Best of
Maritime

2001

South with Endurance: Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition 1914-1917


Frank Hurley - 2001
    These images, appearing together here for the first time in print, constitute an amazing body of photojournalism created under the most adverse circumstances imaginable. As this book reveals, however, they are far more than visual reportage; they also are images of great artistry that capture the life-and-death drama that was played out against an arctic landscape of magnificent and terrible beauty.The story told here through Frank Hurley's lens began in the summer of 1914, when Shackleton and his crew set sail from England with the intention of being the first to cross Antarctica from one coast to the other, passing through the South Pole on the way. After five months they reached the freezing Weddell Sea and were within sight of land when the Endurance became trapped in the ice pack. Nine months later, the ship was finally crushed, leaving the crew stranded on drifting ice floes at the end of the earth.What followed is one of the most remarkable survival stories in the history of human exploration. Shackleton's men camped on the ice floes for five months before they escaped in their lifeboats and, after a harrowing five-day voyage, reached Elephant Island, a barren outcrop too remote for any hope of rescue. From there, Shackleton and five other volunteers set out for South Georgia Island and miraculously reached their destination after traversing 850 miles of the fiercest seas on the face of the planet in an open lifeboat. There they raised help, and three months later, after three failed attempts, Shackleton made it back to Elephant Island with a rescue ship.Incredibly, every single one of his men survived. Almost as incredible is the fact that so much of this drama was captured on film by Frank Hurley, and that so many of these pictures survived. South with Endurance is the first book to reproduce a total of nearly 500 extant photographs, including many remarkable color images that have never been published before. It is also the first to reproduce the photos to a standard and size that display Hurley's work as the art that it is. Drawn from the archives of the Royal Geographical Society in London, the State Library of New South Wales in Sydney, and the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, the photographs are complemented by excerpts from Hurley's diary, a chapter about the expedition itself, a biographical essay, and commentary about Hurley's photographic techniques.

Coming Back Alive: The True Story of the Most Harrowing Search and Rescue Mission Ever Attempted on Alaska's High Seas


Spike Walker - 2001
    A fisherman's worst nightmare has become a Coast Guard crew's desperate mission. As the crew of the La Conte begin to die one by one, those sworn to watch over them risk everything to pull off the rescue of the century.Spike Walker's memoir of his years as a deckhand in Alaska, Working on the Edge, was hailed by James A. Michner as "masterful . . . will become the definitive account of this perilous trade, an addition to the literature of the sea." In Coming Back Alive, Walker has crafted his most devastating book to date. Meticulously researched through hundreds of hours of taped interviews with the survivors, this is the true account of the La Conte's final voyage and the relationship between Alaskan fishermen and the search and rescue crews who risk their lives to save them.

Wooden Boats: In Pursuit of the Perfect Craft at an American Boatyard


Michael Ruhlman - 2001
    What is it about these boats that has captured the popular imagination? With his "lively blend of reportage [and] reflection" (Los Angeles Times), Michael Ruhlman sets off for a renowned boatyard in Martha's Vineyard to follow the construction of two boats-Rebecca, a 60-foot modern pleasure schooner, and Elisa Lee, a 32-foot powerboat. Filled with exquisite details and stories of the sea, this exciting exploration of a nearly forgotten craft and the colorful personalities involved will enthrall wooden boat owners as well as craftspeople of every stripe, nature enthusiasts, and fans of compelling nonfiction.

Fatal North: Murder and Survival on the First North Pole Expedition


Bruce Henderson - 2001
    Grant's bid for international glory after the Civil War—America's first attempt to reach the North Pole. It ended with Captain Charles Hall's death under suspicious circumstances, dissension among sailors, scientists, and explorers, the ship's evacuation and eventual sinking. Then came a brutal struggle for survival by thirty-three men, women and children, stranded on the polar ice—and two dramatic rescues by whaling ships. When news of the disastrous expedition and accusations of murder reached Washington D.C., it led to a nationwide scandal, an official investigation, and a government cover-up.The mystery of the captain's death remained unsolved for nearly 100 years. But when Charles Hall's frozen grave in northern Greenland was opened, and hair and fingernail samples were retrieved, forensic scientists were finally able to reach a shocking conclusion.Now, telling the complete story for the first time, acclaimed researcher and bestselling writer Bruce Henderson—whose works have been praised as "compelling" (LOS ANGELES TIMES Book Review) and "compulsively readable" (SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER)—has researched original transcripts of the U.S. Navy inquests, personal papers of Captain Hall, autopsy and forensic reports relating to the century-old crime, the ship's original log, personal journals kept by crewmen, and hero-survivor George Tyson's diary and family papers to bring to life one of the most mysterious tragedies of American exploration.

Story of the Titanic


Steve Noon - 2001
    Beautiful, double-page illustrations with amazing cross-sections and cutaway details explain the construction and mechanical details of this gigantic ship and reveal life onboard for passengers and crew. Each new illustration reveals different aspects of life in the early 20th century, and the text highlights hidden details for you to spot. As you follow the pictorial story of this world-famous liner, you will discover how she was built and equipped, what kind of passengers and crew she carried, and what facilities she offered onboard. You will also find out how she struck an iceberg and met with disaster,why she sank so quickly, how many people were saved, and how many lives were lost. You can compare the differences between the Titanic's passengers-from the first-class millionaires to the third-class emigrants-and find out how they dressed, where they ate and slept, and what they did to amuse themselves during the voyage. You can also take a closer look at some of the passengers and crew,and follow their different fates from the exciting start of the voyage to its tragic end.

Warspite


Iain Ballantyne - 2001
    While this book looks at the lives of all eight vessels to bear the name (between 1596 and the 1990s), it concentrates on the truly epic story of the seventh vessel, a super-dreadnought battleship, conceived as the ultimate answer to German naval power, during the arms race that helped cause WW1. Warspite fought off the entire German fleet at Jutland, survived a mutiny between the wars and then covered herself in glory in action from the Arctic to the Indian Ocean during WW2. She was the flagship of Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham when he mastered the Italian Navy in the Mediterranean, her guns inflicting devastating damage on the enemy at Calabria in 1940 and Matapan in 1941. She narrowly avoided destruction by the Japanese carrier force that had earlier devastated Pearl Harbor. She provided crucial fire support for Allied landings in Sicily, Italy, Normandy and Walcheren. A lucky ship in battle, she survived dive-bombers off Crete and glide bomb hits off Salerno. The Spite had a reputation for being obtuse at unexpected moments, running aground and losing her steering several times; she broke free from her towropes on the way to the breakers and ending up beached at St Michael's Mount where it took a decade to dismantle her. She had fought to the end.But this is not just the story of a warship. Wherever possible the voices of those men who fought aboard her speak directly to the reader about their experiences. Warspite is also the story of a great naval nation which constructed her as the ultimate symbol of its imperial power and then scrapped her when the sun set on that empire.About the AuthorIain Ballantyne is a much published naval author. His other books for Pen & Sword are HMS London, HMS Rodney and Victory as well as Strike From the Sea and Killing the Bismarck. He is editor of WARSHIPS IFR magazine. For more details on Iain Ballantyne and his books, visit: www.iainballantyne.com

Poems of the Sea


J.D. McClatchy - 2001
    The colorful legends of the sea–pirates and mermaids, phantom ships and the sunken city of Atlantis–have inspired as many imaginations as have the realities of lighthouses and shipwrecks, of icebergs and frothing foam and seaweed.This marvelous collection includes classics old and new, from Homer and Milton to Plath and Merwin. Here are Tennyson’s seductive sea-fairies next to Poe’s beloved Annabel Lee. Here is Coleridge’s darkly brooding “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” alongside the grandeur of Shakespeare’s “Full Fathom Five.” And here is Masefield’s “I must go down to the seas again” alongside Cavafy’s “Ithaka” and Stevens’s “The Idea of Order at Key West.” In the wide variety of lyrics collected here–sonnets and sea chanteys, ballads and hymns and prayers–we feel the encompassing power of our planet’s restless waters as metaphor, mystery, and muse.

Ultima Thule: Arctic Explorations


Matti Lainema - 2001
    

The Sea's Bitter Harvest: Thirteen Deadly Days on the North Atlantic


Douglas A. Campbell - 2001
    Husbands, fathers, loners, and drug users, each man was lured to the nation's most dangerous trade by the lucrative wages offered to those who dared to reap the harvest of the ocean. In this compelling maritime tale of risk and danger, acclaimed journalist Douglas Campbell compassionately portrays the destinies of the men who lost their lives to the Atlantic and the lure of profits from clamming. From the tough and sometimes troubled young men on deck to their families on shore, and the courageous people who tried to rescue them, this narrative memorializes a way of life, and exposes the hazards of this dangerous trade.

The Civil War Adventures of a Blockade Runner


William Watson - 2001
    Using log books, personal papers, and business memoranda, he sought to write a “plain, blunt” account of “events just as they happened.” Instead, he wrote a classic adventure tale whose careful description of seafaring in the 1860s gives us a glimpse into a world now closed to us.Watson is the protagonist, but he shares his story with his ship, the Rob Roy, a center-board schooner whose shallow draft and wide beam made it the ideal vessel for slipping over shoals and dashing in and out of blockaded ports. He peoples his account with the good, the bad, and the unlucky, from the likeable and irrepressible Captain Dave McLusky to the loathsome and dishonest Mr. R. M. He takes his reader from Havana, where land sharks greeted incoming sailors, to Galveston, where sharp businessmen and corrupt officials connived to confiscate both profits and ships. He stops at Matamora, a dusty place on “a bare and barren coast,” and he visits General Magruder in Houston. His crew brave gales and a hurricane that drives the Rob Roy back thirty miles; and he survives plots against his ship and his life.Through it all, Watson enjoys himself. Blockade running, he declares, was not “unlawful or dishonourable.” Rather, it was “a bold and daring enterprise,” an “exciting sport of the higher order,” like racing yachts, and an almost obligatory act of defiance of a blockade “maintained by no other right than by the force of arms.” The “commission merchants” did better than the blockade runners. But Watson recalled his years dodging federal gunboats and outwitting petty officials, treacherous crew, and dishonest businessmen as “much more congenial than the extortions and deceitful wheedling and trickeries of the legitimate trade.”This is an adventure story held together by the nuts and bolts of sailing. Watson’s discussion of why sail was superior to steam for running blockades is superb; his detailed accounts of surviving gales and outrunning Federal cruisers are fascinating. He takes yellow fever and high sea chases in stride. Through it all, he maintains his honor and guards his profits. For the reader who wants to ply the Gulf of Mexico under sail, play the lottery in Havana, and visit Texas when it was “a new country,” Watson is the perfect guide to run the blockade that time imposes on posterity.

All Brave Sailors: The Sinking of the Anglo-Saxon, August 21, 1940


J. Revell Carr - 2001
    Describes the August 1940 attack on, and sinking of, the Anglo Saxon, a British merchant ship, by the Widder, a German surface raider disguised as a merchant ship from a neutral country, and the ordeal of the survivors of the doomed ship.

Great Shipwrecks of the Pacific Coast


Robert C. Belyk - 2001
    Discover the real-life drama endured by those caught in the terrifying midst of disaster at sea and the real causes behind the tragedies. Vividly re-created and painstakingly researched, the shipwrecks accounted for here include:* 1854: the Yankee Blade runs aground off Point Arguello, California.Twenty-eight passengers lose their lives.* 1875: The old side-wheeler Pacific rams another passenger ship off the coast of Cape Flattery, Washington. Two hundred and seventy-seven people perish when her rotting hull gives way.* 1906: The Valencia strikes a reef off the Washington coastline. Before dozens of dazed onlookers on the shore, the ship goes down, taking 117 passengers and crew with her.

The Battleship Dreadnought


John Arthur Roberts - 2001
    Though she saw little action during her career, her influence was profound.

On Desperate Seas


James Pattinson - 2001
     None of the crew is particularly gratified when the British tanker Rosa Dartle is chosen to carry a cargo of industrial alcohol from Philadelphia to Russia. For these are the dark days of World War II when convoys are receiving the full attention of U-boats and the Luftwaffe. And when six American seamen are embarked to take passage to Archangel there is concocted a human mixture as explosive as the liquid swilling in the tanks. The men range from Joe Kline, born in Chicago, with a tough life as a prize-fighter behind him, and full of the dangerous hatred of the small-minded, to Steve Carson, a man of different calibre, as tough as Kline, but without the anger. In between are a collection of characters as mismatched as any crew of sailors could ever be. After prolonged attacks by submarine and aircraft this motley collection of men continue their fight for survival in an open boat, and later, on the mainland in pitiless Arctic conditions. But, in their struggle against the elements and each other the biggest question is who will win? Praise for James Pattinson ‘A crisp storyline and credible characters make it a cracker of a tale’ - Bolton Evening News ‘Moves swiftly through coincidence and suspense, action and violence to a wholly unexpected denouement’ - British Book News ‘There is a tang of the sea and plenty of excitement’ - Birmingham Mail ‘The characterization of the crew under stress makes it live’ - Eastern Daily Press James Pattinson is a full-time author who, despite having travelled throughout the world, still lives in the remote village of East Harling in Norfolk where he grew up. He has written magazine articles, short stories and radio features as well as more than 100 novels.

Floodgates of the Wonderworld: A Moby-Dick Pictorial : Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Publication of Melville's Masterwork


Robert Del Tredici - 2001
    While filling our eyes with archetypal visions of whales, ships, and ocean deeps, Robert Del Tredici also dazzles us with the shimmering pyrotechnics of narrator Ishmael's mind. His large-format color silkscreens and pen-and-ink illustrations let us see Melville's masterpiece as if for the first time. This postmodern take on the great American novel boldy returns readers to the book's roots as a transcendental vision of man and nature." "Floodgates of Wonderworld includes incisive commentaries by noted Melville scholars Elizabeth Schultz, Robert Wallace, and Jill Gidmark. They discuss the influence of Del Tredici's images on students and scholars; the relationship of his work to other Moby-Dick illustrators; and the technical and aesthetic aspects of the silkscreen process." In celebration of the 150th anniversary of the publication of Moby-Dick, this remarkable body of work is sure to impress the literary and artistic communities with its stunning vision of this great American novel.

The East Indiaman


Richard Woodman - 2001
    For ship-owners like Captain William Kite of Liverpool, ruin is only a gun-shot away.When providence strikes the embattled Kite yet again, he is desperate to restore his fortune and travels to London for a final throw of the dice. He travels from the smoky air of the city to the thunderous discharge of cannon fire over the Indian Ocean. As the sea-battles of the American War of Independence reverberate, will Kite emerge a hero or will fate deal him one last decisive blow? The third and final book in the William Kite Naval Adventures is perfect for fans of David McDine, Bernard Cornwell and Patrick O’Brian. The William Kite Naval Adventures The Guineaman The Privateersman The East Indiaman

Adventures in Ocean Exploration: From the Discovery of the Titanic to the Search for Noah's Flood


Robert D. Ballard - 2001
    A pioneering marine scientist, he has dived in submersibles in all the planet's oceans, contributed key pieces to such scientific puzzles as plate tectonics and deep-ocean biology, and located scores of wrecked ships all over the world, included the doomed liner Titanic and the battered hulk of the German battleship Bismarck. Now, in this generously illustrated chronicle of our age-old fascination with the sea, he interweaves his experiences at the heart of modern undersea exploration with a vivid account of thousands of years of seafaring and discovery, as his own most exciting and important dives become the starting points for an odyssey through time that introduces the greatest sailors and voyages of history and sketches the evolution of ships and navigation from the first reed boats to the nuclear submarines of today.

The Gaff Rig Handbook: History, Design, Techniques, Developments


John Leather - 2001
    The historical development & practical application of this traditional rig are thoroughly covered.