Literary Ships

(64) Richard Bolitho's flagship during the brief Peace of Amiens of 1803 in Alexander Kent's Success to the Brave (1983).

A 350-tun merchantman from which Lemuel Gulliver is marooned in Brobdingnag—the land of the giants—in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726). (See also Antelope.)

A river launch in C. S. Forester's novel The African Queen (1935), manned by the Cockney Charlie Allnutt and Rose Sayer, a missionary's sister. The two strike a blow for England by sinking the German gunboat Königen Luise on Lake Tanganyika in German Central Africa during World War I. John Huston's 1951 film starred Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart.

The sailing dinghy owned by the Blacketts (the Amazons) in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons (1930), Swallowdale (1931), and other books in the same series.

Ship in which Lemuel Gulliver, "First a Surgeon, and Then a Captain of Several Ships," is shipwrecked on Lilliput in Jonathan Swift's political satire Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, better known as Gulliver's Travels (1726).

Buccaneer Peter Blood's command in Rafael Sabatini's Captain Blood novels: Captain Blood (1922), The Chronicles of Captain Blood (1931), and The Fortunes of Captain Blood (1933).

Steamship that encounters a Caribbean hurricane in Richard Hughes's In Hazard (1938).

(74) Richard Bolitho's flagship in the Mediterranean in Alexander Kent's Colors Aloft (1986).

Sloop-of-war in which Jack Aubrey conveys Stephen Maturin to the Baltic in Patrick O'Brian's The Surgeon's Mate (1980).

Light cruiser in C. S. Forester's The Ship (1943). The career of the Artemis was modeled on that of the World War II experience of HMS Penelope, particularly in the Second Battle of Sirte, March 1942.

(22) Napoleonic-era sloop-of-war in C. S. Forester's Hornblower and the "Atropos" (1953).

Captain Amasa Delano's sealer in Herman Melville's short story "Benito Cereno" (1855).

British slaver commanded by a former Oxford don who shanghais Harry Flashman in George McDonald Fraser's novel Flash for Freedom! (1971).

Captain Hanks's attack transport in the Pacific theater from 1943 to 1945 in Kenneth Dodson's Away All Boats (1954); a movie of the same name followed in 1956.

(74) Ship under Captain the Honorable Edward Fairfax Vere into which the foretopman Billy Budd is impressed from the merchantman Rights of Man and aboard which he inadvertently kills the treacherous Master-at-Arms John Claggart. Herman Melville's posthumously published Billy Budd (1924) was made into an opera by British composer Benjamin Britten (1951) and a film directed by Peter Ustinov (1962).

Thomas Leach's 40-gun ship in Rafael Sabatini's novel The "Black Swan" (1932).

(38) Frigate in which Commodore Jack Aubrey must seize Mauritius Island from the French in Patrick O'Brian's The Mauritius Command (1977).

Captain Charles Margaret's ship in John Masefield's novel Captain Margaret: A Romance (1908).

Whaleship in Frank T. Bullen's Cruise of the "Cachalot" (1898), the first of 36 novels by the veteran merchant seaman.

Four-piper destroyer converted to a minelayer under the command of Captain Queeg in Herman Wouk's The "Caine" Mutiny (1951). The 1954 movie starred Humphrey Bogart and José Ferrer.

Similar to the Flying Dutchman, fabled ship of the Chilean and Peruvian coasts.

(36) Nicholas Ramage's ship in a number of Dudley Pope novels starting with Ramage's Mutiny (1977), in which the British cut out a captured frigate from a Spanish stronghold—a story based on the fate of HMS Hermione.

Hogged barkentine attempting to cross the Pacific in Ernest K. Gann's novel Twilight for the Gods (1956).

Cruiser in which First Lieutenant Robert Badger ("The Artful Bodger") sails in Robert Winton's We Saw the Sea (1960).

Obsolete armored cruiser in which Able Seaman Brown serves during World War I until she is sunk by the German SMS Zeithen, in C. S. Forester's Brown on Resolution (also published as Single Handed, 1929).

Ship from which the Bas-Thornton children are kidnapped by pirates in Richard Hughes's High Wind in Jamaica (1929).

World War II Flower-class corvette in Nicholas Monsarrat's novel The Cruel Sea (1951). The book was turned into a movie of the same name (1953), written by Eric Ambler.

Brig in which the kidnapped David Balfour is sailing when she goes ashore on the Isle of Earraid in Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751 (1886).

Otherwise unidentified German submarine—"the boat"—aboard which 43 crew serve during the Battle of the Atlantic in 1941 in Lothar Gunther Buccheim's book (1973), and movie (1981), of the same name.

Otherwise unnamed North Sea lightship in a story of the same name (1960) by Siegfried Lenz whose captain is mortally wounded after three gangsters board the ship and kidnap the crew.

Galley in which Prince Caspian sails in search of the missing lords in C. S. Lewis's Voyage of the "Dawn Treader" (1952), the third volume in his six-part Chronicles of Narnia.

Small boat in which a young boy sails through many adventures in and around San Francisco Bay in Jack London's The Cruise of the "Dazzler" (1902).

Pirate ship in Arthur Ransome's Coot Club (1934) used by members of the Coot Club in the Norfolk Broads in The Big Six (1940).

War of 1812-era frigate, similar to the USS Constitution, in C. S. Forester's The Captain from Connecticut (1941).

(36) Ship cut out of the French port of St. Martin, France, by Jack Aubrey in Patrick O'Brian's The Letter of Marque (1988). Aubrey and Steven Maturin later sail for the Indies in the Diane in The Thirteen-Gun Salute (1989), though the ship is wrecked there in Nutmeg of Consolation (1991).

(74) Nicholas Ramage's command in the West Indies in Dudley Pope's Ramage and the "Dido" (1989).

In Frederick Marryat's Peter Simple (1834), a frigate commanded by Captain Savage, a character based on Lord Cochrane, under whom Marryat served on the French coast in HMS Impérieuse.

Cutter in which Davies and Carruthers reconnoiter Germany's North Sea coast shadowed by Herr Dolmann's galliot Medusa in Erskine Childers's The Riddle of the Sands (1906), often credited with being the first espionage novel. The 1984 film starred Michael York and Simon MacCorkindale. (See also, in main text, Childers's own Asgard.)

A fictional spacefaring starship of the future (ca. 2151 to ca. 2379) from the mind of Hollywood Executive Producer, Eugene "Gene" Wesley Roddenberry (a.k.a. The Great Bird of the Galaxy) 1921-1991, commanded by Starfleet Captains: Jonathan Archer, Jean-luc Picard, and most notably James Tiberius Kirk. The USS Enterprise first appeared in the original television series of the late 1960's, Star Trek (1966-1969). Nearly a decade later the advertures of the ship and its valiant crew were resurrected in a motion picture adaptation of the show simply titled, Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). The movie spawed nine sequels: Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan (1982), Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (1984), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), Star Trek: Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002); three subsequent television series: Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999), Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001), and Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-2005); and a plethora of original novels and related literary works all based on the universe developed for the classic show.

The original adventures of the intrepid starship Enterprise became so popular with American culture in the late 1970's (long after the series was cancelled on network television and broadcast only in syndication), that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) commissioned its first Space Transportation System shuttle OV-101 the STS Enterprise after the fictional vessel.

The universal theme to the wealth of teleplays, screenplays, and novelizations written for the show revolved around the United Star Ship Enterpise (in its various iterations: NX-01, NCC-1701, NCC-1701-A,B,C,D, and E) being a metaphor for the Earth and its diversity of united peoples peacefully working together to: Explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, and to boldly go where no man, or no one, has ever gone before...

(100) Richard Bolitho's command in the western Mediterranean in Alexander Kent's The Flag Captain (1971).

Ship aboard which occur the strange doings in Herman Melville's The Confidence Man (1857).

Legendary Dutch East Indiaman whose captain insisted on battling storms to round the Cape of Good Hope despite the entreaties of his crew and passengers. When God appeared in an apparition, the captain shot at him, and he was thus condemned to sail the seas forever as a torment to other sailors. The story has been interpreted in a variety of settings, notably Heinrich Heine's poem "Reisebilder" (1826), Frederick Marryat's novel The Phantom Ship (1839), Richard Wagner's opera Der fliegender Holländer (1843), and Washington Irving's "The Flying Dutchman of the Tappan Sea."

Yacht in which the Swallows sail from Harwich to Holland in Arthur Ransome's We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea (1937), and in which the Swallows, Amazons, and Eels have adventures in Secret Water (1939).

A three-masted ship sunk by an iceberg in The Wreck of the "Golden Mary" (1896), written by Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins.

Pirate ship in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short story "Captain Sharkey" (1897).

Sloop-of-war in which Easy serves in Frederick Marryat's Mr. Midshipman Easy (1836). Easy's adventures are based on those of Lord Cochrane, under whom Marryat served in the frigate HMS "Impérieuse" from 1806 to 1809.

The schooner of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's ballad Wreck of the "Hesperus" (1840). The story is based on the events of a terrible gale in 1839 after which a young girl was washed ashore on Norman's Woe, near Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Merchant ship in which Wellingborough Redburn ships for a four-month voyage between New York and Liverpool in Herman Melville's Redburn (1849).

Ship used by Jim Hawkins and his confederates to seek Captain Flint's treasure in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island (1883).

Ship on which Lemuel Gulliver sails as surgeon at the beginning of his third voyage in Jonathan Swift's political satire, Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, better known as Gulliver's Travels (1726).

(20) Horatio Hornblower's 6th-rate in C. S. Forester's Hornblower and the "Hotspur" (1962).

(74) Richard Bolitho's Napoleonic-era command in Alexander Kent's Form Line of Battle! (1969), Enemy in Sight! (1970), and Honour This Day (1987).

Tramp steamer that is the setting for Guy Gilpatric's stories about the Scots Chief Engineer Glencannon, including Scotch and Water, Half Seas Over, and Three Sheets in the Wind.

Oceangoing tug commanded by Martinus Harinxma in a series of Murmansk convoys in World War II in Jan de Hartog's The Captain (1966).

Passenger ship commanded by the impostor master mariner Vasco de Aragão in Jorge Amado's Home Is the Sailor: The Whole Truth Concerning the Redoubtful Adventures of Captain Vasco de Aragão from Bahía to Belém (1964).

Ship of about 400 tons, whose motto is "Do or Die," in Joseph Conrad's short story "Youth" (1898).

Australian whaleship in which the crew mutiny against Captain Guy—"The Cabin Boy"—in Herman Melville's Omoo, a Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas (1847).

(32) Frigate in which Nicholas Ramage attacks a French convoy off Martinique in Dudley Pope's Ramage's Diamond (1976).

(8) Cutter in which Nicholas Ramage has a series of adventures—including the capture and recapture of his command—near the Spanish coast prior to the Battle of Cape St. Vincent in Dudley Pope's Ramage and the Drumbeat (1968).

Mahan-class destroyer under Commander George Krause, escort commander of an eastbound Atlantic convoy in the dark days of World War II, in C. S. Forester's The Good Shepherd (1955).

Aircraft carrier in John Winton's novel of the same name (1967).

(36) Frigate in which Horatio Hornblower defeats the Spanish Natividad (50) on the Pacific coast of Central America in C. S. Forester's The Happy Return (also published as Beat to Quarters, 1938).

Liberty ship encountered by a salvage tug in the North Sea with only her captain aboard in Hammond Innes's The Wreck of the "Mary Deare" (1956); the 1959 movie starred Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston.

Merchant ship named for Sir Anthony Gloster's wife, and in which Sir Anthony wishes to be buried, in Rudyard Kipling's poems "McAndrew's Hymn" and "The Mary Gloster" (1894).

Shipwrecked cabin cruiser in the 1960s television comedy Gilligan's Island.

Captain McWhirr's stormbound steamship en route from Formosa to Fu-chau in Joseph Conrad's short story "Typhoon" (1902).

The name of a real ship in which Joseph Conrad sailed from Bombay to Dunkirk and which he took for the setting for his novel Nigger of the "Narcissus" (1897). He probably retained the name—that of a white flower—to contrast with the title character, the black seaman James Wait. (See entry in main text.)

Tug in which Tugboat Annie experiences her adventures on Puget Sound in Norman Reilly Raine's book of the same name (1934).

Old Spanish 50-gun two-decker captured on the west coast of Central America in the early 1800s by HMS Lydia in C. S. Forester's The Happy Return (or Beat to Quarters, 1938).

Captain Nemo's submarine in Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues beneath the Sea (1869). Film versions include a silent movie made in 1916 and one starring James Mason and Kirk Douglas in 1954.

Cruising yawl aboard which Marlow tells the story of Mistuh Kurtz in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899).

American frigate in which the title character of Herman Melville's White Jacket, or The World in a Man-of-War (1850) sails from Callao to Norfolk. The novel is based on Melville's own experiences aboard the USS United States on a passage from Honolulu to Boston in 1843-44.

Hilaire Belloc's actual yacht, aboard which he ponders "Reflections and Judgments on Life and Letters, Men and Manners" in The Cruise of the "Nona": The Story of a Cruise (1925).

Whale-watching boat sunk by a great white shark off Long Island in Peter Benchley's novel Jaws (1974). The 1975 film directed by Steven Spielberg starred Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw, and Roy Scheider.

"A local steamer as old as the hills, lean like a greyhound, and eaten up with rust worse than a condemned water-tank" in Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim (1900). The Patna is based on the true story of the pilgrim ship Jeddah whose British officers abandoned her and 1,000 pilgrims bound from Singapore to Mecca, though the ship made it safely to Aden.

Otherwise unnamed vessel in which the title characters of Edward Lear's poem "The Owl and the Pussycat" (1846) put to sea.

Whaleship under command of Captain Ahab, whose relentless pursuit of the great white whale in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851) leads to the loss of the ship and all her crew save Ishmael. Film adaptations include the 1926 silent film The Sea Beast, a 1930 sound remake called Moby Dick, and a Moby Dick directed by John Huston (1956), written by Ray Bradbury and starring Gregory Peck.

(36) Richard Bolitho's command during the American Revolution in Alexander Kent's To Glory We Steer (1968).

Captain Corcoran's "saucy ship" in the 1878 operetta of the same name by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan.

(24) Jack Aubrey's brig to which Captain the Spanish Azema surrenders in Patrick O'Brian's Post Captain (1972).

Passenger ship overwhelmed by a tidal wave in the Mediterranean in Paul Gallico's novel The "Poseidon" Adventure (1969). The 1972 movie starred Gene Hackman and Shelley Winters.

Merchant brig in which Admiral Horatio Hornblower and his wife, Barbara, are nearly shipwrecked in C. S. Forester's Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies (1957).

World War II—era PT boat commanded by Lieutenant Commander McHale in the 1960s television comedy McHale's Navy, starring Ernest Borgnine.

Soviet submarine stalked by Soviet and U.S. forces in Tom Clancy's novel The Hunt for "Red October" (1984). The 1990 film starred Sean Connery.

U.S. Navy transport in the backwaters of the Pacific during World War II in Thomas Heggen's novel Mister Roberts. The book was adapted for stage (coauthored by Joshua Logan) and film (1955), directed by John Huston and starring Henry Fonda and James Cagney.

North German Lloyd passenger liner bound from Veracruz, Mexico, for Bremerhaven, Germany, in 1931 in Katherine Anne Porter's Ship of Fools (1945). The 1965 film starred Vivien Leigh and Oskar Werner.

Slave ship commanded by Benito Cereno and visited by Captain Amasa Delano of the Bachelor's Delight in Herman Melville's "Benito Cereno" (1855).

American gunboat on the Yangtze River in 1926 during the Chinese civil war in Richard McKenna's novel The Sand Pebbles (1962). The 1966 film starred Steve McQueen.

American submarine in Nevil Shute's apocalyptic novel On the Beach.

An old Norwegian pilot cutter in which the Swallows, Amazons, and Scarabs sail to an island of the Outer Hebrides in Arthur Ransome's Great Northern? (1947).

Liverpool ship from which Second Mate Leggatt escapes after killing a member of the crew in Joseph Conrad's Secret Sharer (1910).

A ship manned by fools of various sorts in Sebastian Brant's long satirical poem Das Narrenschiff, first published in Latin as Stultifera Navis (1494). The poem, which caricatures a wide variety of human vices, has been widely imitated. Alexander Barclay's The Shyp of Folys of the Worlde appeared in 1509, W. H. Ireland's Modern Ship of Fools in 1807, and Katherine Anne Porter's Ship of Fools in 1945 (see S. A. Vera). The Grateful Dead also wrote a song of the same name (1973).

Literary metaphor for government widely employed since antiquity.

Steamer purchased by Captain Henry Whalley after selling the bark Fair Maid in Joseph Conrad's End of the Tether (1902).

(14) Jack Aubrey's first command in Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander (1970). Aubrey's exploits in the western Mediterranean are based on those of Lord Cochrane in HM Brig Speedy.

(20) Richard Bolitho's command in Alexander Kent's Sloop of War (1972), which takes place during the American Revolution.

(74) Horatio Hornblower's ship in C. S. Forester's Ship of the Line (1938).

(28) Jack Aubrey's command on a voyage to India during which he fights the French Marengo (74) in Patrick O'Brian's H.M.S. "Surprise" (1973). Aubrey returns to command of the Surprise in The Far Side of the World (1984), The Reverse of the Medal (1986), Letter of Marque (1988), The Thirteen-Gun Salute (1989), The Truelove (1992), and The Wine-Dark Sea (1994).

The 14-foot sailing dinghy owned by the Walkers (the Swallows) in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons (1930) and other books in the same series.

Tramp steamer owned by St. Vincent Halfhyde after his departure from the Royal Navy in Phillip McCutchen's turn-of-the-century series, including The Halfhyde Line (1984), Halfhyde on the Amazon (1988), and Halfhyde and the Admiral (1990).

Royal Navy Polaris submarine spying on the Soviet Union's Black Sea fleet in John Winton's The Fighting "Temeraire" (1971).

(38) Richard Bolitho's command while searching the South Pacific for the Bounty mutineers in Alexander Kent's Passage to Mutiny (1976).

Ill-fated unsinkable transatlantic liner that sinks on her maiden voyage after striking an iceberg at high speed in Morgan Robertson's Futility, or Wreck of the "Titan" (1898). The somewhat far-fetched story took on new significance following the loss of the similarly named Titanic in like circumstances fourteen years after the book appeared.

(10) Brig in which Nicholas Ramage must sail to the Caribbean in the wake of the Spithead Mutiny in Dudley Pope's The "Triton" Brig (also published as Ramage and the Freebooters, 1969) and Governor Ramage, R.N. (1973).

Modified Dido-class cruiser in which the protagonists from Alistar MacLean's 1955 novel of the same name battle the Germans on the Murmansk convoy run.

(32) Richard Bolitho's East Indies command in Alexander Kent's Command a King's Ship (1973).

The first Royal Navy ship in which women sail as combatants in John Winton's novel The Good Ship "Venus" (1984). The Women's Royal Naval Service actually went to sea as combatants in 1990, and it was fully absorbed into the Royal Navy in 1994.

American submarine on patrol in the Pacific during World War II in Run Silent, Run Deep (1955), by Edward L. Beach; the 1958 movie starred Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster. (See also, in main text, Beach's command, USS Triton.)

Gloucester fishing schooner by whose crew spoiled rich kid Harvey Cheyne is rescued after falling from a luxury liner in Rudyard Kipling's Captains Courageous (1896). Victor Fleming's 1937 adaptation, with Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney, is notable for its footage of schooners under way.

Schooner in which Captain Flint, the Swallows, and the Amazons sail from Lowestoft to Crab Island, in the Caribbean, with able seaman Peter Duck in Arthur Ransome's Peter Duck (1932). She later burns in Missee Lee (1941).

Captain David Grief's interisland schooner in Jack London's South Pacific adventure A Son of the Sun (1911).

(74) Ship of the line under Jack Aubrey's command in Patrick O'Brian's Ionian Mission (1981).

Submarine commanded by Old Fred in which The Beatles and the Lonely Hearts Club Band sail from Liverpool to the undersea kingdom of Pepperland "to rescue the pleasures of food and music and perpetual celebration and colorful beauty" from the Blue Meanies. The 1968 animated film is a psychedelic reinterpretation of the Old English epic, Beowulf.

German light cruiser damaged in action with HMS Charybdis in C. S. Forester's Brown on Resolution (also published as Single Handed, 1929). Her much needed repairs are hampered by Brown's intrigues, and she is later sunk by HMS Leopard.