Men Against the Sea: One of the Greatest Sea Stories of All Time [Hardcover]

Charles Nordhoff (Author), James Norman Hall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1934

This novel, the second in the "Bounty Trilogy", follows the fortunes of Captain Bligh and loyal crew members after they have been cast adrift in an open boat. Battling against starvation and attacks by savages, they eventually navigate their ill-equipped boat to the safety of the East Indies.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall (1887­1951), who served together as U.S. Air Service pilots in World War I, had a highly successful literary partnership that lasted nearly 30 years and produced several worldwide bestsellers. They are best known for their high-seas adventure Bounty trilogy. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 158 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co (June 1934)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891905642
• ISBN-13: 978-0891905646
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,725,161 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Tightly Written & Exciting Sea Story, August 6, 2000

By 

James Paris "Tarnmoor" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Men Against the Sea: One of the Greatest Sea Stories of All Time (Hardcover)

It was a hot summer day, and I was in the mood for a sea story. I luckily picked up MEN AGAINST THE SEA and quickly became engrossed. Where the prequel, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, was a story of a mutiny, this one was one of the best men against the elements stories ever penned. We see a very different Captain Bligh, whose temper still flares up from time to time, but who this time is successful in managing a small crew of men in an open boat over 3,000 miles from the site of the mutiny to Timor, which is today part of Indonesia.

Fletcher Christian and his mutineers allow Bligh and his loyalists no guns, three cutlasses, a small medical kit, and a pitiful store of water and victuals. Their boat must skirt all inhabited islands because they had no gifts to give to the natives -- which in the islands at that time meant that they were risking attack every time. Their water supply came from rainstorms and occasional landings for food. They had no gear for fishing. All they had to go on were Bligh's knowledge and guts.

I actually prefer this book to MUTINY and now eagerly look forward to seeing if PITCAIRN'S ISLAND, the third volume in the trilogy, is as good.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Cleansing Influence of Adversity, September 5, 2001

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Men Against the Sea: One of the Greatest Sea Stories of All Time (Hardcover)

Men Against the Sea is the fictionalized second book in the Bounty Trilogy. Mutiny on the Bounty recounts the tale of the voyage of the H.M.S. Bounty from England to Tahiti and a little way back, the mutiny, and the subsequent events that affect those of the Bounty's crew who remain on Tahiti. When last seen in that book, Captain William Bligh is cast adrift far from land in a small vessel overladen with 18 other loyal men and about 7 to 8 inches of freeboard above a flat sea. Practically speaking, their chances are slim.

Men Against the Sea begins with the mutiny and describes what happens to Captain Bligh and those he commands as they make their way eventually to the Dutch settlement of Batavia in the Dutch East Indies. Along the way, Captain Bligh and his men traverse around 3,600 miles in their fragile vessel while suffering many horrors including attacks from the native people, lack of sleep, storms, bailing for their lives, cold, thirst, too much sun, and hunger. The authors make a good decision in choosing to have the ship's surgeon serve as the narrator of this saga. This perspective made it possible for the book to include his physical descriptions of the deprivations of the Bounty's abandoned crew to help make the story more compelling. In the true spirit of a story about English tars, there is a considerable discussion of how the starvation the men experienced affected their intestinal tracts.

Captain Bligh comes across very poorly in Mutiny on the Bounty. The opposite occurs in Men Against the Sea. His leadership is one of the great accomplishments of seamanship of all time. Throughout the troubled voyage to the first landing at the Dutch settlement on Timor, Captain Bligh only lost one man. Captain Bligh also comes across as a brave, worthy, and dedicated sailor who is more than willing to share the deprivations of his men. In one stretch, he mans the tiller for 36 straight hours despite being exhausted. At the same time, even the most querulous of the crew usually keep their silence.

But the men are only human after all. Someone steals two pounds of pork. Another shipmate sent to capture birds is overcome by the need to eat them, and spoils the hunting for everyone. In their weakened state, they miss many wonderful chances for food. When they reach civilization and begin to recover from their privations, complaining quickly returns.

My test of how well written such an adventure tale is that I often felt like I was in the boat struggling with them. The main weakness of the book is that it skips many days on end, when the circumstances were at their most dire such as during unending days of storms. By doing this, the reader is denied the chance to have the full horror of the crossing bear down more strongly.

Most of the weaknesses of Mutiny on the Bounty are overcome in Men Against the Sea. So if you found that work unappealing, give this one a chance. It has many of the qualities of great survival and adventure books.

After you finish this remarkable tale, I suggest you think about the ways that adversity brings out the best in you. How can you do as well when times and circumstance are not adverse?

Squarely face the challenge, with confidence that success will follow!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The second, and arguably the best, of the "Bounty" trilogy, October 23, 2006

By 

Craig MACKINNON (Thunder Bay, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Men Against the Sea: A Novel (Paperback)

I imagine the original publishers of this book had a look of incredulity on their faces when first pitched the idea for this book - put 19 men in a boat so small that they cannot move around in it, and have them sail the south Pacific for 43 days. That it was a true story no doubt helped, and that it was a companion story to the obviously interesting plot of The Mutiny on the Bounty would also have contributed to getting the go-ahead. The result is much like Tom Hanks's film Castaway - the very nature of the problem coupled with the delivery of the story makes this a riveting story. At ~200 pages, it doesn't wear out its welcome, and tells its story with the simplicity and narrative force such a tale requires.

There is really little else to say about this book, except to point out that, while it is the middle story of a trilogy, it probably can be read stand-alone or out of order of the other two. In terms of timing, it splits off from the story in "Mutiny on the Bounty," and ends sooner, so there are no real "spoilers" in the second book. I think it is, overall, a better-written story than the first. It is not as rich and detailed in presenting British sea life at the end of the 18th century, but it does bring forth the sheer magnitude of the achievement of these sailors against all odds, travelling such a great distance in an open vessel with scant supplies.