Many great writers have written about life at sea and the adventures befalling sailors. In this selection of short stories, the editor's aim has been to avoid the obvious and where possible to seek out more neglected works. The authors covered range from Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen Crane, Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner and Herman Melville to Joseph Conrad, Rudyard Kipling, H.G. Wells and Peter Ustinov. In his introduction, Tony Tanner seeks to explore and establish the particular qualities that emerge when writing takes to the waters.