The sea is one of most vital and recurring images in human culture, and one of its most enduring literary metaphors. Whether roiled in a fury or flattened in a dead calm, the sea has stirred the creative muse of legions of writers across the ages and around the world. The 25 writers collected here share a love, fear, and deep respect for the power of the oceans. Charles Dickens sails readers into a violent storm off the coast of England, Charles Darwin is fascinated with the glowing phosphorescence of the nighttime sea, and Jack London and his bedraggled crew weather a calm in the mid-Pacific. From three versions of the Biblical flood to Yann Martel's modern ark story, each piece embarks the reader on an unforgettable voyage, fraught with peril and charged with the awe-inspiring power of the sea.