Sea Adventures Fiction

1796. John Pearce is stuck with a difficult mission, a crew of Quota Men forced to enlist in the Royal Navy, four new midshipmen as well as Samuel Oliphant, companion cum spy, whom he finds a constant irritant. In his favour, he commands HMS Hazard, a speedy warship, a pair of competent officers and, of course, his trusty friends the Pelicans. Their mission is to head for the Mediterranean Fleet and warn Admiral Sir John Jervis of impending danger he will face, fighting a combined French/Spanish fleet.

Emme has spent her life avoiding anything to do with pirates. But the fates are cruel, and now a hidden sickness leads her to partner with pirates for the one thing that can save her - a cure on an island none are certain exists.

Luis, Casey, Tyler, and robot cat Steel discover Tesla’s Time Twister, a time machine created by the famous scientist and Luis’s uncle. Immediately, they’re off on adventures, exploring the past and the future. They face aliens in space, a haunted house, ancient Egypt, and a monster-filled undersea world as they attempt to rescue Uncle Cyrus, who has been lost in time for more than one hundred years!

It is 1819, and Captain Adam Bolitho is ordered once again to Freetown in West Africa with secret orders for the senior officer there. The slave trade has been outlawed by many nations, but a hundred thousand slaves are still shipped out annually, the profit for slavers considered worth the risk of interception by the Royal Navy. For Adam, newly married and as fiery as ever, Africa will bring reunions and unexpected allies, and a treachery that wears the mask of friendship, and threatens the very heart of all he loves.

In the wake of great loss, Aisha has found comfort in sailing. And it seems the rest of her family has found comfort in pretending nothing’s changed. Frustrated with their silence, Aisha escapes one night on her family’s sail boat. Her brother, Sai, catches up to her, but before he can convince her to come back, a storm rolls in.

The year is 1819, and the renowned chef Owen Wedgwood has been kidnapped by the ruthless pirate Mad Hannah Mabbot. He will be spared, she tells him, as long as he puts exquisite food in front of her every Sunday without fail. To appease the red-haired captain, Wedgwood gets cracking with the meager supplies on board. His first triumph at sea is actual bread, made from a sourdough starter that he leavens in a tin under his shirt throughout a roaring battle, as men are cutlassed all around him. Soon he's making tea-smoked eel and brewing pineapple-banana cider.

With the threat of more assassinations on Bainbridge paralyzing the fortified island and spies in her own ranks turning her own men against her, Jillybean has to look to unlikely allies as The Black Captain brings his fury south to destroy her. He is consumed with the idea of revenge, yet he retains a cold, calculating rationality that Jillybean does not. The stress of war, as well as the deaths of her friends and the man she loves by her own hand, is eating away at what little mental stability she has left.

In one of the most spellbinding accounts of men who go down to the sea in ships, the modern listener is given a seat in the whale boat of Owen Chase as he and his fellow crew and their captain make way in three boats after the wreckage of the Whaleship Essex. The account of how the Essex was wrecked inspired the infamous book Moby Dick and countless movies, including In the Heart of the Sea.

Fourteen-year-old Jesse is shipped halfway round the world after the death of his father. He struggles to adapt to life on the Welsh Atlantic coast but eventually befriends John, a popular, charismatic, and outwardly charming boy. But as their friendship grows, a darker side to John emerges. Will Jesse notice before it's too late?

Sorrow. Betrayal. Death by drowning. Those are the words of a dark and mysterious ancient curse that haunts the jaw-dropping sunken treasure known as the Queen’s Tiara. Everybody wants a piece of the riches from the past, but its location was lost years ago. Now, underwater photographer Fin Fleming has found the coordinates in an old ship’s log, and she’s willing to risk her life to retrieve the treasure. She puts together a team of scuba divers to seek the treasure and film the expedition for a documentary.

Two years after his wife’s death, oceanographer and former navy SEAL, Atticus Young attempts to reconcile with his rebellious daughter, Giona, by taking her on the scuba dive of a lifetime - swimming with a pod of peaceful humpback whales in the Gulf of Maine. But the beauty of the sea belies a terror from the deep - a horrific creature as immense as it is ancient. There is no blood, no scream, no fight. Giona is swallowed whole by the massive jaws. Only Atticus remains to suffer the shame of the survivor and his inconsolable grief turns to an unquenchable thirst for revenge.

Off the coast of McMurdo Station, in the frigid waters of the Southern Ocean, a new species of Antarctic octopus is unintentionally discovered. Specialists aboard a state-of-the-art DARPA research vessel aim to apply the animal's "sub-zero venom" to one of their projects: an experimental painkiller designed for soldiers on the front lines.

London: 1793. Young firebrand John Pearce, on the run from the authorities, is illegally press-ganged from the Pelican tavern into brutal life aboard HMS Brilliant, a frigate on her way to war. In the first few days, Pearce discovers the Navy is a world in which he can prosper. And he is not alone; he is drawn to a group of men who eventually form an exclusive gun crew, the Pelicans, with Pearce their elected leader.

Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, veterans now of many battles, return to the seas where they first sailed as shipmates. But, this is a longer, harder, colder war than the dashing frigate actions of their early days. When a sudden turn of events takes them off on a hazardous mission, they must depend on all of their seamanship skills and Jack's proverbial luck.

Browse more Patrick O'Brian.

"Boredom is dangerous," writes Benjamin Samuel, Co-Editor of Electric Literature, in his introduction to this issue of Recommended Reading. "It can make us lazy, complacent, and if we suffer too much of it we're liable to become boring ourselves. For the whalers at sea in Anu Jindal's Not a Bad Bunch, boredom is far more insidious; according to the ship's surgeon, who narrates the story, it's an early symptom of an infectious and barbarous madness.

With his first historical high-seas adventure chronicling the exploits of Naval Commander Charles Edgemont, Jay Worrall sets sail in the rousing tradition of C.S. Forester and Patrick O'Brian.

After the battle to save King Lars and Queen Kennedy’s throne against Stavros, a tragic loss shatters what was left of Croygen’s heart, and the Silver Tongue Devil returns to his first love—the sea. Trying to regain his title as the King of pirates, Croygen hears of another who is challenging his claim—the woman pirate known as Puss in Boots. Ruthless as she is beautiful, men desire and fear her.

When the CIA needed a fall guy, Dugan was the one it betrayed. Forsaken by those he’d trusted and with nowhere to turn, he’s made it his mission to stop the miscreants who ruined his life before they can destroy anyone else’s. From human-trafficking rings and remorseless hit men to byzantine plots to alter the world order, Dugan must outwit those chartered with terminating him while battling overwhelming odds.

The Aldens are spending spring break on a beach, but they aren’t just soaking up the sun. They’re protecting an endangered species! Their job is to mark sea turtle nests so the eggs can be moved to a safe place to hatch, but someone is digging up the eggs without permission. Can the Boxcar Children figure out what’s going on and help save the sea turtles?

A British whaler has been captured in the Friendly Isles, and Captain Jack Aubrey is dispatched with the Surprise to restore order. But a female convict who escaped from the penal colony in New South Wales has stowed away in the cable-tier. To the officers, Clarissa Harvill is an object of awkward courtliness and dangerous jealousies...