When the early writers of American science fiction were looking for a setting for grand adventures, the type of science fiction we now generally call “space opera,” they looked to the past for inspiration, to the centuries where sailing ships carried explorers, merchants, and warriors across the globe; discovering, trading, conquering, plundering and colonizing. When writers looked to the future, it’s not surprising that many of them imagined ships sailing through the vastness of space being like ships of the sea in many ways.
These days, the term space opera is most often used to describe fiction emphasizing action and adventure and set within a grand scope, often involving the clash of civilizations. As the space opera subgenre was emerging, those looking for inspiration found it in nautical fiction. The Age of Sail was a time of larger-than-life characters undertaking perilous and exciting journeys to distant places around the globe, and nothing drives a plot better than danger and turmoil. Many of my columns for Tor.com over the last few years have focused on nautically-inspired space opera tales, and there are links to those reviews scattered throughout this essay.
The Age of Sail
The era known as the Age of Discovery (or Exploration) lasted from 15th to the 17th centuries. It corresponds to the development of the technology that enabled a massive boom in overseas exploration, and has also been referred to as (or seen to largely overlap with) the Age of Sail. I should note that using “discovery” in this sense is a loaded term, and one which has invited criticism from those who recognize that lands being “discovered” during this period ignores the presence of the Indigenous people who populated the places prior to the arrival of Europeans; thus terms like “Age of Contact” have been offered as an alternative. Until relatively recently, the dominant perspective on this period in history has been that of the European colonizers, and many of the works inspired by the Age of Sail follow in that tradition, but over the last century those narratives (like the version of history long taken as objective fact) have been questioned, challenged, and subverted as we’ve started to reconsider Eurocentric perspectives on colonization, empire, and conquest.
When it comes to technological advances, we tend to think of the more recent tech of the 20th and 21st centuries as being far more complex than anything that came before, but the sailing ships of the Age of Sail were true technological marvels, designed to maximize their speed and maneuverability and to draw every bit of energy from the wind. These wooden ships had incredible ranges, as they did not need to carry fuel. There were artisans aboard who could perform almost any repairs required, and were able to circle the world in years-long voyages, and the sheer quantity and capabilities of the vessels plying the seas in those days were unprecedented.
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Sweep of Stars
At the same time, there were advances in navigation; more accurate compasses, better understanding of magnetic deviation, tools like octants and sextants to measure the height of celestial objects above the horizon (first allowing determination of latitude, and then with accurate chronometers, the determination of longitude), advancements in deduced reckoning, and the development of scaled and accurate charts. These allowed mariners to cross wide swaths of ocean while retaining a relatively accurate idea of their position.
There were also great advances in gunnery and small arms, with sailing vessels becoming floating fortresses, sending out landing parties armed with weapons unmatched by those they encountered. European sailing vessels became the world’ s apex predators.
When I was young, I was taught that the spread of European civilization during this period was purely something to be celebrated and valorized. Our own American culture embraced our manifest destiny to expand, which was OK because, after all, we were the good guys. But as I grew older and read more widely, I realized there are always (at least) two very different sides to any story involving colonizers and conquerors. Europeans were dismissive of and destructive toward new and different cultures, as well as the people they encountered. First contact situations often resulted in clashes, violence, and death or privation for the people whose lands had been “discovered.” Europeans considered anything they could take was theirs by right, and treasure poured home with returning ships.
During this period, Europeans continued to colonize and conquer new lands, and their vast empires soon circled the globe. The nations that led the nautical exploration—Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, France, and Britain—began to clash, and conflicts at home spilled over to foreign lands. Especially near the end of this era, when sailing ships began to give way to steam ships, wood hulls gave way to iron, and the far corners of the world had been claimed in the name of one country or another, the great powers began to fight over resources. These battles and conflicts found their way into nautical fiction, and eventually into space opera, as did the experiences of the men who worked and sailed on these great ships. The crew and officers were almost exclusively male—a fact which was reflected in the fiction inspired by the Age of Sail (although that aspect would evolve over time, as science fiction began to broaden its horizons and embrace more women and nonbinary characters).
The Age of Sail could be cruel, and life of an enlisted sailor was not easy. In the British Navy especially, brutal treatment was common. Sailors were sometimes kidnapped and forced into service by armed press gangs, and encouraged toward alcoholism with grog rations, which were then controlled for reward and punishment. Corporal punishment was commonplace. While much nautical fiction focused on officers, it did not generally turn a blind eye to these harsher realities of life at sea.
A Short List of Classic Nautical Fiction
The Age of Sail proved fertile ground for fiction. The excitement of exploration, dangers of first contact with new cultures, the perils of the sea, and the dangers of battle are all excellent material for adventure stories. There is not enough room for a complete list of authors and works of naval adventure fiction, but here is a list of some of my own personal favorites, with short descriptions of their work.
- Frederick Marryat (1792-1848) was a British naval officer and pioneer of nautical fiction. His experience as a wartime seagoing officer, including service under the famed Lord Cochrane, grounded his work in reality, and his most well-known book, Mister Midshipman Easy (1836), was largely based on his own career. Marryat’s prose is archaic, but essential reading for those interested in the genre.
- Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was a Scottish author whose Treasure Island (1883) remains one of the finest sea novels ever written. His Kidnapped (1886) also included some adventures at sea. Stevenson’s writing was compelling, and his prose remarkably clear for its time.
- Rafael Sabatini (1875-1950) was a British writer of Italian descent, and a master of adventure fiction, particularly tales of revenge. His Captain Blood (1922) is a classic, set against a backdrop of revolution and regime change, and faithfully adapted as a movie starring Errol Flynn. Sabatini’s The Sea Hawk (1915), the tale of a Cornishman who joins the Barbary pirates, presents Muslim culture in a non-judgmental manner notable for its time. The Errol Flynn movie that bore the same title unfortunately had no resemblance to the book.
- C. S. Forester (1899-1966) was an acclaimed English author who spun many tales of the sea. His most famous works featured British naval officer Horatio Hornblower, whose career spanned the Napoleonic Wars. The core of Hornblower’s adventures is a trilogy following his adventures as a captain: Beat to Quarters (1937, published in England as The Happy Return), A Ship of the Line (1938), and Flying Colors (1938). While the series went on to fill twelve volumes, I would recommend reading the books in publication order, as the tales of young Hornblower are not as gripping as those original stories. Hornblower is a fascinating character—a mix of competence and quirks, gangly and awkward, prone to seasickness, but utterly clever and competent, and unwavering in combat—and ranks alongside characters like Sherlock Holmes as one of the most memorable in English literature. Forester’s work was adapted into several films, including Captain Horatio Hornblower (starring Gregory Peck, who gave a competent portrayal, but was far too handsome for the role), The African Queen (starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn), and Greyhound (a Tom Hanks film based on the WWII destroyer adventure The Good Shepherd). The earlier Hornblower novels were also adapted in the British ITV series Hornblower, starring Ioan Gruffudd, which unfortunately ended just as it was getting to the best books in the series.
- Patrick O’Brian (1914-2000) was an English novelist most famous for his Aubrey-Maturin naval adventures, which consist of twenty-one books (the last being published unfinished after his death). The novels show a clear Forester influence, but stand on their own. The series centers on the improbable friendship between two very different men. Jack Aubrey, tall and blond, is a strong, outgoing, competent, brave British naval officer. Stephen Maturin is of Irish-Catalan descent, short, dark, introverted, clever and crafty, a ship’s surgeon who is an amateur naturalist and an intelligence agent for the British Admiralty. Aubrey plays violin and Maturin cello, and the two entertain themselves by playing duets. O’Brian imitates the language of the times, and uses archaic nautical terms without explanation, which can make the prose a bit inaccessible, but those who persist may find themselves addicted to the books. One of the Aubrey-Maturin books was adapted into the movie Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, starring Russell Crowe as Aubrey and Paul Bettany as Maturin; one of my favorite movies, and noted for its meticulous historical accuracy.
- James L. Nelson (born 1962) is an American nautical fiction author. I was drawn to his fiction because, while set in the Age of Sail, it is not written from the British Navy perspective. His first series was the five-book Revolution at Sea Saga, following the adventures of Isaac Biddlecomb, an officer in the American Navy during the Revolutionary War. His next three books, the Brethren of the Coast series, focused on Caribbean pirates. He followed this with two books on the Confederate Navy, and his last eight books have been in a series called The Norsemen Saga.
- Julian Stockwin (born 1944) is an English author who served in the British and Australian navies and retired as a Lieutenant Commander. He is the author of the Kydd series of books (there are 25 so far). In a departure from most nautical fiction, the series’ protagonist starts out as an ordinary person, a young wig-maker by the name of Thomas Kydd who is forced into involuntary enlisted service by a press gang. Kydd spends the first four books before the mast, and despite being a pressed man becomes a true sailor. He befriends Nicholas Renzi, an idealistic young man who enlisted to escape his duties as the scion of an aristocratic family. Kydd thrives in the naval environment, gains an officer’s commission, and is knighted for his service as a frigate captain. Renzi eventually accepts his position as a Lord, and performs diplomatic (and intelligence) duties for the Crown. Where other authors put their protagonists into primarily fictional situations, Stockwin puts his in the middle of historical events, surrounded by characters from history. Stockwin does his research and knows the sea, and is my favorite nautical fiction author who is still actively writing.
The Nautical Influence on Science Fiction
The online Encyclopedia of Science Fiction’s article on Military SF, which focuses primarily on land warfare, is replete with events from history that inspired the stories in that subgenre. Tellingly, their article on nautically inspired science fiction is entitled Hornblower in Space, showing the strong and lasting influence that stories of the sea, and specifically the work of C. S. Forester, had on many science fiction authors. Like my list of nautical fiction, the following summary of nautically influenced space opera is far from complete, and represents only a limited overview of some of my favorite works.
The planetary romance writers of the 1930s and 1940s, people like Leigh Brackett, were not as interested in the ships used by their characters as in their destinations. The consensus solar system that developed, however, clearly based on a historical model rooted in the Age of Discovery. Many writers of this period portrayed a system full of habitable planets and human (or near human) inhabitants, who were generally primitive or decadent. It was assumed Terrans would strike out as explorers, looking for riches. Then colonists would spread throughout the system. Any cultures found would be subsumed into the growing Terran civilization. Many authors assumed a unified world government would only be opposed by pirates, indigenous uprisings, or perhaps rebellious colonists.
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Spaceships were often described like the steamships of the early 20th century. In his 1931 novel Brigands of the Moon, Ray Cummings set a murder mystery on a passenger liner whose description suggests an ocean liner with a glass dome over the weather decks. E.E. “Doc” Smith, in his 1934 classic Triplanetary, has passenger ships falling prey to pirates. He describes the Triplanetary League Fleet as having heavy cruisers which sound much like early 20th century warships flying through space. The pirates turn out to be agents for a sinister alien race, and in the following Lensman series, while there are lots of space fleet battles, Smith eventually abandons analogs from history (nautical or otherwise), depicting massive wars waged by superpowered characters using unimaginably powerful weapons to destroy not only planets, but the stars themselves.
Poul Anderson’s Technic History, which features in his work from the 1960s, gave us two characters with nautical influences. The first was Nicholas van Rijn, a merchant captain and trader who could have fit easily into the historical Age of Discovery. The second character, from an era where the human civilization built by people like van Rijn is starting to crumble, is Imperial Naval Intelligence Officer Dominic Flandry, whose adventures took a cue from the Hornblower series by following his career from ensign to admiral.
I’d be remiss in not mentioning Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek, with its iconic original series running for three years starting in 1966. The show featured an exploration vessel whose mission was similar to Captain Cook’s from the Age of Sail. But in a key break from previous works, the crew was drawn from diverse nations and races, and included both men and women. And Star Trek’s Prime Directive, which required non-interference with alien civilizations and culture, was a clear turn away from the colonialism taken for granted in previous tales.
The Helmsman series by Bill Baldwin, which spans nine works published between 1985 and 2011, was more space naval fantasy than science fiction, with ships traveling and fighting in ways that mirror the Age of Sail, and clashing nations resembling those of Europe in the 18th Century.
Starting in 1986, author Lois McMaster Bujold updated the Hornblower model and expanded its scope to not just one character, but to a family, the Vorkosigans. The books start with the adventures of space exploration force officer Cordelia Naismith, who meets and falls in love with enemy officer Aral Vorkosigan. The books then follow their son, Miles Vorkosigan, who has two intertwined military careers before moving on to a job as imperial agent and problem solver. The series also includes a book featuring a cousin, and one focused on Cordelia in her later years. The Vorkosigan Saga is a series no space opera fan should miss.
The Liaden Universe was introduced in 1998 in Agent of Change by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, and the books largely follow Clan Korval, an extended family that functions as an interstellar trading house. The trading portrayed in the books would have been right at home in the Age of Discovery, and the series is full of both action and romance.
L. Neil Smith introduced readers to space fantasy pirate Henry Martyn in 1989 in a book where ships use a kind of energy sails to move through space, and he cited the influence of Rafael Sabatini and C. S. Forester in his notes. A later sequel, Bretta Martyn, features Henry’s daughter.
David Weber famously pays homage to C. S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower with his Honor Harrington series, which started in 1993. The technology, propulsion, and weaponry are reverse engineered to produce combat situations which resemble those of the Age of Sail, where broadsides were the most potent applications of firepower. Faster-than-light travel in this series requires “sailing” on “gravity waves,” another clear analog to sailing ships. Weber’s main character, while colorful, is not too closely modeled on Hornblower himself, except in her cleverness, competence and bravery under fire.
Another series, started by David Drake in 1998, follows the career of Republic of Cinnabar Navy officer Daniel Leary and his friendship with Adele Mundy, researcher and spy. This series also reverse engineers the Age of Sail, with FTL travel enabled by radiation-catching sails. Drake credited the work of Patrick O’Brian for inspiring the series.
The tie-in books set in the Star Wars universe have become one of the most reliable contemporary sources for planetary adventure and space opera. Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy, which debuted in 1991, raised those tales to a new and impressive level, and since then the books have brought readers a steady supply of battling space fleets and lightsaber duels. The books have also introduced a number of new and more diverse voices into the space opera subgenre. Lately, I have been enjoying the new High Republic series, where some of the standout authors include Claudia Gray and Justina Ireland.
A personal favorite of mine has been the Lost Fleet books by Jack Campbell, which began in 2006 with The Lost Fleet: Dauntless. The books center on gigantic fleet actions resembling the clash of World War I battleships. Captain “Black Jack” Geary awakens from suspended animation in an escape pod to find that he has become a legendary hero. Command of a fleet falls to him in the midst of a military defeat, and he must lead the survivors to safety.
In 2013, Ann Leckie launched her Imperial Radch trilogy (Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword, and Ancillary Mercy), which turned many space opera conventions on their head while still offering all manner of action and adventure. The tough-as-nails protagonist, Breq, is a fragment of an intelligent warship’s consciousness, making her the first space navy protagonist I ever encountered who is also a ship.
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The history of the Age of Discovery has long been used as a template for space opera adventures. The thrill of exploration, the colorful characters, and the political turmoil of the era have all provided fertile material to science fiction writers. This article barely scratches the surface of the topic. There are many excellent nautical historical adventures I haven’t mentioned, and I didn’t cite any history books that chronicle the era.
I have to admit that my reading of more recent science fiction has dropped off over the years, and I know there are new space opera works out there with nautical influences that deserve to be mentioned, and authors who are bringing new, exciting, and diverse perspectives to the field. In fact, we seem to be experiencing something of a new golden age with series like Leckie’s Imperial Radch and James S.A. Corey’s Expanse marking the start of an explosion of fiction that’s expanded the boundaries of space opera in interesting ways over the last decade. So please feel free to chime in with your own favorite nautical fiction and classic space operas, but if you can recommend more recent works that take a new approach to these older conventions, I’d appreciate it. I’m hoping you can give me some suggestions for my own future reading!
Alan Brown has been a science fiction fan for over five decades, especially fiction that deals with science, military matters, exploration and adventure.
