Background
William Clark Russel was born at the Carlton House Hotel, New York City, New York, United States on February 24, 1844. He was the son of the English composer Henry Russell and his first wife, Isabella Lloyd.
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book
The Life of Admiral Lord Collingwood
(This historic book may have numerous typos and missing te...)
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895 edition. Excerpt: ... chapter iii. Convoying--Action of July 13th--Narrow Escape--Sir John Jervis--Queer Ships' Companies--War with Spain--Anecdote of Collingwood--Fine Spectacle of Ships--Collingwood and Nelson---Calder's Comment--Collingwood's Modesty--Testimony to his Valour--Two Medals conferred--Collingwood on Nelson--Off Cadiz--Mutiny--Collingwood's Mercifulness--An Anecdote.!he anxiety and worry of convoying is scarcely to be realized in these days of peace and of steam. Figure seventy or eighty sail of ships: many of them heavy, lumbering, round-bowed old merchantmen, so shaped in beam and length that they might have been built by the league and sawed off as customers required them. A dozen ships at a time would be lagging; the naval officer in command would signal them--but to no purpose: the sour old merchant skipper, wrapped up in pilotcloth, eyed the epaulet askant, and sulkily went to work to give as much trouble as possible. Meanwhile there was not only an enemy's fleet to be feared, but swarms of privateersmen who hovered on the skirts of the slow-sailing commercial craft, cutting off one after another in the dead of night, and often in the full glare of day, yet with such agility, with such skilful ocean hotham'S action with the french. 47 manoeuvring, as to keep the naval officer sweeping the sea-line with a telescope at his eye in perplexity, until the sadden staggering away of the captured vessel on an easy bowline left him in no doubt as to what had happened. Having filled his fresh-water casks at St. Fiorenzo, at which place the Excellent had arrived on the 23rd August, 1795, Collingwood sailed for Leghorn on the 27th, and joined the fleet under Admiral Hotham. In a letter to Sir Edward Blackett, dated at this port, he thus refers to the...
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Wreck of the Grosvenor
( The Wreck of the Grosvenor tells of the adventures of...)
The Wreck of the Grosvenor tells of the adventures of Edward Royle, the second mate on a sailing ship travelling from England to South America in the nineteenth century. With a hard-hearted captain and a mutinous crew, this was never going to be an easy voyage. When Royle spots a vessel foundering at sea, the trouble really starts and he is forced to chose between duty and conscience. The Wreck of the Grosvenor is perhaps William Clark Russells most famous book. John Sutherland, Emeritus Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London described this as the most popular mid-Victorian melodrama of adventure and heroism at sea. This new edition from Solis Press of the 1877 bestseller has been completely revised and includes illustrations from the first US publication. The book also features a section about the author and his life, written specially for this edition.
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The Frozen Pirate
(The Frozen Pirate is the bizarre story of Paul Rodney, ...)
The Frozen Pirate is the bizarre story of Paul Rodney, a sailor who narrowly escapes death by shipwreck and exposure in the Straits of Magellan, then faces further peril. Embedded in the Antarctic ice is an ancient vessel, a pirate ship, filled with what seem to be frozen, contorted corpses. But they are not dead. When one of them revives, Rodney must fend off one of the most bloodthirsty and black-hearted scoundrels ever to sail the seven seas! Russell was a sailor for several years before he turned to writing journalism and fiction. He wrote much on nautical topics and campaigned to improve working conditions for seamen. A little bit forgotten in this age, but in his day he was well known for the books The Wreck of the Grosvenor and for The Death Ship, A Strange Story.
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The Honour of the Flag (Classic Reprint)
(The Honour of the Flag Classic Reprint)
The Honour of the Flag Classic Reprint
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A Nightmare of the Doldrums (Solis Classics)
(A terrible story of the sea, only to be read by people of...)
A terrible story of the sea, only to be read by people of strong nerves This short story was first published in The Strand Magazine in 1892. This is a facsimile that has been set in fresh type and includes the original illustrations. William Clark Russell (18441911) was a successful novelist of the time. His second seafaring novel, The Wreck of the "Grosvenor", published in 1877 (and also republished by Solis Press), took two months to write and was sold to a publisher for £50 (the equivalent of the annual salary of a shop worker). The novel was an outstanding success and started a career in writing sea stories. Solis Press have also published Clark Russell's List, Ye Landsmen!
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William Dampier
(This collection of literature attempts to compile many of...)
This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic works that have stood the test of time and offer them at a reduced, affordable price, in an attractive volume so that everyone can enjoy them.
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JOHN HOLDSWORTH by WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
(The Meteor was a full-rigged ship of eleven hundred ton...)
The Meteor was a full-rigged ship of eleven hundred tons, with painted ports and a somewhat low freeboard, which gave her a rakish look. Her figure-head represented a woman, naked to the waist, emerging from a cloud, and was really a sweet piece of carving. She was a ship of the old school, with big stern windows, and a quaint cuddy front and heavy spars. Yet, built after the old-fashioned model, her lines were as clean as those of an Aberdeen clipper. She made a glorious picture, as she lay off Gravesend, the clear summer sky tinting the water of the river a pale blue, and converting it into a mirror for an ideal representation of the graceful vessel. Many boats were clustered about her side, and up and down her canvased gangway went hurrying figures. The ensign was at the peak, and at the fore floated the blue-peter, signal to those who took concern in her that she would be soon under weigh. She was bound to New York, whence she was to carry another cargo south, ultimately touching at Callao before she spread her wings for the old country. There were a few first-class passengers on board, and some of them stood near the gangway in low and earnest talk with friends, while others were on the poop, gazing at the shore with wistful eyes. One of these was a widow, whose husband had been buried a few weeks before in the churchyard of a little Kentish town. She was taking her boy back with her to New York, where her friends were; and there they stood, hand in hand, the child with wondering eyes everywhere, the mother with a fixed gaze upon the land which was consecrated for ever to her heart by the beloved form it held. The river was brilliant and busy with vessels at anchor or passing to and fro, with boats pulling from shore to shore, with the gay sunshine deepening and brightening the colours of flags, or flashing white upon the outstretched canvas, and trembling in silver flakes upon the water. Sailors hung over the forecastle of the Meteor, bandying jokes full of pathos, or exchanging farewells with wives and sweethearts, or male friends in boats grouped, with outstretched oars, around the bows of the ship. Some of the hands were aloft casting off the yard-arm gaskets, ready to sheet home when the boatswains pipe should sound. The winda light breezewas north, a soldiers wind that would take them clear of the river, and make a fair passage for them down Channel; and now they were only waiting for the captain to come on board with the pilot to start. By eleven oclock the ship was to be under weigh; and even as the clear chimes of the clock striking the hour floated across the river from the land, a boat pulled by three men swept alongside, and the captain, followed by the pilot, sprang up the ladder. A tall, broad-shouldered young man stood at the gangway to receive them, and touched his cap as the captain came on board. All ready, Mr. Holdsworth? All ready, sir. Man the windlass then. Ay, ay, sir. He was on the forecastle in a jiffy, and the thunder of his voice went along the deck and brought all hands to the windlass as if a line had pulled each man to his place. The boatswains pipe shrilled, the pilots face, coloured like mahogany, took an anxious expression; and then clank! clank! clank! went the windlass, followed in a moment by a hoarse song, which at regular intervals burst into a chorus: And when you come to the dockyard gates, Yo, boys, yo! Youll find that Sal for her true love waits, Heave, my bully-boys, heave! Then, heave my boys, oh, heave together! Yo, boys, yo! And get her out o the stormy weather! Heave, my bully-boys, heave! Then came such cries as these: Sheer off you boats there! Get the gangway ladder in-board. Loose the inner jib, one of you! A hand aft to the wheel!
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John Holdsworth Chief Mate
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A Marriage At Sea
(A Marriage at Sea)
A Marriage at Sea
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William Clark Russell
Edit ProfileEducation
He went to school at Winchester.
Career
Russell travelled to Asia and Australia. Off the coast of China during 1860 he witnessed the capture of the Taku Forts by combined British and French forces. Later, while he was serving on the ship Hougomont, the third mate went mad, and attacked him with a table-knife. Russell began to write of some of his experiences when he was confined to his quarters for a breach of discipline.
At the age of 21 Russell quit the Merchant Service. The privations of his eight years as a sailor had gravely damaged his health, and he was never completely healthy again for the rest of his life. The positive legacy from his service was a wealth of material on which he based a successful career as a novelist.
Russell had an office job with a commercial company for a few months, after which he decided to attempt a literary career. His first attempt was a five-act tragedy, Fra Angelico, which was staged unsuccessfully in London during 1866. He began work as a journalist, and during the next two decades wrote for a variety of newspapers including The Newcastle Daily Chronicle, The Kent County News, and most importantly for him, The Daily Telegraph, for which he wrote articles using the pseudonym "Seafarer". During 1868 he married Alexandrina Henry, with whom he had a son and three daughters. From the early 1870s Russell published novels using pseudonyms (Sydney Mostyn and Eliza Rhyl Davies) with modest success. The stories of an old seaman at Ramsgate gave him the idea of writing about life at sea, using on his own experience. An obituarist of Russell wrote that since the heyday of such writers as Captain Marryat, Michael Scott and Frederick Chamier some thirty or forty years before, "no one in this country had written of the sea from actual knowledge".
His first attempt at a novel of merchant navy life was "John Holdsworth, Chief Mate" during 1875, which Russell later thought of as "reluctant and timid in dealing with sea topics". It received kindly reviews, but Russell regarded his next attempt, The Wreck of the Grosvenor (1877), as his first real sea book.
Russell sold the copyright of The Wreck of the Grosvenor to the publisher Sampson Low for £50 (about £21, 000 in 2011 terms). During the next four years it sold nearly 35, 000 copies. Excellent reviews and good sales helped establish Russell's writing pattern. The scholar John Sutherland wrote during 1989 that The Wreck of the Grosvenor was "the most popular mid-Victorian melodrama of adventure and heroism at sea. " It remained popular and widely read in illustrated editions well into the first half of the 20th century. It was Russell's best-selling and best-known novel. Russell noted in a preface, the novel "found its first and best welcome in the United States, " and commented elsewhere that his work was greeted with more enthusiasm in the United States than in Britain.
The biographer G S Woods lists among Russell's best sea novels "The Frozen Pirate" (1877), "A Sailor's Sweetheart" (1880), "An Ocean Tragedy" (1881), "The Death Ship" (1888), "List, ye Landsmen" (1894) and "Overdue" (1903). According to Woods, Russell wrote a total of 57 novels. Additionally, he published collections of short stories and newspaper articles; a volume of historical essays; popular biographies (William Dampier and Admirals Nelson and Collingwood); and a collection of verses.
Algernon Swinburne described Russell as "the greatest master of the sea, living or dead. " Herman Melville admired Russell's work, and dedicated his book John Marr and Other Sailors (1888) to him. Russell reciprocated, dedicating An Ocean Tragedy to Melville during 1890. Despite their mutual regard, neither writer influenced the other's style, and it is Melville's works that have proved the more enduring. Arthur Conan Doyle made Dr. Watson an admirer in The Five Orange Pips in which he was "deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea stories" while temporarily back in 221B Baker Street.
Achievements
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Russell campaigned for better conditions for merchant seamen, and his work influenced reforms approved by Parliament to prevent unscrupulous ship-owners from exploiting their crews. His influence in this respect was acknowledged by the future King George V. Among Russell's contemporary admirers were Herman Melville, Algernon Swinburne and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Works
book
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William Dampier
(This collection of literature attempts to compile many of...)
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The Frozen Pirate
(The Frozen Pirate is the bizarre story of Paul Rodney, ...)
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Wreck of the Grosvenor
( The Wreck of the Grosvenor tells of the adventures of...)
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A Nightmare of the Doldrums (Solis Classics)
(A terrible story of the sea, only to be read by people of...)
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JOHN HOLDSWORTH by WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
(The Meteor was a full-rigged ship of eleven hundred ton...)
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The Life of Admiral Lord Collingwood
(This historic book may have numerous typos and missing te...)
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The Honour of the Flag (Classic Reprint)
(The Honour of the Flag Classic Reprint)
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A Marriage At Sea
(A Marriage at Sea)
- John Holdsworth Chief Mate
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William Dampier
Views
Quotations:
During 1894 he recollected: "My first ship was a well-known Australian liner, the Duncan Dunbar. . .. I went to sea as a midshipman, as it is termed, though I never could persuade myself that a lad in the Merchant Service, no matter how heavy might be the premium his friends paid for him, has a right to a title of grade or rating that belongs essentially and peculiarly to the Royal Navy. I signed for a shilling a month, and with the rest of us (there were ten) was called young gentleman; but we were put to work which an able seaman would have been within his rights in refusing, as being what is called boys' duty. I need not be particular.
Enough that the discipline was as rough as though we had been lads in the forecastle, with a huge boatswain and brutal boatswain's mates to look after us. We paid ten guineas each as a contribution to some imagination of a stock of eatables for the midshipmen's berth; but my memory carries no more than a few tins of preserved potatoes, a great number of bottles of pickles, and a cask of exceedingly moist sugar. Therefore, we were thrown upon the ship's provisions, and I very soon became intimately acquainted with the quality and nature of the stores served out to forecastle hands. "
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
The year after Russell's death, Woods wrote: "A zealous champion in the press of the grievances of the merchant seamen, Clark Russell urged that the hardships of their life were practically unchanged since the repeal of the Navigation Acts in 1854, and that despite the Merchant Shipping Act of 1876 ships were still sent to sea undermanned and overladen. In response to this agitation further acts of parliament to prevent unseaworthy vessels putting to sea were passed in 1880, 1883, 1889, and 1892. In 1885 Clark Russell protested against the seamen and firemen not being represented on the shipping commission, which was appointed by Mr. Chamberlain. In 1896 the Duke of York (afterwards King George V) expressed his opinion that the great improvement in the conditions of the merchant service was due in no small degree to Clark Russell's writings. "
" His books are well-proportioned. They are well thought out. His characters have all been 'seen'. Even his ships have character. No other sea writer, except perhaps Melville … has given such patient, inventive care to the setting in which his characters move. … He saw things so clearly that he could make them real in description. … In his best books and in his wonderful short stories he has set down the semblance of sea life and of the changing beauty of the waters as faithfully as such things can be done. "
Connections
During 1868 he married Alexandrina Henry, with whom he had a son and three daughters.
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Born
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Died
January 8, 1911 (aged 66) -
Resting place
Smallcombe Cemetery, Bath, Somerset, England -
Nationality
British