Following up on last week’ post on author reactions to Street & Smith’s all-reprint first issue of Sea Stories comes this review of the first issue.
Let’s start with the mission statement, printed inside the issue:
Sea Stories Magazine, the first number of which you hold in your hand, will deal with the adventures of dauntless souls, who have the hardihood to enjoy the feel of the surging wave as it smothers the bow and then disappears in the wake. It will tell you of those who live best and most when on heaving decks, and of lifetimes spent in a few hours during mighty storms, and of the other hazards which are truly known and felt only by those whose broad highway lies across the Seven Seas.
Sea Stories Magazine will not be devoted to stories of adventures on the salt seas exclusively. It will include stories of the men who live their lives upon the great inland seas of America, who ply their trade from point to point along the mighty rivers of this great land, the most blessed of all in waterways and coast line.
Sea Stories Magazine will be clean, will be devoted to rattling good adventure. It will specialize in stories of action, of treasure-trove, enacted on board the great liner, as well as upon the deck of the pearling and fishing schooner.
We feel that there are a great number of people who are waiting for such a magazine as Sea Stories, and who will enthusiastically support our effort to put over a brand-new idea with the American reading public.
If Sea Stories Magazine pleases you, write and tell us so. If it does not, tell us why. If you think there is no field for a magazine of its kind, write and tell us that. In other words, get in touch with the editor. Let him know what you want, and he will see that you get it.
Ok. Let’s see if they live up to that promise.
A curious thing about this issue is the absence of ads. The Dec 21 issue of Western Story carried ads for Wurlitzer, the Burlington Watch Co. and a slimming by post, but Sea Stories only carried ads for other S&S publications: People’s Magazine (inner front cover), Love Story (interior page at the front of the magazine), The Popular Magazine (inner back cover) and Love Story again on the back cover. Did they not have enough time to put it together? Or did they not want to give advertisers space they hadn’t paid for? I lean toward the latter explanation.
The cover is a nice scene by Anton Otto Fischer. Set in the Grand Banks, where for over 400 years, the local communities had fished for Atlantic cod, the cover depicts a sailor in a snowstorm at sea, not a rare occurence in that area. Later in the magazine, a small filler article refers to the impossibility of that cod ever being exhausted. Also mentions how deep sea fishing in Europe is switching to mechanized trawling, and how American fishermen are the last real sailors.
Sadly, in 1992, thanks to decades of mechanized trawling destroying the entire ecosystem, Atlantic cod yield dropped so much that Canada imposed a moratorium on fishing cod in the area. It is estimated that recovery might take 8 or 9 decades. Depressing, isn’t it? In 2024, though, the Canadian government lifted the fishing ban for cod off the north and east coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador, allowing commercial fishing for the first time since 1992. Were they right? Time will tell. Back to our regular programming.
The interior illustrations are mostly by Victor Perard, a French born artist who had come to the US in the late 19th century and become an illustrator for magazines and newspapers. He was also the author of numerous textbooks on drawing.
The lead novella is Hidden Money by Henry C. Rowland, a doctor of medicine who had been a sailor in the US Navy and a medico in the army. We meet a ship’s captain who is about to be convicted and lose his ship for attempted smuggling of Chinese nationals into San Francisco, breaking the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. He is offered a chance to save his ship if he will kidnap a girl and keep her at sea for three months. Why? The woman, a nurse, is about to marry a wealthy man and dispose of his fortune in a charitable manner, dispossessing the presumptive heirs. A deal he doesn’t like, but he takes it. I liked the setup, and though the ending was inevitable, i enjoyed it. Not a bad story to start off with.
I wish i could say the same about Albert Dorrington’s Beast Number 106, a tale of a ship carrying an animal cargo, including a truculent, gorilla. King Kong on the seas, but a dull version. Lochinvar of the Lakes by James Oliver Curwood is little better, a melodrama set on the Great Lakes.
The End of the Drag Rope is a tale of a fruit boat carrying passengers that ends up caught in a storm. The cargo is perishable, as are the passengers. The captain must choose which he will risk, his cargo or his career. I liked the lettering of the story title which suited the nautical theme.
I will skip reviewing the serial, The Devil’s Pulpit by H. B. Marriott-Watson. A treasure hunt with a crew of misfits who could turn devilish, a daredevil risk-taking captain, a mysterious old man and his attractive nice make for a combustible cargo. I found the mixture too rich and stopped reading, but if you’re minded to read it, here you go: https://archive.org/details/devilspulpit00wats
A. M. Chisholm’s The Mate’s Romance is refreshing humor, lacking the promised action. I didn’t mind. Peter Pringle’s Parrot by Wallace Irwin is a narrative poem, also humorous and romantic.
Will o’ the Wisp by George Allan England is what we were promised. A cyclopean villain blackmails a hero with a past into financing a scheme to fleece investors. Will justice prevail? Even better is Edgar Beecher Bronson’s Bunkered, which segues from a calm description of a working man’s sea voyage to a startling conclusion. It’s the star of this issue. One and a half pages of filler fact titbits round out this issue.
Overall, a reasonable if mostly unremarkable beginning. Sea Stories would last for about three quarters of a decade, moving from all-reprint to original fiction within a year. Notable authors in it were Albert Richard Wetjen, Ernest Haycox, Captain A. E. Dingle (though all of his stories there were reprints), William Hope Hodgson, George Allan England, Bill Adams, S. B. H. Hurst, Fred Nebel and Robert Carse. Worth collecting? Sure, if you can find it. Issues are rare and eagerly sought.