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Books > Sport & Leisure > Transport: general interest > Ships & shipping: general interest > General
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
A challenge to the prevailing idea that Confederate ironclads were
inherently defective. Â 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. Â Â 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. Â 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. Â 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.
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