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A multi cast performance with music and sound effects featuring Marisol Nichols. Story originally published in the August 1935 issue of Five-Novels Monthly.
Errol Flynn would feel quite at home in Hubbard's ripping yarn of Caribbean piracy in the year 1680, first published in 1935. Press-ganged into the Royal Navy, Tom Bristol faces 100 lashes just as buccaneers attack the British man-o'-war on which he reluctantly serves. Tom soon realizes the pirate life is for him, a life replete with swordplay, maroonings and naval battles with ships lost in the roiling fog of cannon smoke. Supplementing the illustrated text are an extensive glossary of nautical and period terms, an essay entitled "L. Ron Hubbard and American Pulp Fiction," and a foreword by Kevin J. Anderson on the golden age of pulp fiction. The man who would go on to found Scientology never achieves the visceral intensity of such fellow pulp writers as Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan, but he conducts his minisaga in just the fashion readers of the era expected. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Hubbard wrote a ton of pulp stories in every genre during the 1930s and 1940s. Galaxy is reissuing all of them in paperback-80 books in all (told you it was a ton). Each book features a killer pulp cover along with other illustrations, a glossary (parts of a ship for the briny swashbucklers, etc.), and background on the author.
The time-honored cry of the sea floated down to them from the foretop. “Sail ho!” All eyes went aloft. The lash was momentarily forgotten. The sail must be very close, otherwise it would not have been announced.
“Where away?” shouted Mannville.
“Off the starboard, coming across our bows!”
Men leaped to the rail. The haze of light cast up by the sun on water momentarily blinded them. And then they saw the ship. It was sailing against the morning sun, full-rigged, tall-masted, gilded sterncastle sparkling. It was a bark of about sixty guns. Against the light, its sails looked black.
Even as they stared at it, a roll of bunting went up the truck and burst. Its identity was unmistakable. A grinning skull against an ebon field.
—L. Ron Hubbard
Anonymous
Posted October 15, 2008
Under the Black Ensign was one of those really great swashbuckling, action packed, good versus evil type stories. I listened to it on CD and I could feel the warmth my parents have told me of the old radio days. I can't wait to listen to my next Hubbard pulp fiction!
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted September 17, 2008
This book was great!!! I enjoyed every minute of it - from the first page to the last! This is about a gentleman and pilot shanghaied in London on a ship as a lowly sailor and how this shift from this point. This is one of the most entertaining books I've read this year!
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted September 28, 2008
This book was actually incredible. Not only was it action packed, it was also moral and educational! It also gave me a new view of the pirate. I found myself wanting to listen to the story again and again and again. I felt like I was right there in the story. The book is fantastic too!
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted November 20, 2008
Great swashbuckling adventure! Tom Bristol is a great character and I really like the old-time feel of the story from the pulp days.
If you like pirates, adventure on the high-seas, give this one a try!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Jasonjwillis
Posted November 11, 2008
I Also Recommend:
This one hits the water sailing (instead of ground running) and just picks up speed from there. Pure classic pulp in its finest tradition. It is no wonder why people couldn't get enough and after all this time they still can't. If you want a serious, somber, literary read avoid this like the plauge. But if what you want is fun, unabashed adventure, buy it, read it, love it. The production quality of these audio books are absolutely unparalled.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Jasonjwillis
Posted November 10, 2008
I Also Recommend:
This one hits the water sailing (instead of ground running) and just picks up speed from there. Pure classic pulp in its finest tradition. It is no wonder why people couldn't get enough and after all this time they still can't. If you want a serious, somber, literary read avoid this like the plauge. But if what you want is fun, unabashed adventure, buy it, read it, love it.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.woody1
Posted April 29, 2012
"Under the Black Ensign" is a pirate adventure story with exciting action that transports the reader to a faraway place and time. It's theme is the hero's journey. In the "Power of the Myth", the mythologist Joseph Campbell tells journalist Bill Moyers: "The courage to face trials and to bring a whole body of possibilities into the field of interpreted experience for other people to experience...that is the hero's deed." There are two kinds of deeds- physical and spiritual. In "Under the Black Ensign," Tom Bristol undertakes physical deeds and performs courageous acts in battle and saves lives.
This heroic tale begins as Tom Bristol's stint as first mate comes to an unexpected end during shore leave when he is press-ganged into serving aboard the British HMS Terror. As a crew member, he is treated ruthlessly, and when the ship is attacked by pirates, he readily joins them. The pirates abandon him when he is convicted of killing an insurgent and hiding a woman on board resulting in Bristol being marooned on an island with little water and a gun. His trials and victories of adventurous initiation continue before he completes his journey, returns, and is reintegrated into society. According to Campbell, there are three phases of the hero's journey:
1) Departure- call to adventure, leaves ordinary life of own accord or is plunged into adventure by unforeseen events.
2) Initiation- tests, trials, ordeals, or revelations- one must undergo to begin transformation.
3) Return- for a human hero it may mean achieving a balance between the material and spiritual or be a founder of something- religion, a city, or a new way of life.
It makes the story more interesting to consider the parallels between Bristol's quest and Campbell's take on the hero's journey.
Anonymous
Posted October 31, 2011
I was surprised by this. I had never read any of his and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Not great literature, but I didn't stop reading!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.yangyang
Posted October 3, 2011
Glad that I was able to get this for free. I enjoy pulp fiction very much and L. Ron Hubbard is one of the greatest.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.This was what one would expect from pulp- short and sweet. No character development, little in the way of plot. Just straight to the point pirate action. A decent read for the most part, but not something I would recommend for anything other than a way to waste an hour or so. The action scenes were plenty, but short and incredibly weak. Hubbard obviously had trouble describing fights; whether swordfights or naval battles, they were very generic and non-descriptive, and did not give the adrenaline surge of a well- written action novel. What's more, there was absolutely no romance, though an attempt at a romantic element was obviously made. All in all a very weak and unimaginitive story, but still good enough to read once while waiting for a bus or killing some time before bed. After all, a swashbuckler is a swashbuckler, even if poorly written it's still worthy of a read, in my opinion. Could have beeen much better though. I guess Hubbard saved all his imagination for the hokey "religion" he invented...
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.DeniseDQ
Posted February 6, 2011
The most exciting book! Will keep you glued to the book until it is finished and then you will want more. Great for kids and adults alike. A must read if you like adventure.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Sir_Readalot
Posted December 27, 2008
I had a LOT of fun reading this and it is written so well it totally immerses one into the story, even though in another time period! You will feel transported! There are even very fun online "interview" spoofs with the main character at www.elbowsonthetable.com ! It is hillarious.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Gordon2009
Posted November 21, 2008
I Also Recommend:
Under the Black Ensign pulls you into the action and doesn't let up. Great authenticity and background color accurately told with a compelling plot. A great read for the pure enjoyment of a classic pulp tale and an education as well with a complete glossary of pirate and ship terminology. I found this story especially appealing to my younger friends with a good moral adding to the excitement. I also appreciated the excellent quality of the production with a stain resistant cover and authentic pulp feel to the pages. This is one you want to add to your collection or share with friends.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted July 28, 2011
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Posted December 24, 2010
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Posted January 13, 2012
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Posted January 24, 2011
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Posted November 17, 2010
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Posted October 5, 2011
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Posted July 15, 2011
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Overview
A multi cast performance with music and sound effects featuring Marisol Nichols. Story originally published in the August 1935 issue of Five-Novels Monthly.