Master and Commander, the first book of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey and Maturin series, follows the adventures of Captain Jack Aubrey and his best friend, surgeon and spy Stephen Maturin, during the days of full sails, rolling seas, and naval warfare between Britain and her rivals, France and Spain. As with any roaring historical adventure, there are rogues to best, beauties to pursue, and strange lands to discover.
But Captain Aubrey isn't the only master and commander on the high seas of fiction. These books, many part of a series, feature unforgettable captains facing the rigors and horrors of the boundless deep. Some lead brilliantly while others shatter under the strain of command. Yet each gives an unforgettable performance in the continuing saga of man against the sea.
Captain Queeg's increasingly bizarre behavior leads his first officer to relieve him of command during a crisis.
Based on the author's experiences aboard an American destroyer in World War II. This book won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1952.
The young lieutenant takes up special orders direct from Nelson himself which bring news of a mission close to his own heart. In a daring foray, under the very nose of the French Mediterranean fleet, Ramage is to sail his tiny cutter close in to the Italian shore and rescue a party of stranded aristocrats from Napoleon's fast-advancing army.
First of a series.
By Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
The thrilling account of the strange, eventful, and tragic voyage of His Majesty's Ship Bounty in 1788-1789, which culminated in Fletcher Christian's mutiny against Captain Bligh.
By Michel Faber and C. S. Forester
He was the penniless son of a minister who joined the Navy at a low rank to repay his father's debts. A collection of ten short stories follow the early and brilliant career of Horatio Hornblower.
Captain Ahab's obsessive quest to destroy the great white whale that tore off his leg leads the Pequod and its crew to disaster.
Two novels in one: young Bolitho joins the Gorgon and battles pirates off the coast of Africa; at home, he helps clear the Cornwall coast of smugglers.
Book 1 of the Richard Bolitho novels.
Thomas Paine Kydd, a young wig-maker from Guildford, is seized and taken across the country to be part of the crew of the ninety-eight-gun line-of-battle ship Duke William. The ship sails immediately and Kydd has to learn the harsh realities of shipboard life fast. First of a series.
The year is 1861, and America shudders on the brink of disunion. Elisha Eaker, scion of a wealthy Manhattan banking family, joins the Navy against his father's wishes. He does it as much to avoid an arranged marriage to his cousin, Araminta Van Velsor, as to defend the flag.
In an exciting novel set in the age of sail, one of the first Scotsmen to command a ship in Nelson's navy battles Spanish and French enemies, as well dangerous seas and his volatile crew, to establish a reputation for himself.
The "grand admiral" of the high seas adventure novel is Philip McCutchan, author of nearly 100 novels. Now, leading the first trade paperback edition of any of McCutchan's work, Convoy North portrays the popular Commodore John Mason Kemp battling World War II's German air and sea attacks in the waters of Norway's North Cape.
