Great Stories of the Sea

Geoff Hamilton, a former columnist for the Queen’s Journal, is a
freelance editor and writer living in Thunder Bay.

Edited by Norman Ravvin, this volume brings together 14 “sea”
stories written by North Americans over the last century. Ravvin’s
introduction cites Melville twice, but that grand old clipper’s work
is absent, as is that of any writer remotely of his stature. Instead we
get the rather leaky prose of Joan Clark, Thomas Raddall, and Alistair
MacLeod, the luffing plots of Bill Gatson and Norman Duncan. Emily
Carr’s “Sophie,” a moving tale but hardly a sea story, ends the
book, ostensibly because, as Ravvin explains, it “stands as a reminder
of the native life that once thrived on coastal shores”; it doesn’t
really, and even if it did, it would be out of place in a collection of
sea stories.

There are no New World discoveries, whale hunts, naval battles,
mutinies, pirates, or sea monsters in this collection. Indeed, at least
five of the stories have little more than an incidental relation to the
sea. For instance, Jane Rule’s “Inland Passage” takes place on a
boat but is essentially a sedate tale of lesbian seduction below decks.
Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat,” which conveys the captivating
danger of the sea and the charisma of those who seek it out, is the most
seaworthy piece in this disappointing collection.