Sea story

A sea story is a work of fiction set largely at sea. The enclosed setting of life aboard a ship allows an author to portray a social world in miniature, with characters cut off from the outside world and forced to interact in cramped and stressful conditions. Themes can include differences between seamen and officers, bullying behavior, struggles against treacherous weather and sea conditions, piracy, shipwrecks, mutiny, naval activity and battles, commercial fishing, boat racing, adventures set on all manner of watercraft, explorations of the Polar regions and other inhospitable areas, etc.

The form has been popular from Homer's "Odyssey" onwards. Notable exponents of the sea story include:

* Captain Frederick Marryat (1792–1848): "Peter Simple"
* Herman Melville (1819–1891): "Moby-Dick"
* C. S. Forester (1899–1966): Horatio Hornblower series
* Nicholas Monsarrat (1910–1979): "The Cruel Sea"
* Patrick O'Brian (1914–2000): Aubrey–Maturin series

Sea-story periodicals include:

* The Ocean, one of the first specialized pulp magazines (March 1907 to January 1908)
* Sea Stories, a Street & Smith pulp (February 1922 to June 1930)

ee also

*Submarine film