They were the whalers of the nineteenth century, leaving home for months, nay years at a time, in search of the largest creatures of the earth. It was their job to hunt these mammoth sea dwellers for their oil and feed the trade in hopes of raising enough coin to feed their families back in port. They are the hunters of the dark sea, in search of the deadly behemoth that is their stock and trade. It is a life and death profession where even the greenest...

"The classic first novel of the epic Aubrey/Maturin series, widely considered "the best historical novels ever written" (Richard Snow, New York Times). Ardent, gregarious British naval officer Jack Aubrey is elated to be given his first appointment as commander: the fourteen-gun ship HMS Sophie. Meanwhile-after a heated first encounter that nearly comes to a duel-Aubrey and a brilliant but down-on-his-luck physician, Stephen Maturin, strike up an...

Captain Jack Aubrey of the Royal Navy and Stephen Maturin, ships surgeon and intelligence agent, return to set sail for the South China Sea on a diplomatic mission intended to prevent links between Bonaparte and the Malay Princes.

"Wynn and Jack have been best friends since freshman orientation, bonded by their shared love of mountains, books, and fishing. Wynn is a gentle giant, a Vermont kid never happier than when his feet are in the water. Jack is more rugged, raised on a ranch in Colorado where sleeping under the stars and cooking on a fire came as naturally to him as breathing. When they decide to canoe the Maskwa River in northern Canada, they anticipate long days of...

"Young Jim Hawkins and his friends set sail for Treasure Island, hoping to find the buried loot of Captin Flint, fiercest of all the pirates. But, unknown to them, the crew of their own ship is made up of Flint's former crew, led by the evil one-legged pirate Long John Silver. Once on the island Jim and his friends must find the buried treasure and escape before the pirates capture them. Robert Louis Stevenson's timeless tale of greed and gold remains...

This is an exciting, atmospheric work that works on several levels: partly a story of tropical adventures, partly a melodramatic novel, partly a psychological thriller, partly a criticism of the empire. Axel Heist lives on an island in present-day Indonesia with a Chinese aide Wang. Heist visits a nearby island when a women's group plays in a hotel owned by Mr. Schomberg. Schomberg tries to impose himself sexually on one of the band members, Alma,...

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,...

Juan Cabrillo and his motley crew aboard the clandestine spy ship Oregon have made a very comfortable and very dangerous living working for high-powered Western interests. But their newest clients have come from the Far East to ask for Cabrillo's special brand of assistance: a consortium of Japanese shipping magnates whose fortunes are being threatened by brutal pirates trolling the waters of Southeast Asia. Normally, such attacks on the high seas...

Presents the continuation of Jack Aubrey's life as the Peace of Amiens docks the Commander onshore, to France, and back to sea.

This novel from the author of Around the World in Eighty Days and Journey to the Center of the Earth captures the terror and tragedy of a shipwreck. This 1875 novel portrays in devastating detail the final voyage of a British sailing ship, the Chancellor, in the form of a diary written by one of its passengers, J. R. Kazallon. Carrying eight travelers and twenty crew members, the Chancellor sets sail from Charleston, South Carolina. Nearly a month...