Best of
Maritime

2015

Gallagher’s Prize: An Historical Adventure Novel in the Age of Sail (Gallagher's Age of Sail Adventures Book 1)


Joseph O'Loughlin - 2015
     How did America prevail against such odds? With ships, guns and the fierce desire for freedom that lived in the hearts of American sailors. Many of these men were not even Americans yet. Some came from Ireland, including Jack Gallagher. “Gallagher's Prize” begins in southern Ireland when English law breaks up an Irish Catholic family's farmland and a young man longs for the sea. During his many adventures, Jack visits Portsmouth (England), Dublin, Tenerife, Recife, Boston and New Orleans. He learns about square sailing, naval gunnery and ship’s tactics, makes interesting new friends and acquaintances, repairs long-standing enmity with his brother, rescues his family from debt, defeats a powerful and dysfunctional adversary, and experiences sex and love.

Creative Anchoring: Everything a Cruising Sailor needs to know about Anchoring, Anchor Gear & Related Skills


Cap'n Fatty Goodlander - 2015
    Everything a Cruising Sailor needs to know about Anchoring, Anchor Gear & Related Skills

Pristine Seas: Journeys to the Ocean's Last Wild Places


Enric Sala - 2015
    They offer a fascinating glimpse into our past and an inspiring vision for the future. They are the last Pristine Seas, and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Enric Sala takes readers on an unforgettable journey to 10 of these astounding locations.   From the shark-rich waters surrounding Coco Island, Costa Rica, to the iceberg-studded sea off Franz Josef Land, Russia, this incredible photographic collection showcases the thriving marine ecosystems that Sala is working to protect. Offering a rare glimpse into the world's underwater Edens, more than 200 images take you to the frontier of the Pristine Seas expeditions, where Sala's teams explore the breathtaking wildlife and habitats from the depths to the surface—thriving ecosystems with healthy corals and a kaleidoscopic variety of colorful fish and stunning creatures that have been protected from human interference. With this dazzling array of photographs that capture the beauty of the water and the incredible wildlife within it, this book shows us the brilliance of the sea in its natural state. It is a beautiful reminder of what we have to gain by protecting our seas.

The Unseen Lusitania: The Ship in Rare Illustrations


Eric Sauder - 2015
    Not only was she was the largest, fastest ship in the world, she was revolutionary in design. Also a record breaker, Lusitania is now sadly remembered for her tragic loss, when she was hit by a U-boat torpedo on May 7, 1915, sinking in 18 minutes with the loss of 1,198 souls. Through never-before-seen material, expert Eric Sauder brings RMS Lusitania to life once again. With vivid, unseen photographs and postcards from his extensive private collection, this absorbing read will transport the reader back 100 years to a time when opulent Ships of State were the only way to cross the Atlantic.

Warship 2015


John Jordan - 2015
    Featuring a broad range of articles from a select panel of distinguished international contributors, this latest volume combines original research, new book reviews, warship notes, an image gallery and much more to maintain the impressive standards of scholarship and research from the field of warship history.This 37th edition features the usual range of diverse articles including: The Battleships of the Patrie Class; Postwar Weapons in the Royal Navy; The Tragedy of the Submarine Mariotte, Known as the ‘Toothbrush’; and Developments in Modern Carrier Aviation. Contributors to Warship 2015 include Michele Cosentino, Peter Marland, Hans Lengerer and Aidan Dodson.

Dazzle: Disguise and Disruption in War and Art


James Taylor - 2015
    Yet, in the course of the First World War, a collision of naval strategy and the nascent modern art movement, led to some two thousand British ships going to sea as the largest painted modernist "canvases" in the world covered in abstract, clashing, decorative, and geometric designs in a myriad of colors. Dazzle camouflage had arrived.Heavily inspired by the Cubism and British Vorticism art movements, dazzle was conceived and developed by celebrated artist and then naval commander Norman Wilkinson. Dazzle camouflage rejects concealment in favor of disruption. It seeks to break up a ship's silhouette with brightly contrasting geometric designs to make a vessel's speed and direction incredible difficult to discern. False painted bow-waves and sterns were used to confuse and throw off the deadly U-boat captains. The high contrast shapes and colors further made it very difficult to match up a ship in the two halves of an optical naval rangefinder. This new book traces the development of the dazzle aesthetic from theory into practice and beyond.