Sea Voyages
Moby Dick, Herman Melville
It’s a classic for a reason. It’s not just important American lit, it’s also got amazing descriptions of whales and whaling, interesting character development, and, obviously, a very iconic whale. All that plus Captain Ahab. If you haven’t read it yet, reading it will help you understand half the lit references around you.
Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift
Gulliver travels by sea, but most of the action takes place on some truly bizarre islands. Some people are unnaturally large, others small, others immortal. You may think this book is just for kids, but you’d be wrong. There’s all kinds of satire woven in with the strange worlds Gulliver encounters. It also has talking horses.
Kon-Tiki, Thor Heyerdahl
Thor Heyerdahl thought that Polynesia was settled by people from South America, so he went ahead and put his theory to the test. He and a handful of other researchers built a balsa wood raft and floated from Peru to Polynesia in 1947. He wasn’t right about how people got to Polynesia, but there was an amazing journey and a documentary film that came out of the expedition and they still learned plenty about ocean life.
Captains Courageous, Rudyard Kipling
Kipling wrote a number of famous novels, this is one. It’s all about a spoiled teenage boy, Harvey Cheyne Jr, who ends up on a ship under the wing of a rough, working class, Portuguese sailor. It’s a coming-of-age story and early YA. It also got turned into a movie with Spencer Tracy.
The Cruise of the Snark, Jack London
Jack London was the kind of guy who not only wanted to take a long-range sailing trip, he had to design the boat himself. This nonfiction work is all about his struggle to get his boat built and then his adventure sailing around the Pacific with his wife and small crew. It’s full of highs and lows and some fascinating characters.
The Long Way, Bernard Moitessier
Moitessier is famous for his solo circumnavigation of the globe. This is his book all about that sailing experience. You can basically taste the salty air as you’re reading and there’s plenty of philosophy thrown in. This book not only offers some thoughts on long-range sailing, it makes you ponder what it would mean to spend so much sustained time alone. Moitessier offers a lived definition of self-reliance.
Compiled by Grace Mackey and Elizabeth Stice
