Sea, spray and spindrift: Naval yarns

"Sea, spray and spindrift" by H. Taprell Dorling is a collection of naval stories written in the early 20th century. The tales deliver brisk adventure at sea—gun‑running chases, pirate attacks, wartime patrols, and shipboard crises—told with practical seamanship and a cheerful, can‑do tone. Young midshipmen, ship’s boys, warrant officers, and skippers face danger with ingenuity and nerve.

The opening of the collection sets the tone: a preface notes the tales first appeared in magazines and that all characters are fictitious. In “Tubby’s Dhow,” a midshipman nicknamed Tubby uses his Arabic to uncover a gun‑running plot in the Gulf of Oman, escapes a hostile village, then helps a cutter seize the arms-laden dhow in a night fight, earning praise after being wounded. “The Stranding of the Hoi‑Hau” follows Captain McCaul, his mate, and the skipper’s son Jim as their steamer grounds off Shantung, fights off pirate junks, and is rescued when Jim signals a British sloop with improvised Morse. “The Gunner’s Luck” shows a Cape patrol torpedo‑boat with a broken shaft being sailed—literally—into Saldanha Bay, leading to commendations for her resourceful gunner and chief artificer. The start of “Horatio Nelson Chivers” introduces a cheeky cook’s boy aboard a tramp steamer that is stopped and seized by a German cruiser; confined officers, watchful sentries, and the boy’s secret plan build suspense as he slips into the captain’s cabin to whisper his idea.