That's why they say "Based on a True Story", not "The True Story". What part of the story is based in truth and what part is not?

 

Desperate Voyage, by John Caldwell is claimed to be a true story and was a real page turner. But to my impression, the novel has to fit more into the "based upon" category.

For those who haven't yet read it, Caldwell was stranded in Panama just after WWII and wanted to set out for Sydney to rejoin his wife, whom he had not seen since their 3-day honeymoon a year before.

He was unable to find any immediate transportation, so he bought a 20 ft sailboat, named Pagan and set out on a 9,000 mile journey - which proved to be very foolhardy. It's an incredible adventure that sent him through every nightmare imaginable, including a hurricane.

Unbelievable terrors each day of his passage make for a fantastic and enjoyable story. "No way this much bad luck could ever be true" was my initial reaction, but it is listed as a true story.

 

Read this, it's for real...
http://www.amazon.com/Tinkerbelle-Robert-Manry/dp/B00005WYO5

 

Isn't embellishment the first rule of a good sea story?

 

Wellll...actually a Fairy Tale starts out "Once Upon A Time"
A sea story starts out, " Now This Is No Sh*t!!!"

 

Tristan Jones apparently made up more than a few of his stories, but they still make damned fine reading in the winter.

 

I have found a few downloadable ebooks online and enjoyed them.

 

Anyway.. I'm not saying it's any one author in particular, but as I've read more and more stories I can't help but think the embellishment is sometimes a bit much. (there was one about a killer whale that went through the hull of a big wooden boat)

It was a sperm whale that sank the ship. The name of the ship was Essex and the book was "Most Extra-Ordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whaleship Essex" by Owen Chase published in 1821. In 1973 I read an original copy from the Brownell collection in Providence RI.
All the best,
Robert Gainer

PS The book about my sailing up to 1976, "Presumed Lost" under told everything. The best stories were embarrassing at the time so I didn't tell John, the author of the book everything.

 

Hopefully, in the next few years, you'll be reading about my adventures and mis-adventures.

 

This may be a good thread to ask this question on and oddly enough I was thinking about it last night . Do any of you recall a book written by a Canadian Lady that took of with her hubby and two kids in a steel sloop of some 27ft into the Atlantic? They did the Azores and headed down to the Caribean and on to and up the Amazon . I wanted to get that book for my daughter but I can't for the life of me remember the tittle or author ( yes , I'm bloody useless at times ). If anyone recalls reading the book please jog my memory would ya . I know there must be at least 50 Canadian couples that wrote books about the same thing but I figure someone might recall the one I'm looking for .
BTW dont the best stories start off " No $%it there I was surrounded by..."

 

Fiona and Paul Howard: "All in the Same Boat" and "Still in the Same Boat". They are friends of friends and "Lorcha" a steel 30 footer, is still around Toronto, I believe.

 

My trips would make a boring story for anyone else to read. Am I doing something right?

 

Some of the older sailing accounts used to stress the understating of difficult times to an exaggerated art form all its own. The stiff upper lip 'spot of bother force ten for a fortnight, mizzen mast somewhere in Patagonia now, no real problem save a spilled cup of tea or two,' sort of thing, that would save all the wild exaggeration for descriptions of hard drinking or comical natives, might not have been any closer to reality then the current crop. I always tended to believe Bernard Motessier's sailing accounts, but sometimes wondered about his more Dr. Dolittle moments with sea creatures.
Am I the only one who really enjoys reading a good sailing blog? I found 3 or 4 that were really well written and amusing, but they have all stopped sailing now. Their ups and downs help keep the spirits up while outfitting a boat to go again myself a year and a half from now.
Here I am in my late 40's still reading this stuff, just like when I was a kid. I should win some sort of ancient mariner prize, for admitting, I read about Robin Lee Graham before Dove, in the National Geographic.

 

Robert, No that wasn't the story.. the one i read was about a family that restored a wooden boat. I'll look for it.

 

O, do you mean "Survive the Savage Sea" by Dougal Robertson. His boat, Lucette, was a 43' staysail schooner and was sunk by an orca or killer whale. When you said big wooden boat I thought of Essex instead of a small yacht. I didn't like the book or the movie based on it.
All the best,
Robert Gainer.

 

Of course they are embellished! You don't think CD was actually stupid enough to blow up his BBQ grill, do you?