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. 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. 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. Newly edited and featuring 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 not yet been fully explored.