Nautical fiction
Though the treatment of themes and settings related to the sea and maritime culture is common throughout the history of western literature, nautical fiction, as a distinct genre, was first pioneered by James Fenimore Cooper (The Pilot, 1824) and Frederick Marryat (Frank Mildmay, 1829 and Mr Midshipman Easy 1836) in the early 19th century.
Nautical fiction usually includes distinctive themes, such as a focus on masculinity and heroism, investigations of social hierarchies, and the psychological struggles of the individual in the hostile environment of the sea.
[7] Later in this century Samuel Taylor Coleridge's narrative poem Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798), developed the idea of the ocean as "realm of unspoiled nature and a refuge from the perceived threats of civilization".
These include works dealing with piracy, such as Daniel Defoe's Captain Singleton (1720), and A General History of the Pyrates (1724), which contains biographies of several notorious English pirates such as Blackbeard and Calico Jack.
Similarly, Iglesias describes earlier English novels like Robinson Crusoe (1719), Moll Flanders (1722), and Roderick Random (1748) as populating the naval world with characters unfamiliar with the sea to better understand land-bound society, not fulfilling the immersive generic expectations of nautical fiction.
[12][13] Though critical of The Pirate, Cooper borrowed many of the stylistic and thematic elements of the historical fiction genre developed by Walter Scott, such as a desire "to map the boundaries and identity of the nation.
Critic John Peck describes Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast (1840) as utilizing a similar style and addressing the same thematic issues of national and masculine identity as nautical fiction developing after Cooper's pioneering works.
[16] Adapting Cooper's approach to fiction, Marryat's sea novels also reflected his own experience in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic wars, in part under the command of Thomas Cochrane—who would also later inspire Patrick O'Brian's character Jack Aubrey.
[16] Peck describes Marryat's novels as consistent in their core thematic focuses on masculinity and the contemporary naval culture, and in doing so, he suggests, they provide reflection on "a complex historical moment in which author, in his clumsy way, engages with rapid change in Britain.
[11] John Peck describes Herman Mellville and Joseph Conrad as the "two great English-language writers of sea stories": better novelists than predecessors Cooper and Marryat, both flourished writing in the "adventure novel" genre.
[11] Mellville's fiction frequently involves the sea, with his first five novels following the naval adventures of seamen, often a pair of male friends (Typee (1846), Omoo (1847), Mardi (1849), Redburn (1849) and White-Jacket (1850) ).
In such works sea voyages became a place for strong social commentary, as, for example Anthony Trollope's John Caldigate (1877), in which he depicts a character traveling to Australia to make his fortune, and Wilkie Collins's Armadale (1866), which follows gentlemen yachting.
Likewise William Clark Russell's novels, especially the first two, John Holdsworth, Chief Mate (1875) and The Wreck of the Grosvenor (1877), both highlight the social anxieties of Victorian Britain.
Henty, Under Drake's Flag (1882), Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (1883), and Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous (1897), all of which were also read by adults, and helped expand the potential of naval adventure fiction.
[28] English poet and novelist John Masefield (1878–1967), who had himself served at sea,[29] wrote The Bird of Dawning (1933), relating the adventures of the crew of a China tea clipper, who are forced to abandon ship and take to the boats.
[16] A number of later authors draw on Forester's and O'Brian's models of representing individual officers or sailors as they progress through their careers in the British navy, including Alexander Kent and Dudley Pope.
[31] Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series straddles the divide between popular and literary fiction, distinguishing itself from Hornblower, one reviewer even commented the books have "escaped the usual confines of naval adventure [.
Nicholas Monsarrat's novel The Cruel Sea (1951) follows a young naval officer Keith Lockhart during World War II service aboard "small ships".
Marlborough Will Enter Harbour (1949), and The Ship That Died of Shame (1959) previously made into a film of the same name, mined the same literary vein, and gained popularity by association with The Cruel Sea.
For example, William Golding's To the Ends of the Earth trilogy, explores the complexities of what constitutes a stable and acceptable male role as the civilian main character is thrust into the militaristic world of the navy, and is forced to work out afresh his own ideas of manhood.
"[42] James Fenimore Cooper's The Pilot questions the role of nautical symbols of heroes of the revolutionary period, such as John Paul Jones, and their unsavory naval practices while privateering.
The book was widely read and accepted as fact, but historians now believe that Louisa Baker never existed, and that her story was created by publisher Nathaniel Coverly, Jr., and written by Nathan Hill Wright.
[49] Star-Crossed (Alfred A. Knopf, 2006) by Linda Collison, and the subsequent Barbados Bound, Book 1 of the Patricia MacPherson Nautical Adventure Series is historical fiction, which were inspired by the documented occurrences of actual women who served aboard ship as men.
[49] Harcourt published L.A. Meyer's Bloody Jack (2002), the first novel in the young adult fiction series set in the early 19th century centering around the titular character Mary (Jacky) Faber.
[57] The 1930s saw the publication of a number of short stories and novels about life of seamen below deck, some written by adventure seekers from wealthy families, like Melville and O'Neill, and others from the working class, who had gone to sea out of necessity.
Moneyed Malcolm Lowry was "driven to the docks in the family limousine", when he was eighteen to begin a voyage "as deck hand, cabin boy and ultimately a fireman's helper on a tramp steamer".
[59] Working class writers who describe experiences in the merchant navy include, James Hanley, Jim Phelan, George Garrett, John Sommerfield (They Die Young (1930),[60]), Liam O'Flaherty and B. Traven.
[63][64] According to Paul Lester the "opening pages of Jim Phelan's Ten-A-Pennry People, resembles Boy", and this novel continues with details of how life as a stoker "will destroy a man physically".
Carsten Jensen's Vi, de druknede (We, the drowned, 2006) not only deals with men at sea but also encompasses the lives of boys growing up with dreams of becoming sailors and the experiences of the wives – and widows – of the seamen.
[76] While William Golding's novel Rites of Passage (1980) is set on board a warship the ship is also carrying a number of passengers on their way to Australia, who encompass a motley yet representative collection of early 19th century English society.
