With its thousands of miles of coastline fronting on three oceans and the world's largest freshwater lake system, Canada has had a long and exciting history of human endeavour on those waters. In Canadian Sea Stories, Canadian sea novelist Victor Suthren has gathered together a collection of bedside readings from that rich and intriguing history. The collection is by no means a thorough survey of all of Canada's maritime history, but rather a selection of tales, brief or not so brief, that capture the spirit of the Canadian past afloat.

On the west or eastern coasts, set in the frozen waters of the Arctic, or on the treacherous expanses of the Great Lakes, and ranging in time from the coming of the First Nations to the present day, the stories take the reader into glimpses of adventurous discovery; heart-rending labour; terror and triumph in the face of war or the sea's fury; and the everyday nature of life for those who have made their living from the sea and the Lakes. There are glimpses of the gracious tranquility of Edwardian yachting, and of the bloodsoaked horror of sailing - ship broadside battles of the tenacious careers of ships who kept the coastlines linked through storm or disaster. There are stories of shipwreck and loss, and of discovery and exultation. And throughout there is the common thread of a bridging narrative that links these stories and vignettes into an understandable picture.

Victor Suthren is a Canadian writer and historian with a special interest in maritime history. A former Director General of the Canadian War Museum, he has written seven adventure novels about the sea, as well as, histories including The War of 1812, and biographies of James Cook and de Bougainville. He lives with his family in Merrickville, Ontario.

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