Line #21 Literature/UnchartedSeas


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wheatleyuncharted.jpg]]
2	''Uncharted Seas'' is a 1936 ScienceFiction / {{Adventure}} novel written by Creator/DennisWheatley.
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4	The passengers and crew of the Swedish tramp steamer ''Gafelborg'' are crossing the Atlantic. Almost everyone has a [[MysteriousPast shady past]] or something to hide or is otherwise untrustworthy. Basil Sutherland is a [[TheAlcoholic drunkard]]. "Harlem" Joe is an educated black man from America with an eye for [[TokenEvilTeammate stirring up trouble]] among the crew. Synolda Ortello is on the run from [[ReallyGetsAround her past]] in South Africa, a past with which the Venezuelan [[StalkerWithACrush Vicente Verde]] seems to know an awful lot about. [[PurityPersonified Unity]] [[ProperLady Carden]] is travelling with her father, Colonel Carden. And the Finnish Juhani Luvia is even more of an enigma than anyone else.
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6	When a storm hits, the French Captain Jean de Brissac orders everyone to abandon ship. They [[LostAtSea drift in the lifeboat]] for days. "Harlem" Joe attempts to instigate a [[TheMutiny mutiny]], which results in Unity's father being killed. After subuding Joe and his fellow mutineers, the group soon finds themselves clear of the storm and drifting right back to ''Gafelborg'', which it turns out didn't sink. But as they climb back aboard they realize the ship is headed inexorably towards the infamous Sargasso Sea, a [[EverythingTryingToKillYou land of carnivorous, flesh-eating weed]], [[GiantSquid giant octopuses]] and [[GiantEnemyCrab crabs]], and two islands populated by the descendants of shipwreck victims, perpetually at war with one another. Can the passengers and crew of the ''Gafelborg'' find a way out of the monster-infested Sargasso Sea, or will they be trapped there forever...?
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8	One of Wheatley's more (in)famous novels, it was adapted into the [[Film/HammerHorror Hammer]] film ''Film/TheLostContinent''.
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11	!!Tropes used in this novel:
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13	* TheAlcoholic: Basil, although he undergoes a character arc where he gives up the booze and rises to the challenge to become TheHero.
14	* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The inhabitants of Satan's Island. They appear to live only to regularly raid the neighboring island for women to kidnap and rape, and when any white people get shipwrecked on ''their'' island, they crucify the men and take the women as sex slaves. They also kill the "half-caste" children they have with the white women they rape, for fear of "polluting" their people's blood.
15	* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Vicente Verde, who gets killed by the attacking black men. He was a creepy jerk who blackmailed Syndola into having sex with him.]]
16	* TheCaptain: Jean de Brissac. No [[CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys cowardly Frenchman]] he. When the going gets tough, he grabs a gun and starts blasting away at whatever is threatening his ship.
17	* DirtyCoward: Corncob. [[spoiler:He runs away when the giant crabs show up and ends up getting killed by them.]]
18	* DerelictGraveyard: The Sargasso Sea has everything from pirate ships to UsefulNotes/WorldWarI Imperial German warships.
19	* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Although life on the white people's island is relatively idyllic, everywhere else in the Sargasso Sea is basically a nightmarish LostWorld filled with savage [[ScaryBlackMan Scary Black Men]] and giant sea monsters.
20	* FunetikAksent: All of the non-white characters except for Vicente. Chinese cook Li Foo says things like "[[AsianSpeekeeEngrish Me so solly]]" and so forth, while all of the black character with speaking rolls are given a "Yes massa" type accent, even Joe, who is supposed to be well educated (although in his case it might be ObfuscatingStupidity).
21	* GenreShift: It starts out as a standard story of survival with the characters adrift at sea in a lifeboat with seemingly no hope of survival, then about halfway in it abruptly shifts into a LostWorld story with a nightmarish version of the Sargasso Sea filled with monsters and hostile tribes.
22	* GiantEnemyCrab: One of the smaller islands - a little outcropping, really - is home to several of these creatures.
23	* GiantSquid: Well, octopuses. Called "devil fish," they live underneath the Sargasso weed and regularly drag down anyone they can get ahold of.
24	* GroinAttack: The chief of the inhabitants on Satan's Island gets shot in the junk.
25	* LegacyCharacter: Since the original Sir Deveril, ''all'' his descendants have been named that.
26	* LostAtSea: The first half of the novel is the protagonists adrift in the lifeboat after the storm, having abandoned ship thinking the ''Gafelborg'' was sinking.
27	* TheMutiny: "Harlem" Joe tries to stage one in the lifeboat. When that fails, he turns traitor and runs to join the inhabitants of Satan's Island.
28	* MysteriousPast: Almost everyone aboard the ''Gafelborg'' has one.
29	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Satan's Island! Come ''on''! [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Satan's. Island.]] Then there's the evil pirate the Red Barracuda, a man so evil he was the only person the other, more peaceful island's inhabitants ever executed.
30	* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Juhani Luvi makes liberal use of the N-word when describing the inhabitants of Satan's Island, who are all black, and refers to Li Foo as "Chinkee." Although in the latter case, he means it affectionately. His views on women are also pretty extreme, even for the time; when he finds of Syndola slept with Vicente, he reacts pretty violently.
31	* ReallyGetsAround: Synolda. Or at least Luvia seems to think so.
32	* ScaryBlackMan: An entire island of them. Satan's Island is inhabited by the descendants of black slaves who've turned savage. They regularly raid the neighboring island to abduct white women to rape.
33	* SexSlave: What the denizens of Satan's Island have in store for the women they capture. [[spoiler:Unity and Syndola almost suffer this fate, but are rescued.]]
34	* StalkerWithACrush: Vicente ''really'' has a thing for Synolda.
35	* UncleTomfoolery: Most of the black characters, but Corncob in particular. He acts tough and brave and eager to lend a hand, but the minute things get dangerous he alone out of the group turns into a DirtyCoward (which gets him killed).
36	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Joe. He just kind of disappears after leaving for Satan's Island. [[spoiler:The rescue party does glimpse him briefly with the chief, but he isn't among those killed in the battle to rescue Unity and Syndola.]]

Context Literature / UnchartedSeas