A lavishly illustrated, user-friendly guide for novices and experienced boat builders alike, The Canoe Shop provides plans and building instructions for three graceful and rugged touring canoes—a 12-foot double-paddle canoe, a 14-foot solo canoe, and a 16-foot tandem boat—that virtually anyone can build directly from the book.


Following the same critically acclaimed format found in his classic, The New Kayak Shop, leading North American boat designer Chris Kulczycki walks readers through the entire building process for each boat. One standout feature of The Canoe Shop is a revolutionary, simplified approach to lapstrake construction which makes this traditional technique—considered by many to be the finest method of wooden boat construction—available to amateurs for the first time.

- Features three original designs from one of the most respected small-boat designers
- Contains dozens of illustrations and step-by-step building instructions

Latitude Hooks and Azimuth Rings is for people who like to work with their hands and who appreciate traditional nautical craftsmanship. You dont have to be the master of any craft to undertake any of these projects--from a simple kamal or latitude hook to the more complex pelorus or octant--just a careful and enthusiastic worker.

These 18 projects fall roughly into three categories: decorative, useful, and somewhere in between. Some, such as the astrolabe, are mainly for display. On the other hand, the sounding line is an important and practical tool for small-craft navigation, particularly in the absence of an electronic sounder. The cross-staff falls somewhere in between, equally at home in the den or the ditch kit.

Each of the devices discussed here--with simple, proven building instructions complemented by clear illustrations--has at one time or another been used for the practical business of navigation, and each is worth reviving for its beauty, historic value, or sheer usefulness.

Dennis Fisher has designed these projects with an emphasis on simplicity and reasonable cost. Everything can be scratch-built using easily obtainable materials and tools, and each is true to the spirit and function of the original instrument.

In 1858 Savannah businessman Charles Lamar, in violation of U.S. law, organized the shipment of hundreds of Africans on the luxury yacht Wanderer to Jekyll Island, Georgia. The four hundred survivors of the Middle Passage were sold into bondage. This was the first successful documented slave landing in the United States in about four decades and shocked a nation already on the path to civil war. In 1886 the North American Review published excerpts from thirty of Lamar's letters from the 1850s, reportedly taken from his letter book, which describe his criminal activities. However, the authenticity of the letters was in doubt until very recently. In 2009, researcher Jim Jordan found a cache of private papers belonging to Charles Lamar's father, stored for decades in an attic in New Jersey. Among the documents was Charles Lamar's letter book, confirming him as the author. The Lamar documents, including the Slave-Trader's Letter Book, are now at the Georgia Historical Society and are available for research. This book has two parts. The first recounts the flamboyant and reckless life of Lamar himself, including Lamar's involvement in southern secession, the slave trade, and a plot to overthrow the government of Cuba. A portrait emerges at odds with Lamar's previous image as a savvy entrepreneur and principled rebel. Instead, we see a man who was often broke and whose volatility sabotaged him at every turn. His involvement in the slave trade was driven more by financial desperation than southern defiance. The second part presents the "Slave-Trader's Letter-Book." Together with annotations, these seventy long-lost letters shed light on the lead-up to the Civil War from the remarkable perspective of a troubled, and troubling, figure.

Freighters of the 1950s and '60s - with masts, booms and hatches - were the last of their generation. It was the end of an era, just before the massive transition to faster, more efficient containerised shipping on larger and larger vessels. These were 'working ships', but many would be retired prematurely and finish up under flags of convenience, for virtually unknown owners, before going off to the scrappers in the 1970s and '80s. For some ships, their life's work was cut short and their decommissioning was quick. In Handling Cargo, William H. Miller remembers the likes of Cunard, Holland America and United States Lines on the North Atlantic, Moore McCormack Lines to South America, Farrell Lines to Africa and P&O out East.

Little Ross is an attractive and unspoiled island and its lighthouse, beautifully designed by the famous Stevenson family, is officially a 'lesser' light, far away from busy sea lanes, at the summit of this remote island.The island was unknown to most people until 1960 when a murder in the lighthouse buildings brought it widespread notoriety, to the grief and consternation of all who were involved. The author was at the island on the day of the murder, and was a witness in the High Court trial that followed. Over the subsequent 57 years, he has repeatedly been asked to tell his story but the 117 years of diligent tending of the light by numerous lighthouse keepers and their families has been largely forgotten. In Life and Death on Little Ross, the author has redressed the balance by telling the story of the island, its lighthouse and its people who lived and worked there including extracts from a detailed diary that has survived from WWI. Also featured are the island's earliest inhabitants, the ships and their crews that came to grief, the case made by concerned local people for a lighthouse to be erected, the political wrangling that frustrated its approval for many years, the lighthouse design, and the eventual construction of the buildings.The story did not end with the murder. The process of automation began immediately after the event and the work of conversion, repair and maintenance, including first-hand accounts by some of the tradesmen is provided. The story of the restoration and conversion of the lighthouse keepers' derelict cottages is one of courage, patience, stamina, skill and resourcefulness which should inspire all of the many people that love wild, beautiful and unspoiled places like Little Ross Island and care about the future of buildings of distinction.

The Royal Mail has, for over 500 years, provided a crucial service in keeping people connected by land, sea and air. As the British Empire grew, so too did the need for a fleet of liners to service it, and in 1839 Queen Victoria granted the initial Royal Charter incorporating the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. After running into financial trouble, the company was reconstituted as Royal Mail Lines in 1930. With his superb collection of rare images, Bill Miller brings to life the ships that operated for the line in the twentieth century. Covering the turbulent period of the Second World War, as well as more peaceful and prosperous times, this collection of images illuminates the stories behind some of the great iconic liners. Some of the ships featured include RMS Asturias and RMS Alcantara, at the time the largest motor ships in the world, and the RMS Magdalena, which sank on its maiden voyage in 1949.

Founded in 1873, the Holland America Line provided services carrying passengers and freight between the Netherlands and North America. When the Second World War ended, only nine of Holland America Line's twenty-five ships had survived and the company set about rebuilding. The pride of HAL's post-war fleet was SS Rotterdam, completed in 1959, which was one of the first ships on the North Atlantic equipped to offer two-class transatlantic crossings and single-class luxury cruising. However, competition from the airlines meant that in the early 1970s Holland America ended their transatlantic passenger services; in 1973 the company sold its cargo-shipping division. Now owned by the American cruise line Carnival, Holland America offers round-the-world voyages and cruises in the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and Asia. In this book, renowned ocean liner historian and author William H. Miller takes a look at the Holland America Line and its post-war fleet up to 2015.

This is a masterly, immensely readable and totally convincing narrative of 500 years of this great and mightily important British industryIn fact, this new book describes with great insight and clarity the development, growth and decline of two industries: first, the highly skilled trade of crafting wooden sailing ships; and, second, the story of the iron and steel shipbuilding industry that took its place.At one time dozens of small yards were busy building the small wooden trading vessels that were the mainstay of British trade with the world, but with the advent of steam power, and of iron hulls, the British industry gradually became concentrated in a few great shipbuilding regions such as the North East, the Clyde and Belfast.

Insurance investigator Brent Calloway may be too hard-boiled to crack a smile, but he'll go to any length to crack a case. As tough, terse and tireless as insurance man Edward G. Robinson in Double Indemnity, Calloway's about to go to extremes to see to it that one ship makes it safely from Hawaii to the mainland. Going undercover and posing as ruthless killer Spike O'Brien, Calloway quickly discovers that on this ship nothing is what it seems, and no one can be trusted. With so much insurance money at stake, and the whole crew apparently in on the scam, this could end up being a voyage to the bottom of the sea.... And when the real Spike O'Brien shows up, it's Calloway who'll need a good insurance policy. Because life is cheap when the stakes are so high-on a ship of lies bearing a False Cargo. A veteran sailor who had voyaged long and far, L. Ron Hubbard knew well the life at sea. He once wrote in his journal: "There is something magnificently terrible about a savage sea in the unwholesome green of half-dawn.... The ship is an unreal, fragile thing, full of strange groans, and engine and sails are dwarfed in their puny power when matched to all the countless horsepower in wave and wind and current. The whole world is an awesome threat. Alone, wet, hungry, hand cramped upon a tiller, a sailor knows more truth in those hours than all mankind in his millions of years." Also includes the sea adventure "Grounded", in which a Royal Air Force lieutenant loses a friend and tarnishes his reputation, and sets out in search of redemption ... no matter the price.

In The Great Escape and Papillon, Steve McQueen embodied the tough guy on the run from captivity and injustice. But when it comes to toughness, McQueen is following in the daring and determined footsteps of Captain Spar.
Wrongfully accused, Spar has been condemned to suffer the brutality of the guards and the conditions on Devil's Island. But they haven't broken his will, and now, escaping, he has one mission in life: revenge. Spar's out to kill the man who put him into the devil's hands. But he'll have to take on a gallery of rogues who are as treacherous as the waters of the Caribbean.
Pressure is rising and a storm is brewing. But even in the face of a natural disaster, Spar discovers that nothing is more volatile than human nature--as temptation and danger are about to collide with Hurricane force.
In 1937 L. Ron Hubbard wrote to one of his editors: "You might have noticed that I am intensely wary of becoming any kind of a story specialist. I have sold the gamut of types: air war, air, western, detective, love, terror. . . . My one passion is to build a name for variety. . . . I like my freedom. I fight hard for independent individualism. I love to tie into a yarn and make it blaze in print." Hubbard's passion for writing, creativity and individualism certainly blazes across the page in stories like Hurricane.
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"""The excitement is made even more thrilling through the superb production Galaxy Audio puts behind these audiobooks. Excellent voice acting, sound effects that keep the story thrilling, and incidental music that makes you feel as though you are in an old time radio drama." "--Gather.com"
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Bob Sherman has a strength of character and purpose that would make Spencer Tracy proud. But signing on to the crew of the yacht Bonito, he'll need every ounce of his strength and courage to overcome the forces arrayed against him--in Sea Fangs.
He'll take on the forces of nature--a hurricane smashing into the boat off the Venezuelan coast. He'll stand up to the forces of ignorance--Bonito's incompetent captain. He'll defy the forces of corruption--the boat's owner, who stripped him of his land years ago. And he'll fight the forces of evil--a ruthless band of pirates who take all aboard, including the owner's daughter, to the uncharted Island of Death.
His fate intertwined with a woman whose father stole everything he valued, Sherman is about to discover that there's one force as powerful, unpredictable and dangerous as the sea itself . . . the force of a beautiful woman's love.
Hubbard had vast experience at sea. By the time he'd written this story, he had traveled twice to China on Naval vessels, had signed on a twin-masted schooner plying the Chinese coast, and had organized a five-thousand mile expedition aboard a four-masted schooner. He had first-hand experience of the violence of the sea--and of the men who ply it--as he depicts in Sea Fangs.
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"The cast brings alive romance, bravado, menace, and the thrill of escape." "--AudioFile
*Winner of AudioFile's Best Audiobook for 2011

When Royal Princess was named in Southampton by HRH The Princess of Wales in November 1984, she was the most advanced purpose-built luxury cruise ship ever conceived and constructed. Built at the beginning of the modern commercial age of cruising, she was the trend-setter of the cruise ship world and continues to hold a number of records, among them, the first contemporary cruise ship to have all outside cabins, and in 2010 as Artemis, the first British passenger ship to be commanded by a female captain, Sarah Breton. In the following years of service, she has taken passengers all over the globe in luxury and style, and it is hoped she has many more years of cruising ahead of her. At 45,000 gross tons she is small in comparison with the super-liners of today, but when launched she was one of the largest cruise ships afloat. Her traditional ambiance and service standards have attracted a loyal following, not only among passengers, but also among her crew. This book, written by Andrew Sassoli-Walker and Sharon Poole, celebrates the innovation in cruise ship design that Royal Princess / Artemis represented, and highlights her career with both Princess and P&O Cruises in the words of both passengers and crew. Fully illustrated throughout with many never-before-seen colour images, it is a tribute to a unique and much-loved vessel.

As daring and defiant as Kirk Douglas journeying 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, there's no stopping diver Hawk Ridley as he takes the plunge into a briny world of untold riches and danger. The Caribbean is a fortune hunter's dream, salted with the gold of galleons long ago claimed by the deep. Now Hawk's headed for the Windward Passage of Haiti to stake his claim. But a rival team has also picked up the scent, and they're willing to turn the sea red with blood to get to the gold first. Fighting off ruthless competitors is nothing new to Hawk...but fighting off a beautiful woman is a different story. Is she an innocent stowaway or a seductive saboteur? Between the cool millions lying on the bottom of the ocean, and the boiling-hot race to grab it, Hawk's about to find the answer and make a discovery Twenty Fathoms Down that will blow you out of the water. When it came to research, Hubbard was not one to head for the library. He always went to the source-in this case a U.S. Navy deep-sea diver who agreed to show him the ropes and the danger. Hubbard admits it was daunting-even frightening-but he returned from the experience with all the first-hand knowledge he needed to fathom the true nature of life and death underwater. "Primo Pulp Fiction." - Booklist

The spectacular French flagship France, the longest liner ever built, was the latest transatlantic supership when completed in the 1960s, and - according to most early reports - the most luxurious liner then afloat. The last of the great French Line passenger ships, on the celebrated run to and from New York she was not only the national flagship, but went on to have a most fortunate life with two noted careers and two highly recognisable names. She was one of the greatest of all twentieth-century liners. Maiden voyage passengers goggled at the luxuries aboard the $80 million floating masterpiece with her fantastic interiors, superb service and most exquisite food, yet despite her success she eventually lost out to the unsurpassable speed of jet aircraft. Laid-up, she lingered for five years before being bought by the Norwegians in 1979 and was dramatically transformed from the indoor, transatlantic France into the outdoor, tropical Norway. By May 1980, she began sailing in Caribbean waters and, for years afterward, ranked as the largest cruise ship in the world: an innovator and a great prelude to today's mega-liners. A tribute to one of the grandest and most beloved of all twentieth-century ocean liners, in this richly illustrated book by acknowledged liner expert William Miller we salute the France/Norway!

Long before Captain Jack Sparrow raised hell with the" Pirates of the Caribbean, "Tom Bristol sailed to hell and back "Under the Black Ensign.""That's" where the "real" adventure begins."
"Bristol's had plenty of bad luck in his life. Press-ganged into serving aboard a British vessel, he's felt the cruel captain's lash on his back. Then, freed from his servitude by pirates, his good fortune immediately takes a bad turn . . . as the pirates accuse him of murder--and leave him to die on a deserted island. Now all he has left are a few drops of water, a gun, and just enough bullets to put himself out of his misery.
But Bristol's luck is about to change. Finding himself in the unexpected company of a fiery woman and a crafty crew, he unsheathes his sword, raises a pirate flag of his own, and sets off to make love and war on the open seas.
In his early twenties, Hubbard led the two-and-a-half-month, five-thousand-mile Caribbean Motion Picture Expedition. He followed that with the West Indies Mineralogical Expedition near San Juan, Puerto Rico, in which he completed the island's first mineralogical survey as an American territory. It was during these two journeys that Hubbard became an expert on the Caribbean's colorful history--an expertise he drew on to write stories like "Under the Black Ensign.""
"" "The ever-present soundtrack is never distracting and . . . lends a richness to the imagined picture." "--AudioFile

Incredible amount of detail about all those kickers from the past, including an appendix with comprehensive model-year information.
­­WoodenBoat

This book is the one to buy if you are interested in collecting antique outboard motors.
­­Boating

A challenge to the prevailing idea that Confederate ironclads were inherently defective.   The development of steam propulsion machinery in warships during the nineteenth century, in conjunction with iron armor and shell guns, resulted in a technological revolution in the world’s navies. Warships utilizing all of these technologies were built in France and Great Britain in the 1850s, but it was during the American Civil War that large numbers of ironclads powered solely by steam proved themselves to be quite capable warships.     Historians have given little attention to the engineering of Confederate ironclads, although the Confederacy was often quite creative in building and obtaining marine power plants. Engines of Rebellion: Confederate Ironclads and Steam Engineering in the American Civil War focuses exclusively on ships with American built machinery, offering a detailed look at marine steam-engineering practices in both northern and southern industry prior to and during the Civil War.   Beginning with a contextual naval history of the Civil War, the creation of the ironclad program, and the advent of various technologies, Saxon T. Bisbee analyzes the armored warships built by the Confederate States of America that represented a style adapted to scarce industrial resources and facilities. This unique historical and archaeological investigation consolidates and expands on the scattered existing information about Confederate ironclad steam engines, boilers, and propulsion systems.   Through analysis of steam machinery development during the Civil War, Bisbee assesses steam plants of twenty-seven ironclads by source, type, and performance, among other factors. The wartime role of each vessel is discussed, as well as the stories of the people and establishments that contributed to its completion and operation. Rare engineering diagrams never before published or gathered in one place are included here as a complement to the text.

A memoir of life as an adventurer and sailor in the Mediterranean, by the noted naval historian. Ernle Bradford spent his twenty-first birthday in Egypt, serving in the Royal Navy during World War II. It was there that he came across the profoundly affecting words of Anton Chekhov: "Life does not come again; if you have not lived during the days that were given to you, once only, then write it down as lost." After the war, Bradford married and settled in London, but the mandate of those words inspired him and his wife to quit their jobs, sell their home, and sail to France in their small ship Mother Goose. The Journeying Moon chronicles their adventures as they travel through Europe and the Mediterranean. From the people of Malta who believed Bradford was a spy from MI5, to his interactions with the Sicilian Mafia, Bradford tells the charming and vivid tale of his days as a true adventurer.