By this time the sea-power of England had become
supreme,--Britannia ruled the waves, and a native sea-literature was
the result. The sea-songs of Thomas Dibdin and other writers were the
first fruits of this newly created literary nationalism.
Shortly after the beginning of the nineteenth century the sea-writer
established himself with Michael Scott in "Tom Cringle's Log," a
forgotten, but ever-fresh classic. Then came Captain Marryat, who was
to the sea what Dickens and Thackeray were to land folk. America, too,
contributed to this literary movement. Even before Marryat, our own
Cooper had essayed the sea with a masterly hand, while in "Moby Dick,"
as in his other stories, Herman Melville glorified the theme.
Continental writers like Victor Hugo and the Hungarian, Maurus Jokal,
who had little personal knowledge of the subject, also set their hands
to tales of marine adventure.
Such work as this has established a succession which has been
continuous and progressive ever since. The literature of the sea of
the past half-century is voluminous, varied and universally known, and
whether in the form of personal adventure, or in purely fictional
shape, it has grown to be an art cultivated with great care by the best
contemporary writers.
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