On the high seas they are destined to meet on a voyage that spans continents. A captivating novel of quest, adventure and love.

    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

    But a more cruel and dangerous foe is on the horizon. When Henry VIII dissolves the monasteries and wages war against France and Scotland simultaneously, Jack must take up his family destiny at the head of the Dunwich fleet.But enemy blades may be the least of his problems. Aging ships, treacherous rivals and ghosts from the past all threaten to interfere with the war effort. The only man he can trust is Thomas Ryman, a former warrior turned monk.As the English fleet descends on Edinburgh, the dangerous game of politics and war reaches a shattering climax aboard the pride of Henry’s navy – the Mary Rose. Stannard and Ryman know that it is not just their lives that are at stake, but the future of England herself...

    Capt. Max Hardberger and his crew fought a non-stop battle against crooked charterers, treacherous agents, and the sea itself. They came face-to-face with bandits in Jamaica, violent stowaways in the Dominican Republic, and warring gangs in post-Duvalier Haiti. It was a world of desperation and danger, where only the captain's will and the loyalty of his crew stood between the ship and disaster.

     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.

    Yet despite its economic complexity, shipping retains much of the competitive cut and thrust of the "perfect" market of classical economics. This blend of sophisticated logistics and larger than life entrepreneurs makes it a unique case study of classical economics in a modern setting.The enlarged and substantially rewritten Maritime Economics uses historical and theoretical analysis as the framework for a practical explanation of how shipping works today. Whilst retaining the structure of the second edition, its scope is widened to include:lessons from 5000 years of commercial shipping history shipping cycles back to 1741, with a year by year commentary updated chapters on markets; shipping costs; accounts; ship finance and a new chapter on the return on capital new chapters on the geography of sea trade; trade theory and specialised cargoes updated chapters on the merchant fleet shipbuilding, recycling and the regulatory regime a much revised chapter on the challenges and pitfalls of forecasting. With over 800 pages, 200 illustrations, maps, technical drawings and tables Maritime Economics is the shipping industry's most comprehensive text and reference source, whilst remaining as one reviewer put it "a very readable book".Martin Stopford has enjoyed a distinguished career in the shipping industry as Director of Business Development with British Shipbuilders, Global Shipping Economist with the Chase Manhattan Bank N.A., Chief Executive of Lloyds Maritime Information Services; Managing Director of Clarkson Research Services and an executive Director of Clarksons PLC. He lectures regularly at Cambridge Academy of Transport and is a Visiting Professor at Cass Business School, Dalian Maritime University and Copenhagen Business School.

    He was the first to discover Australia and the Hawaiian Islands and the first to circumnavigate New Zealand. By the 1700s, England, eager to expand its realm of trade, promoted exploration of all the unclaimed regions of the world. The eighteenth century, the age of reason and enlightenment, required a new kind of explorer: not a rover or a plunderer or a seeker of adventure for its own sake, but a master of navigation and seamanship. Captain James Cook filled the bill. No one ever surpassed Cook's record. From South America to Australia, from the ice islands of the South Pacific to the fogbound Bering Strait, lay thousands of miles of islands, atolls, and ocean that Cook charted.

    Alabama was the terror of the Atlantic Ocean. Built in secrecy in Liverpool, England, through the arrangement of Confederate agent Commander James Bulloch, it was built for the fledgling Confederate States Navy which was sorely in need of ships. Under the command of Raphael Semmes it would spend the next two years terrorising and attacking Union shipping to help the Confederacy break the stranglehold which it found itself in. Through these two years it completed seven highly successful expeditionary raids, and it had been at sea for 534 days out of 657, never visiting a single Confederate port. They boarded nearly 450 vessels, captured or burned 65 Union merchant ships, and took more than 2,000 prisoners without a single loss of life from either prisoners or their own crew. Fifth Lieutenant Arthur Sinclair, who served under Semmes on the Alabama for the entirety of its existence, documents a fascinating first-person account of life on board this Confederate raider. As they crisscrossed over the oceans Sinclair notes the ships they attacked, prisoners they took and various places they visited, from Brazil to South Africa. Powered by both sail and steam, the Alabama was one of the quickest ships of its era, reaching speeds of over 13 knots. But in the quest for speed there had been sacrifices, notably the lack of heavy armor-cladding and larger guns, which were to prove fatal during the Battle of Cherbourg in 1864 against the U.S.S. Kearsage. Two Years on the Alabama is an excellent account of naval operations of the confederacy during the American Civil War. It provides brilliant details into the revolutionary changes that were occurring in late-nineteenth century maritime developments. After the Alabama was sunk Sinclair was rescued by the English yacht Deerhound and taken to Southampton. He later served as an officer of the inactive cruiser CSS Rappahannock at Calais, France. Following the Civil War, he primarily lived in Baltimore, Maryland, where he was a merchant. In 1896 he published Two Years on the Alabama. Arthur Sinclair died in Baltimore in November 1925.

     But Drake’s exploits in his earlier years, though less well known, are even more remarkable. Born into a poor, obscure family, he worked his way rapidly up in the maritime world to his first captaincy. Before long, he was the most successful of all English pirates, admired by his countrymen, hated and feared by the Spanish. Queen Elizabeth and her ministers saw the potential in this rough-mannered but enterprising young man, and gave him their blessing for the first British venture into the Pacific Ocean. This success of this voyage, which lasted for three years, exceeded their wildest hopes. Not only did Drake come home with a vast treasure of captured gold, silver and jewels; he became the first man ever to circumnavigate the globe in a single mission, and bring most of his crew home alive and well. Soon after his triumphant return, Elizabeth knighted this newly rich adventurer, and gave her blessing to his acts of pillage. It was a gesture that made war with Spain inevitable. And Drake’s part in the coming war changed the course of world history. SIR FRANCIS DRAKE: THE QUEEN’S PIRATE tells the extraordinary story of Drake’s early years and his journey around the world on his famous ship, the Golden Hind.

    In the end, he loses his hedge fund, but he gains a life - as a Shipping Man. Part fast paced financial thriller, part ship finance text book, The Shipping Man is 310 pages of required reading for anyone with an interest in capital formation for shipping.

    Each dot is a ship; each ship is laden with boxes; each box is laden with goods. In postindustrial economies, we no longer produce but buy. We buy, so we must ship. Without shipping there would be no clothes, food, paper, or fuel. Without all those dots, the world would not work.Freight shipping has been no less revolutionary than the printing press or the Internet, yet it is all but invisible. Away from public scrutiny, shipping revels in suspect practices, dubious operators, and a shady system of "flags of convenience." Infesting our waters, poisoning our air, and a prime culprit of acoustic pollution, shipping is environmentally indefensible. And then there are the pirates.Rose George, acclaimed chronicler of what we would rather ignore, sails from Rotterdam to Suez to Singapore on ships the length of football fields and the height of Niagara Falls; she patrols the Indian Ocean with an anti-piracy task force; she joins seafaring chaplains, and investigates the harm that ships inflict on endangered whales.Sharply informative and entertaining, Ninety Percent of Everything reveals the workings and perils of an unseen world that holds the key to our economy, our environment, and our very civilization.

    Since its first broadcast in the 1920s it has inspired poems, songs and novels in addition to its intended objective of warning generations of seafarers of impending storms and gales. Sitting at home listening to the shipping forecast can be a cosily reassuring experience. There's no danger of a westerly gale eight, veering southwesterly increasing nine later (visibility poor) gusting through your average suburban living room, blowing the Sunday papers all over the place and startling the cat. Yet familiar though the sea areas are by name, few people give much thought to where they are or what they contain. In ATTENTION ALL SHIPPING Charlie Connelly wittily explores the places behind the voice, those mysterious regions whose names seem often to bear no relation to conventional geography. Armchair travel will never be the same again.

    

    In his quest for the means to liberate his boat, he takes any work he can get.

    But what was once fantasy is now reality. With a growing glut of good used boats on the market, its possible to sail around the world in a boat that costs less than a car. In this fascinating book, well-known boating author John Vigor turns the spotlight on 20 seaworthy sailboats that are at home on the ocean. These are old fiberglass boats, mostly of traditional design and strong construction. All are small their sizes range from 20 feet to 32 feet overall but all have crossed oceans. Many have circumnavigated the world. And all are inexpensive. There are many hundreds of small cruising boats sailing the seven seas at this moment. They explore everywhere, from the ice-bound shores of Antarctica to the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. Most, however, ply the tradewind routes where flying fish play. The water is warm, and coconut trees line calm lagoons bounded by beaches of pure white sand. But choosing the right boat to cross an ocean or go around the world can be a confusing and exasperating experience, particularly if your budget is tight. Its well-nigh impossible to find objective comparisons. Vigor sets out to remedy that in this book. He compares the designs and handling characteristics of 20 different boats whose prices on the secondhand market start at about $3,000. Interviews with experienced owners (featuring valuable tips about handling each boat in heavy weather) are interspersed with line drawings of hulls, sailplans, and accommodations. Vigor has unearthed the known weaknesses of each boat and explains how to deal with them. He rates their comparative seaworthiness, their speed, and the number of people they can carry in comfort. If you have ever dreamed the dream, this is the book that will turn it into reality.