This is going to be short and sweet. How many Surface ships are described in Literature Besides the Jules Verne Nautilus and the Titanic??
Now I know the Nautilus from Verne is NOT a surface ship. There have been many iterations of her besides just the Harper Goff/Disney version . She definitely did not look as Verne described her.
How many surface ships can you think of besides, say the H.M.S. Surprise from Patrick O’Brian’s novels? How many of them were sailing Ships and how many were Steamships?
Hey…I’m new to the forum as a participant, but I’ve been following the message threads for quite awhile now, having especially enjoyed many of the build suggestions, build logs, and historic references.
This thread really caught my attention as it helped me to remember the first seafaring novel I remember reading…Douglas Reeman’s HMS Saracen.
HMS Saracen as I remember was a very well written story about a monitor… one of those Royal Navy shore bombardment beasts that appeared in WWI, then became a backwater staple in the second war. I think the book is out of print now, but may be available in the secondary market.
Incidentally, Reeman is best know for his Bolitho series novels, published under the name Alexander Kent.
Lots and lots from C S Forester’s novels, especially the Hornblower novels. And the Bounty, of course. Also, the ones from Winds of War and its sequel (forget the author). Forget the name of the ship in Caine Mutiny. How about the ship featured in the Odessy? There was a fictional book about a German commerce raider, but forget the name of the book and the name of the ship. Are we talking only fiction novels or do you include non-fiction as literature too?
Oh, there was the book by London, featuring a sail vessel, again forget the name of the novel and the name of the ship.
In the New Testiment, Acts of the Apostles, around the year 60, Saint Paul was under arrest to be taken to Rome to be tried as a political rebel.The Roman grain ship named CASTOR and POLLUX that transported Saint Paul, was wrecked on the Island of Malta, even though four anchors were cast out to restrain the doomed ship. Fortunately, all passengers including Paul swam to safty. Upon reaching shore, they made a fire to dry themselves. CASTOR and POLLUX, named after the heavenly twins in Roman and Greek mythology is the first known ship to have a name.
USCGC PANACHE, a 280’ medium endurance cutter, was described by Tom Clancy in “Clear and Present Danger”. The PANACHE was loosley based on the 270’ Famaous or BEAR class of cutters.
Speaking of Tom Clancy, USS Reuben James (FFG-57) appears in print in “Hunt for Red October” and “Red Storm Rising”. I actually saw Reuben James berthed in Sydney Harbour beside some of our own (now decommissioned) FFG’s about 15 years ago.
There was a story-I don’t remember the author-About Ocean Going Steam Tugs as escorts in W.W.2. The main protagonist was a double stacked tug called the “Isabelle Quell”.
Now that said, It was a very fascinating story about small ships and strong men against the sea.
You may be thinking of the Farley Mowat book “The Grey Seas Under”. The ship was the Foundation Franklin, originally Aberdeen built tug named HMS Frisky that was rescued from a ship breaker in Germany between the Wars.
I think her bell is in a museum in Nova Scotia. That is a really good book, and she’s a popular RC subject.
Many years back, my brother assembled some clipper ship model, Cutty Sark I believe. Anyway, the cat decided that it did not need to share the shelf with the ship so cat VS ship equals one very trashed ship model. After the rebuttal by my brother at the cats expense, a diorama ensued entitled “Wreck of the Hesparus” (with apologies to H. W. Longfellow).
