The Sea Hawk
The Sea Hawk is a novel by
Rafael Sabatini, originally published in
1915. The story is set in the late 16th century, and concerns a
Cornish sea-faring gentleman, Sir Oliver Tressilian, who is villainously betrayed by a jealous brother. After being forced to serve as a slave on a
Spanish galley, Sir Oliver is liberated by
Barbary pirates. He joins the pirates under the name "Sakr-el-Bahr", the hawk of the sea, and swears vengeance against his brother.
The well-known 1940 film
The Sea Hawk was originally planned as an adaptation of Sabatini's novel, but an entirely different story was substituted under the same title. An adventurous and dashing pirate Geoffrey Thorpe, played by Errol Flynn, feels that he should pirate Spanish ships for the good of England.
The silent film adaptation from 1924, starring
Milton Sills, was fairly faithful to Sabatini's plot.
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Free ebook of The Sea Hawk at
Project Gutenberg
