his Time

by Dava Sobel

On its 10th anniversary, a gift edition of this classic book, with a forward by one of history's greatest explorers, and eight pages of color illustrations. Anyone alive in the eighteeth century would have known that "the logitude problem" was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day--and had been for centuries. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of... (more)

Ra Expeditions

by Thor Heyerdahl

Text: English, Norwegian (translation)

The Brendan Voyage (Modern Library Exploration)

The Brendan Voyage (Modern Library Exploration)

by Tim Severin

Could an Irish monk in the sixth century have sailed across the Atlantic, thus beating Columbus to the New World by almost a thousand years? Relying on the medieval text of Saint Brendan, Severin painstakingly researches and builds a boat identical to the small leather curragh that carried Brendan on his epic voyage. He finds a centuries-old tannery, where he buys the ox hides; he locates skilled saddle makers... (more)

The Terrible Hours: The Greatest Submarine Rescue in History

The Terrible Hours: The Greatest Submarine Rescue in History

by Peter Maas

On the eve of World War II, the Squalus, America's newest submarine, plunged to the bottom of the North Atlantic. Miraculously, thirty-three crew members still survived. While their loved ones waited in unbearable tension on shore, their ultimate fate would depend upon one man, U.S. Navy officer Charles "Swede" Momsen -- an extraordinary combination of visionary, scientist, and man of action. In this... (more)

Ghost Ship: The Mysterious True Story of the Mary Celeste and Her Missing Crew

Ghost Ship: The Mysterious True Story of the Mary Celeste and Her Missing Crew

by Brian Hicks

On December 4th, 1872, a 100-foot brigantine was discovered drifting through the North Atlantic without a soul on board. Not a sign of struggle, not a shred of damage, no ransacked cargo—and not a trace of the captain, his wife and daughter, or the crew. What happened on board the ghost ship Mary Celeste has baffled and tantalized the world for 130 years. In his stunning new book, award-winning journalist Brian... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: seafaring

by Sena Jeter Naslund

by Jack London

by Jean Lee Latham

by Sena Jeter Naslund

Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe

by Laurence Bergreen

The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex

by Nathaniel Philbrick

by Caroline Alexander

by Caroline Alexander

by Robert Louis Stevenson

by Charles Nordhoff, James Norman Hall

by Miriam Minkowitz, Herman Melville

by Samuel Coleridge

by D. M. Cornish

by Richard Henry Dana

by Gary Kinder

The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of his Time

by Dava Sobel

by Thor Heyerdahl

by Tim Severin

by Peter Maas

by Brian Hicks