Kipling and the Sea

KIPLING may be best known as a commentator on the British Empire, but he was also a vivid observer and chronicler of the sea - and of ships and all who sailed in them. For him the sea was the glue which bound the British Empire together. To reach distant lands, you needed to sail. So Kipling wrote copiously about his own voyages - to India, across the Pacific and Atlantic, down to South Africa and Australia - and about the voyages of others. Sailors were particular heroes of his, as adventurers who braved every kind of element and danger in order to reach distant lands. In writing about them, he was enthralled by the romance of the sea, touching on everything from pirates to technical changes in ships. His output reflected his deep historical understanding, so he could write equally about three sailors reminiscing about their shipwreck with St Paul off Malta in 66ad and a ship on fire in the Indian Ocean. He was also a great advocate of the navy. He wrote about its exploits, customs, history and contemporary role in a variety of different forms.
At all stages of his life Kipling peppered his many letters with observations about the sea, encompassing his own voyages and his other nautical interests. Edited and with a commentary by Kipling expert and author of the much praised Kipling Abroad, Kipling and the Sea illuminates a side of Kipling's work that has for too long languished in the shadows.

Andrew Lycett is author of the acclaimed biography of Rudyard Kipling and our own successful and acclaimed book, Kipling Abroad (I.B.Tauris). As a former foreign correspondent, he has travelled widely and worked in most parts of the world written about by Kipling. His other books include highly regarded lives of Ian Fleming, Dylan Thomas and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He is a member of the Council of the Kipling Society and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Acknowledgements
Introduction: Poseidon's Law
Kipling and the Sea
A Letter or Bill of Instruction
Poseidon's Law
The Gift of the Sea
The Coastwise Lights
Big Steamers
The Liner She's a Lady
The Junk and the Dhow
McAndrew's Hymn
The Mary Gloster
Tin Fish
Mine Sweepers
Something of Myself
From Sea to Sea
The Ballad of the Clampherdown
The Rhyme of the three Captains
The Ballad of the Bolivar
Something of Myself
Judson and the Empire
Something of Myself
The Sea-Wife
The Deep-Sea Cables
The Merchantmen
The White Seal
The Ship that Found Herself
Captains Courageous
The Devil and the Deep Sea
A Fleet on Being: Notes of Two Trips with the Channel Squadron
Cruisers
The Dykes
Song of Diego Valdez
The Sea and the Hills
Their Lawful Occasions
China-going P&O's
I've Never Sailed the Amazon
Song of the Red War-Boat
Speech Given at a Naval Club, October 1908: The Spirit of the Navy
Egypt of the Magicians
The Fringes of the Fleet
Tales of the Trade
The Destroyers at Jutland
Speech to Some Junior Naval Officers of an East Coast Patrol, 1918: The First Sailor
Brazilian Sketches
Epitaphs of the War
The Manner of Men
Letters
The King and the Sea