Sea story

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

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
• 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

Periodicals

Sea-story periodicals include:

• The Ocean, one of the first specialized pulp magazines (March 1907 to January 1908)^[1]
• 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. ^ "Lost at Sea: The Story of The Ocean," introduction to The Ocean: 100th Anniversary Collection (Off-Trail Publications, 2008).

See also

• Submarine film
• Robinsonade