More than 50,000 copies of this exhilarating collection of high-seas adventures are already in print. Not only does it showcase the fiction of such classic writers as Daniel Defoe, Jules Verne, and Jack London, but the entries also feature historic first-person narratives, including Christopher Columbus’s own account of his famous voyage in 1492. Every page offers excitement, from vivid tales of heroic naval battles and dangerous journeys of exploration to the thrilling stories of castaways and smugglers. The astonishing variety of works includes “The Raft of Odysseus,” by Homer; Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Mermaid”; “The Specksioneer,” by Elizabeth Gaskell; Washington Irving’s “The Phantom Island”; and “Rounding Cape Horn,” by Herman Melville. Eighteen extraordinary black and white illustrations by Peter Hurd add to the volume"s beauty.