The Greatest Sailors & The Sea Books of All Time

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
7 Moby-Dick Herman Melville 1851 American English
24 The Odyssey Homer -740 Greek Ancient greek
54 The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway 1952 American English
69 Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe 1719 British English
115 Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson 1883 British English
137 Lord Jim Joseph Conrad 1900 British English
211 The Tempest William Shakespeare 1623 British English
488 The Shipping News Annie Proulx 1993 Canadian English
673 Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne 1870 French French
708 Captain Hornblower R.N. C. S. Forester 1937 British English
726 The Caine Mutiny Herman Wouk 1951 American English
773 The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym Edgar Allan Poe 1838 American English
782 Three Men in a Boat Jerome K. Jerome 1889 British English
831 Riddle of the Sands Erskine Childers 1903 British English
921 Master and Commander Patrick O'Brian 1969 British English
1075 The Kon-Tiki Expedition Thor Heyerdahl 1948 Norwegian Norwegian
1243 Kidnapped Robert Louis Stevenson 1886 British English
1267 Billy Budd Herman Melville 1924 American English
1326 The Compleat Angler Izaak Walton 1653 British English
1376 Tales of the South Pacific James A. Michener 1947 American English
1415 Life on the Mississippi Mark Twain 1883 American English
1516 The People of Hemsö August Strindberg 1887 Swedish Swedish
1652 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1798 British English
1705 The Sea-Wolf Jack London 1904 American English
1728 The Voyage of the Beagle Charles Darwin 1839 British English
1753 The Long Ships Frans G. Bengtsson 1941 Swedish Swedish
1786 Farthest North Fridtjof Nansen 1897 Norwegian Norwegian
1818 Barbarian Days William Finnegan 2015 American English
1833 The Voyage of the Dawn Treader C. S. Lewis 1952 British English
2018 The Death Ship B. Traven 1926 German German
2314 Ship Of Fools Katherine Anne Porter 1962 American English
2316 The Cruel Sea Nicholas Monsarrat 1951 British English
2517 Rites of Passage William Golding 1980 British English
2606 Poems And Prose Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1797 British English
2668 Sailing Alone Around the World Joshua Slocum 1900 Canadian English
2698 Cod Mark Kurlansky 1997 American English
2725 The Discovery Of Slowness Sten Nadolny 1983 German German
2859 The Ghost Pirates William Hope Hodgson 1909 British English
2922 The African Queen C. S. Forester 1935 British English
2984 Friday Michel Tournier 1967 French French
3019 Captain Blood Rafael Sabatini 1922 British English
3055 The Enigma of Arrival V. S. Naipaul 1987 British English
3082 Swallows and Amazons Arthur Ransome 1930 British English
3238 Hms Ulysses Alistair MacLean 1955 Scottish English
3246 A Strange Manuscript Found In A Copper Cylinder James De Mille 1888 Canadian English
3260 The Perfect Storm Sebastian Junger 1997 American English
3324 Sandokan Emilio Salgari 1883 Italian Italian
3324 The Sound of Waves Yukio Mishima 1954 Japanese Japanese
3380 The Shadow Line Joseph Conrad 1917 British English
3441 In Search Of The Castaways Jules Verne 1867 French French
3553 Log Of The S.S. The Mrs Unguentine Stanley Crawford 1972 American English
3575 Horcynus Orca Stefano D'Arrigo 1975 Italian Italian
3638 Kuttel Daddeldu Joachim Ringelnatz 1920 German German
3638 Die Insel Felsenburg Johann Gottfried Schnabel 1731 German German
3856 Breath Tim Winton 2008 Australian English
3858 The Silent World Jacques Cousteau 1953 French French
3953 Toate Pânzele Sus! Radu Tudoran 1954 Romanian Romanian
4127 The Good Hope Herman Heijermans 1901 Dutch Dutch
4160 Rockbound Frank Parker Day 1928 Canadian English
4187 The Nymph And The Lamp Thomas H. Raddall 1950 Canadian English
4233 The Hollanders In Nova Zembla Hendrik Tollens 1819 Dutch Dutch
4233 Schuim En Asch J.J. Slauerhoff 1930 Dutch Dutch
4233 Captain Jan Jan de Hartog 1945 Dutch Dutch
4309 Williwaw Gore Vidal 1946 American English
4407 The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea Yukio Mishima 1963 Japanese Japanese
4546 Island Of The Blue Dolphins Scott O'Dell 1960 American English
4558 Star Of The Sea Joseph O'Connor 2003 Irish English
4767 The Ship Of Ishtar A. Merritt 1924 American English
4787 Two Years Before the Mast Richard Henry Dana 1840 American English
4931 The Terror Dan Simmons 2007 American English
5042 Lieut. Gullivar Jones Edwin Lester Arnold 1905 British English
5114 The Boat Who Wouldn't Float Farley Mowat 1969 Canadian English
5251 The Boats Of The "Glen Carrig" William Hope Hodgson 1907 British English
5300 The Swarm Frank Schatzing 2004 German German
5331 The 14 Carat Roadster Jenő Rejtő 1939 Hungarian Hungarian
5371 Endurance Alfred Lansing 1959 American English
5434 Death On The Ice Cassie Brown 1972 Canadian English
5454 Ballad of the Salt Sea Hugo Pratt 1967 Italian Italian
5589 Love Among The Chickens P. G. Wodehouse 1906 British English
5860 The Piazza Tales Herman Melville 1856 American English
6002 The Children Of The Sea Joseph Conrad 1897 British English
6194 One Piece Eiichiro Oda 1997 Japanese Japanese
6209 Under A Lucky Star Roy Chapman Andrews 1943 American English
6379 A Voyage Round The World Georg Forster 1777 German German
6399 The Last Inch James Aldridge 1958 British English
6443 The Long Way Bernard Moitessier 1971 French French
6552 The Bottom Of The Harbor Joseph Mitchell 1959 American English
6618 Sea Of Slaughter Farley Mowat 1984 Canadian English
6766 Sotileza Jose M. de Pereda 1885 Spanish Spanish
6939 Shipwrecks Akira Yoshimura 1982 Japanese Japanese
7195 The Storm Tomás González 1985 Colombian Spanish
7215 The Frigate Pallada Ivan Goncharov 1858 Russian Russian
7215 Eureka Edgar Allan Poe 1848 American English
7575 The Toilers Of The Sea Victor Hugo 1866 French French
7643 The Hungry Tide Amitav Ghosh 2004 Indian English
7668 Soldier Sailor Claire Kilroy 2024 Irish Unknown
7711 The Snow Of The Admiral Alvaro Mutis 1986 Colombian Spanish
7962 The Good Hope William Heinesen 1964 Danish Danish
8194 The Living Beach Silver Donald Cameron 1998 Canadian English
8245 Old Times On The Mississippi Mark Twain 1876 American English
8351 River Thieves Michael Crummey 2001 Canadian English
8431 Shadow Divers Robert Kurson 2004 American English
8437 Heaven And Hell Jón Kalman Stefánsson 2007 Icelandic Icelandic
8579 The Last Of The Vikings Johan Bojer 1921 Norwegian Norwegian
8704 Tom Cringle's Log Michael Scott 1829 British English
8897 Midshipman Easy Frederick Marryat 1836 British English
8979 Sailors, Slackers And Blind Pigs Stephen Kimber 2002 Canadian English
8980 Nova Scotia, Shaped By The Sea Lesley Choyce 2002 Canadian English
8999 Floreana: A Woman's Pilgrimage to the Galapagos Margret Wittmer 1959 German German
9125 Westward Ho! Charles Kingsley 1855 British English
9149 The Curve Of Time M. Wylie Blanchet 1961 Canadian English
9160 A Place Between The Tides Harry Thurston 2004 Canadian English
9372 The Luck Of The Strong William Hope Hodgson 1916 British Unknown
9372 Men Of Deep Waters William Hope Hodgson 1914 British English
9563 The Unnatural History Of The Sea Callum Roberts 2007 British English
9685 Moominpappa At Sea Tove Jansson 1965 Finnish Swedish
9829 Sea of Poppies Amitav Ghosh 2008 Indian English
9856 The Pirate Sir Walter Scott 1822 Scottish English
9958 The Strange Last Voyage Of Donald Crowhurst Nicholas Tomalin, Ron Hall 1970 British English
9966 The Silence Of The Sea Yrsa Sigurdardottir 2012 Icelandic Icelandic