I started his thread 18 months ago. Civilitas and many others suggested the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O’Brien. It is 20 books starting with Captain and Commander (also a movie). Well, I just finished book 20,...
Oh, this is so upsetting. I spent 1/2 hour or more crafting a thoughtful reply and my laptop crashed and dumped it (power issue). Honestly, How often does that happen anymore? Really? I'm going to have one or two rum and Cokes and try to regain equilibrium and re-do it...
OK - re-set.
Knot Fast, I'm happy I had a partial hand in guiding you to something unique in the literary world you enjoyed. I found the Aubrey-Maturin novels amazing; I started reading them around ~1994/5 and rued the day O'Brien died.* I read them I think at least two and maybe three times through up until 2010; haven't since then. Maybe in a year or two I'll start again. I recall so many scenes so vividly, from the very beginning of "Master and Commander" where Aubrey and Maturin were at a violin recital in Valetta (?), to the scary southern ocean and the shot from the cabin that sunk the
Wakzamheid(?)..
So this is ostensibly a fiction thread so I'll stick my neck out on another recommendation you might like. Last year I got around to reading:
The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat (LC, RNVR). RN convoy action, WWII.
Amazing. Still widely read, huge hit when it came out, major movie. But the book is moving on multiple levels, had me choked up a few times. He was an accomplished writer/part of the "smart set" in London pre-war, but volunteered and ended up on smallboys in the North Atlantic. This novel is fictional and it lets him be both literary but with a grounding in the sea and war that is rarely matched with such talent. He also has a string of other maritime and naval stories; I have not read them yet but will this winter.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/183586.The_Cruel_Sea
I read William Brinkley's
The Last Ship this past spring. It is quite good. I know there is a cable series ripped off of it, but it's not the same. The novel explores both the nature of command, cold war psychology, and they duty the sea and service demand. I can't help but think Brinkley (an accomplished print and screen writer) was channeling Melville but decided to take the proposition "I am not insane." Honestly, this book blew me away on many points. I think it has been massively underrated, in it's humanity, it's anti-sexist POV, it's trans-nationalism. I think this book is going to be taught a lot in the future and many PhD's will be minted on Melville vs. Brinkley. I wish I was younger, I'd do it. I have no knowledge of the TNT show so don't conflate the two. As far as I can tell, they just ripped off the title for the TV show.
Brinkley is a lot like Monsarrat, an experienced sailor, journalist, exposed to war and compelled to write about it.
Ok, off Fiction but I think I have a few NF in mind you may be interested in. First off:
William F. Buckley's
Atlantic High and
Racing Through Paradise. The first a trans-Atlantic story; a meditation on sailing, crews, planning, navigation, lifestyle and life. The second very similar and about a trans-pac. Both taught me things; I read them in the early 90s when I was on the east coast and sailing all the time; have not re-read them since then, but he's a great thinker and writer, they are worth checking out.
Now if I have your trust I'm going to delve in to some more interesting Non-Fiction that has amazed me for a decade-plus. I'm talking about the works of the Professor-Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison (now how often do you see those combined epithets?). It's not going to happen, but I'd love to die with "Professor-Admiral" on my tombstone...
Morison was a Harvard (boula-boula!) professor, New-England blue-blood, but a man of thought and action. Before WWII, he decided to try to re-trace Columbus' voyage on his own, navigating with only what Columbus could have used, re-tracing the voyage and adding context to the hand-ed down history. Common literary or adventure journalism now, but in 1939?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1413941.Admiral_of_the_Ocean_Sea
I highly recommend "Admiral of the Ocean Sea." You will not buy the PC version of Columbus if you read a real history. But wait, there's more:
So when America entered WWII, Morison decided he'd go to the Navy department, volunteer to be their historian if they sent him in harm's way (great John Wayne movie, btw) and let him write about it. They said, "Go away, old man,' (kinda just like the Navy did to me in 2002 when I tried to re-activate my commission to go the Gulf, but that's another story!). But Morison had resources use mere mortals do not.
He was personal friends with FDR. He shrugged off the BuNav rejection and just went to the White House and sold FDR on it. FDR ordered he be given a USNR 0-6 Captain commission and free reign to go where he wanted. So he spent the war moving around the Navy interviewing who he wanted, cruising on ships he wanted, tracking battles or their aftermaths. Unparalleled access, observation, recording.
After the war, Harvard gave him space and the Navy gave him support staff to put it all into books. He wrote 15 volumes between ~1947 and ~1961 on the chronological actions of the US Navy on both fronts. They are all stand-alone readable. I spent my years in grad school ducking my science work, curled up or in my condo reading these - several times over. There are other books on Guadalcanal, Leyte Gulf, etc., but none so infused with authority, literary quality, unique maps, and the unique feature that the author was (sometimes/rarely) there, but always had unlimited access to participants, interviews, naval records. This is like Thucydides on steroids.
OK, I've bloviated on a lot. If you have the stamina for all of Patrick O'Brien, and you like amazing sea tales, check out the real ones from Samuel Eliot Morison and the History of the United States Navy in World War II. I bought all the books piecemeal or in chunks off Ebay at the time (2002 to 2003), but a few dollars can get you a used copy. Get the hardbound books as the maps, orders of battle, etc. are not going to translate digitally.
OK, I guess that rum and coke helped re-frame my mood and I ran on a bit...
*My Christian name is John, my family name is difficult to pronounce it your aren't German (even the Dutch mess it up, but they seem to be lazy IMO). But my middle name is from the progenitor of Clan McDonough in Ireland - Brian/Bryan, from Bryan Boru. So I always like the fact I had a tie back nine or ten centuries to Patrick O'Brien.
