The Mutiny of the Elsinore

Jack London

Dec 2018 · Oregan Publishing · Narrated by Sean Murphy

About this audiobook

This is the story of a voyage of a sailing ship from Baltimore to Seattle, east-to-west around Cape Horn in the winter. It is set in 1913 and the glory days of "wooden ships and iron men" are long over. The Elsinore is a four-masted iron sailing vessel carrying a cargo of 5000 tons of coal. She has a "bughouse" crew of misfits and incompetents. This book was published in 1915 and some actions of some of the characters seem odd to us today. There is romance, but it is strangely platonic. Two important characters disappear with no real explanation. The disparity between the officers on the one hand and the fo'c'sle on the other is striking (literally). Some people will be offended by the bigotry.

Ratings and reviews

The Story itself is Not what I expected! From childhood reminiscence of "White Fang" & "The Call of the Wild" - I'd have been 10 or 12 years old when I read them - I only thought of them in relation to the filmed versions of the Stories. TBH, I only bought several 'Jack London' books after watching the latest movie version of "White Fang" ! I would Not recommend this particular Story if you are easily offended by racial descriptors present at the time of writing (late 19th/early 20th Century) I bought the AudioBook version and it was quite a shock to hear racially discriminating language said Aloud in this day & age! I'm nearly 60yrs old & Not a 'delicate wee thing' where discriminatory speech is concerned! Thank You 70's UK Television for that "ability"!! The Worst thing about this A/book isn't 'racism', or even the "Social discrimination" (V Bad!) It's the Truly Awful narration! That gets Worse as it goes on! With a name like Sean Murphy, I expected a lot better! More Fool Me!