Wild Seas: Cruising on the Snark with Jack London

In 1907, the author Jack London set sail from San Francisco on the Snark, bound for the south seas and the islands of Melville and Stevenson. His literary legacy from the voyage, The Cruise of the Snark is one of the finest accounts of Pacific sailing ever written. What is not generally known is that there is a second and equally compelling account of the cruise of the Snark written by his wife Charmian, who accompanied him. While London paints with the broad brush, Charmian is the mistress of fine detail and feminine sensitivities, constructing the most realistic of pictures and capturing all the emotions of travel as the Snark sails from Hawaii through the south Pacific to Malaita, island of head hunters. Shipboard life, the fish and marine creatures that follow the Snark, the hospitality and adventures ashore are all woven into Charmian’s narrative.