I’ve always enjoyed books about water and sea. One of the first early reader books I can remember was titled “Paddle to the Sea”. It was a story of the voyage of a young indigenous boy’s carved canoe from their village in the Canadian Shield through the Great Lakes to the Atlantic. With a grand-father who served over 30 years in the Royal Navy, it is perhaps not surprising that I also read C.S. Forester’s entire series of Horatio Hornblower books as a boy.

This month I am initiating a new occasional offering of articles about my favorite examples of the somewhat specialized sub-genre of nautical literature. Perhaps I will inspire some new ideas for those individuals who share my love of the water. This may also help those of us who are beginning to come to terms with the sad reality that armchair rather than actual nautical adventures may feature more prominently in our futures. Having mentioned Hornblower earlier I thought a good place to start would be with two other series about Navy swashbucklers, both likely inspired in part by that earlier series. The two titles I will discuss this month are the Master and Commander books about Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin written by Patrick O’Brian and the Honor series about Peter Wake written by SW Florida author Robert N. Macomber.

Patrick O’Brian’s 20 Aubrey novels span much the same time period as those by Forester and have a similar premise of tracking the career of a successful Royal Navy commander through the Napoleonic Wars and global cruises on warships in the age of sail. I was impressed with the level of scholarship applied by O’Brien to his books and was intrigued by the psychological profiles of his protagonists. Central to O’Brian’s series is the relationship of swashbuckling commander Jack Aubrey with naval surgeon, intelligence officer and naturalist Stephen Maturin. The details in O’Brian’s stories are so well researched that to truly appreciate the books it would not hurt to obtain a copy of Dean King’s book A Sea of Words: A Lexicon and Companion for Patrick O’Brian’s Seafaring Tales. I did not have that luxury when I first read the series but have subsequently gone back and enjoyed dipping into the many insights in King’s book which include details of ship rigging, obscure naval terms, historical characters and even the diet of sailors. Aubrey is a bit of a rake, a fierce fighter and an inspirational leader to his men. Maturin is a much more complex character. A son of Catalan and Irish parents and an intellectual, his loyalties are not always as easy to discern. The series also follows the roller-coaster love lives of both men. O’Brian is an excellent writer whose novels are sure to provide many hours of escapist enjoyment and historical insight.

Much closer to home for American readers are the Peter Wake novels of Pine Island, Florida author Robert N. Macomber. These books may be more accessible to many as they follow the career of a US Navy commander beginning his career during the Civil War and continuing through the many international intrigues of the following 40 years, culminating with the Spanish-American War. In between, he travels the world as the new US Navy flexes its muscles throughout the Caribbean, South America, the south Pacific, South-east Asia and elsewhere. Key West and Havana are key locales and Peter is even present at the destruction of the Maine! In the first book of the series titled At the Edge of Honor Macomber has positioned Peter Wake as a key participant in two historical skirmishes with irregular Confederate forces operating in Charlotte Harbor during the Civil War. Like O’Brian, Macomber performs meticulous research into the geographic and historic settings of the novels and confronts his characters with multiple ethical challenges. His books are a much easier read than the often less familiar terminology in the books of O’Brian. I found Macomber’s books wonderful supplements to my rather sketchy knowledge of late nineteenth century US international relations and enjoyed following Peter Wake’s career. There are currently 15 novels published of a planned 17 in the series.

O’Brian (1914-2000) also wrote other novels and biographies of the lives of Pablo Picasso and Joseph Banks. He lived a secluded life near the Mediterranean border of France and Spain and for a biographer showed an interesting habit of spreading false narratives about his own life. Many of these have now been exposed by a biography of O’Brian himself. Macomber has no such reservations about revealing details of his life and in fact has a very well developed marketing approach. He gives frequent presentations on his research and books, including at least two in Burnt Store Marina over the last ten years, and maintains an excellent website about his work. He has also won numerous honors for his writing including 2020 Writer of the Year awarded by the Florida Writers Association.

Article published in the June 2021 issue of the Burnt Store Marina Beacon.