Youve just spent a day on the water under a sweltering sun. You sit back, enjoying the seclusion of a remote anchorage, lulled by the rattle of ice in your cold drink. A pretty picture, but a rare one aboard cruising boats.

A house is never without its utility umbrella, but when you pull your boats shore-power plug youre on your own. Even good refrigeration systems use a lot of energy. And bad ones? Erase those ice cubes from your tropical fantasy.

Refrigeration for Pleasureboats explains how the cruising sailor can acquire the amenities--even the necessities--of an efficient onboard refrigeration system. Whether youre off for two days or two years, you must balance the highest possible cooling capacity with the lowest possible energy consumption. Calder explains clearly and logically how and why refrigeration components work, how to keep them working efficiently and economically, and what to look for when something goes wrong.

Boat refrigeration systems are phenomenally expensive. A modest refrigerator/freezer system, professionally built and installed, can cost more than $4,000. Yet these units can still have unpleasant side effects--such as killing the boats batteries. Refrigeration for Pleasureboats provides all the step-by-step information an amateur needs to design and build a custom refrigeration unit that will cost far less than half the price of an off-the-shelf unit and will likely run better with far less drain on the batteries. With Calders maintenance and troubleshooting tips, youll be able to keep it running for years to come and keep those ice cubes tinkling in that frosted glass.

In view of the sky-high purchase and ownership costs of today's large yachts, more and more people are opting to cruise in smaller boats, ranging downward in size from 30 feet to as small as 15 feet. In a boat with limited space, forethought and good design are particularly important for both safety and comfort -- but all too often these are precisely the areas shortchanged in fiberglass production sailboats. Upgrading Your Small Sailboat for Cruising is intended to bridge that gap, with dozens of projects to make a daysailer suitable for cruising, or a pocket cruiser more suitable. The book offers improvements in every area: masts and rigging, flotation, strengthening fiberglass hulls, bow rollers, enclosed cockpits, stowage tanks, water systems, seating and sleeping arrangements, lockers, bulkheads, canvaswork, hatches, and ventilation. These and many other details, taken together, can make the difference between pleasure and misery when cruising in small sailboats.

Extract from Foreword by John F. Millican, Director, Warsash Maritime Academy, Southampton, UK...Dr. Solly has very cleverly woven together a social history of seafaring in the post-war years...you discover just how well the author ...has captured the experience of being at sea ...a wonderfully evocative read, and an important contribution to the history of the period. This story continues the adventures of Jonathan Caridia, the narrator in "Mariner's Launch", and shows his continued professional and social growth.Written in an eminently readable style which encourages empathy with the narrator, the reader shares Jonathan's pride at leaving behind his cadetship and experiences his uncertainties when he joins his first vessel as Third Navigating Officer. Jonathan impresses as a very real person encountering new challenges and some dramatic situations, which he handles responsibly and with increasing confidence. The reader learns how he confronts new challenges and handles his responsibilities, often conveying a laconic, dry sense of humour.Seafaring then was more leisurely than today, yet "Mariner's Voyage" is not only for veterans but is also a must for younger readers and all who enjoy rattling a good read. Seafarer's expectations today may have changed a little, although computerisation requires different skills, but going to sea will always be exciting. The sea remains a demanding and challenging taskmaster for those navigating vessels and does not suffer fools gladly. This true-to-life adventure story of a young man's development in his maritime career will ring true with many seafarers, being appreciated by veteran and young sailors alike. It also gives a detailed and enjoyable picture of the 'golden age of shipping' and will be of great appeal to all maritime enthusiasts and armchair sailors.

Were the Austronesians hapless travelers on fragile craft, drifted at the mercy of the waves to the far-flung islands of the Pacific? Or were they intrepid seafarers whose exploratory voyages covered much of the great ocean on seaworthy canoes capable of being sailed against the wind? This book addresses these questions in one of the most thorough discussions of Austronesian sailing canoes ever attempted.
The canoes themselves are described in detail, and similarities and differences in hull configuration, sails, and sailing techniques are noted. A review of earlier writings on the canoes repeats the earlier understanding of their origins: that the earliest canoes were the double-outrigger type and that single-outrigger canoes came later, followed by the double canoes in which the great voyages from Central Polynesia to such extremities as Hawaii and New Zealand were made. Another chapter summarizes the great advances of recent years in anthropological and archaeological studies of the Pacific.
At the heart of the book is a thorough examination of canoe seaworthiness. Doran's conclusions are that Austronesian canoes were amply seaworthy and fully capable of intentional voyages of discovery, and that previous views on the ages of canoe types are just the opposite of the probable sequence. Double canoes seem to be the oldest type; single-outrigger canoes probably were devised somewhat later; and much later, possibly only about 2,500 years ago, double outriggers were developed. Maps showing the distribution of canoe types, sail types, sailing techniques, and the like, illustrate these ideas.

On the morning of December 12, 1862, the Union gunboat Cairo, nosing her way up the Yazoo River north of Vicksburg, Mississippi, triggered two Confederate demijohn mines. Within minutes the 512-ton ironclad had sunk six fathoms to the muddy bottom with no loss of life -- the first armored war vessel ever downed by an electronically activated mine. A whole new era of naval warfare had begun.

In Hardluck Ironclad Edwin Bearss tells how he and two other Civil War historians discovered the Cairo almost a century later -- still intact at the bottom of the Yazoo, her big guns loaded and ready to fire, much of the gear aboard just as it was that December morning when the crew abandoned her -- and how, almost miraculously, she was later salvaged and restored.

Metals have been used in boats for thousands of years, as components of the vessel's construction, as load-bearing parts of the rigging and steering systems, and for a wide variety of domestic and service duties. Due to misunderstandings of the properties of the metals used, and in some cases to questionable design and manufacture, there have been spectacular and sometimes tragic failures of boats' metalworking. These continue even today. This new book explains in layman's terms how a wide variety of metal alloys may best be selected, formed and manufactured to give optimum performance in the typical conditions of a sailing or powered vessel. Subjects as wide-ranging as anodes, batteries, hulls, skin fittings and rigging components are described in detail, enabling the boat owner to select the preferred material for his vessel.

Two things made the battleship possible: the harnessing of steam for propulsion and Britain's vast industrial power in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. With these two massive powerhouses available to ship designers, it was inevitable that change would come to the seas. For a short while France led the way with the launching of the Gloire, but Britain soon stole the limelight with the launch of HMS Warrior in 1863. The moment her keel hit the water the naval world was turned upside down and all other warships were rendered obsolete. But that event was as nought compared to the astonishing revolution in warship building caused by the launch in 1906 of the mighty Dreadnought. If Warriorhad caused a great upheaval, the impact of Dreadnought was positively Krakatoan. Such was her impact on the naval world that her very name became generic. All battleships built before her were classed as 'pre-Dreadnought' and all battleships built post-1906 came to be known as 'Dreadnoughts'. This is their story.

Lost Sounds visits a number of lighthouses at different times over the last 130 years to reveal the philanthropic, scientific and romantic story of the fog signal - how it came about, how the machinery worked and, for the mariner and the keeper, what it sounded like! The development of fog signals complemented the expansion of lighthouse construction worldwide from the last quarter of the 19th century and represented the attempt to provide a vital navigation aid to mariners when the beam of light from the lighthouses lens was obscured by fog. Lost Sounds reveals the practical development of sound signals from the early percussion instruments to the later succession of compressed-air sirens and diaphones through to the last remaining electric emitters. However, it is much more than that - it is a record of another part of maritime history.

Lusitania was an engineering marvel, at one time the largest, fastest and most opulent vessel in the world. When she was sunk by a German submarine on 7 May 1915, with the loss of about 1,200 lives, it sent shockwaves around the world. The iconic passenger liner immediately became a weapon in the Allied propaganda war, helping to shift American public opinion against Germany and influencing the USA's eventual entry into the First World War. Her many achievements and successes were largely forgotten. This volume tells Lusitania's story from construction to the aftermath of her sinking in remarkable contemporary postcards.

Clear all moorings, one-half impulse power, and set course for a mare incognitum. A popular culture artifact of the New Frontier/Space Race era, Star Trek is often mistakenly viewed as a Space Western. However, the Western format is not what governs the actual worldbuilding of Star Trek, which was, after all, also pitched as `Hornblower in space'. The future of Star Trek is modeled on the world of the British Golden Age of Sail as it is commonly found in the genre of sea fiction. Star Trek and the British Age of Sail re-historicizes and remaps the origins of Star Trek and subsequently the entirety of its fictional world-the Star Trek continuum-on an as yet uncharted transatlantic bearing.

When Titanic began sending out distress calls, one of the first to reply was the Cunard liner Carpathia. As it turned out, Carpathia was the only vessel to reach the scene in time to save the lives of any of Titanic’s passengers, and, after she arrived in New York, reporters crowded the pier and vied with each other to obtain interviews with the survivors of the disaster. In their zeal to interview survivors, though, the reporters brushed past other people who could have provided their own eyewitness accounts – namely, Carpathia’s own passengers, largely left to their own devices as to how and when they discussed their participation in events. A few wrote letters to relatives, others wrote accounts intended for publication. The author’s collection of these rare written accounts and interviews sheds new light on the tragic way the lives of so many were impacted by the loss of the largest passenger liner in the world.

Down in the fiery belly of the luxury liners of the Titanic era, a world away from the first-class dining rooms and sedate tours of the deck, toiled the ‘black gang’. Their work was gruelling and hot, and here deKerbrech introduces the reader to the dimly lit world and workplace of Titanic’s stokers. Beginning with a journey around some of the major elements of machinery that one might encounter in the giant ships’ engine and boiler rooms, the sheer skill and strength that a man in this employ must have had is brought to the fore. The human side of working for Titanic and her contemporaries is also explored through an investigation of stokers’ duties, their environment and conditions: what it was like to be one of them. An oft-ignored part of Titanic’s story, the importance of the black gang and the job they performed is brought to life, making poignant their fate on the maiden crossing of Titanic. This certainly is a book that no Titanic-era shipping historian or researcher should be without.

Uber den praktischen Stahlschiffbau ist das letzte grossere Werk in Deutschland ("Eisenschiffbau" von Otto Schlick) vor 39 Jahren erschienen. Das letzte englische Werk ("Practical Shipbuilding" von Campbell Holmes) ist vor 25 Jahren entstanden und erlebte seither drei Auflagen. Seit der Schaffung dieser Buchwerke hat die Schiffbautechnik eine Periode um walzender Fortschritte in festigkeitstechnischen Grundlagen, sowie in zahl reichen Einzelheiten der Konstruktion und der praktischen Ausfuhrung durch gemacht. Es ist daher heute vollig gerechtfertigt und wird uberall als Bedurfnis be zeichnet, ein neues Hilfsbuch fur dieses Schaffensgebiet herauszubringen, welches dem heutigen Stand der Schiffbautechnik entspricht. Bei allen Schiffstypen war der theoretisch-konstruktive Fortschritt im wesentlichen dahin gerichtet, durch gunstigere Materialverteilung und gleichmassigere Ma terialausnutzung die notwendige Festigkeit mit verringertem Baugewicht zu erzielen, schwache Stellen in ihren Beanspruchungen zu erkennen und durch Verein fachungen verringerte Bau- und Reparaturkosten zu erzielen. Eine solche Entwicklung im Sinne der Rationalisierung der Konstruktion fuhrte u. a. dahin, dass festigkeitstechnisch fruher nicht in den Langstrager einbezogene, von Bord zu Bord reichende Aufbauten zur oberen Gurtung ausgebildet wurden. Am ausge sprochenstell kam dies bei den Spardeckern und Sturmdeckern zur Geltung, wo das Spardeck bzw. Sturmdeck zum obersten und starksten durchlaufenden Verband wurde. Das Widerstandsmoment des Tragers erhohte sich dadurch betrachtlich, und bei allen Schiffbaunationen wurde nun der Konstruktionstyp "mit Freibord" heraus gebildet, bei welchem man, vom Volldecker ausgehend, innerhalb gewisser Grenzen fur eine Vergrosserung der Seitenhohe eine Verschwachung der Verbande vornehmen konnte."

At once an adventure story and an instructional guidebook on how to build a flat-bottom boat, this unique work embodies the excitement of boating life. In a journey fit for Huck Finn, a group of friends trek down the Missouri River on nothing more than a homemade skiff where they encounter colorful locals, discover secluded river islands, and are witness to sublime sunsets and harrowing storms. Accompanying the narrative are schematics and instructions that provide boaters and do-it-yourselfers with the details on how to build a flat-bottom boat and motor from scratch. A book that teaches those interested in boatbuilding and real-life explorers how best to fulfill their dreams of sailing on a hand-built, homemade vessel, this work shows how to enjoy the great outdoors with a unique sense of accomplishment.

J. Samuel White & Company was the oldest firm on the Admiralty List and built 252 ships for the Royal Navy alone. The yard's closure in 1966 ended 300 years of shipbuilding during which time the company had gained acclaim from mercantile and naval customers alike. Famed early on for fast Revenue cutters and naval brigs, in its final years Royal Navy destroyers earned it great distinction. Highly innovative, it developed and patented many pioneering products while other innovations included semi-diesel engines, heat exchangers, air conditioners and compressors, besides a range of marine thruster units. Not only did the company build ships and boats but it also constructed a range of marine aircraft. During the First World War, White's production accounted for 100 ships, including twenty-seven destroyers, and 201 seaplanes. Production during the Second World War added up to 317 ships, among them twenty-six destroyers and a large minelayer. Illustrated with photographs of these and many of the company's other products, this book tells the story of J. Samuel White and its subsidiary concerns, a business built on a reputation of quality which earned it the slogan: "White's-built - well-built!".

The romance of the great inland sea in 32 additional pages and 30 new photographs.

Praise for the first edition:

""Lavishly photographed and romance-packed ... a visually stunning collection of photos, facts and lore about the captains, crews and thousand-foot ships that plough the Great Lakes... It's a great book for anyone who appreciates the machinery that pulls the Rust Belt together."" -- Cleveland Free Times

""Lake Boats belongs on the bookshelves of anyone who admires the strength and purpose of these magnificent ships." " -- The Great Lakes Mariner

This large-format, full-color pictorial pays tribute to the many historic ships still at work on the Great Lakes, from ancient cement boats such as the 100-year-old St Marys Challenger to venerable "straight-deckers," self-unloaders and 1,000-footers sailing under the familiar flags of prominent Great Lakes fleets: Algoma Central, Upper Lakes, Lower Lakes, American Steamship, Canada Steamship Lines and others.

This expanded and revised edition updates the original text and includes 32 additional new pages and 30 new photographs, for a total of 193 extraordinary full-color images by the author and other fine transportation photographers. The extraordinary range of images -- from close-up and interior views of engine rooms and pilothouses to panoramic scenes of these noble workhorse vessels sailing North America's inland seas -- makes "Lake Boats" a remarkable celebration.

A thorough, updated appendix cites exact identification, specifications and the history of each vessel included in the book.

This new book is a very much improved and updated edition of the successful previous edition, "Shipwrecks of the Forth", and benefits hugely from the vast amount of vital new information gleaned by the author during 15 years of painstaking research. Each wreck is listed by area with details of position, history and fate. The text is accompanied by maps and charts and illustrated with many dramatic photographs. As a result of this meticulous work, exciting discoveries and recoveries such as ships' bells and pottery have been made by divers, allowing them to confirm identities of previously unknown wrecks.In addition to first-hand local knowledge of fishermen, coastguards, lifeboat men and divers, the author has consulted primary sources including official records from the Admiralty and Lloyds, official German U-boat records and Norwegian, Swedish and Danish records. Many vessels were lost due to running aground or collisions but the vast majority of shipwrecks immediately surrounding our coasts resulted from military activities during the First and Second World War. As such this aspect of the book provides significant historical interest for readers.

Arguably the world s most articulate and authoritative maritime historian, John Maxtone-Graham documents SS United States, her design, construction, and seventeen years of impeccable service. He introduces us to dozens of U.S. passengers, famous and infamous, as well as captains and crew. The last great American ocean liner, SS United States could be converted to a 14,000-man troop carrier and was capable of attaining a speed of over 40 knots (although in her luxury Atlantic crossings the ship was much slower). Sadly, jet travel put an end to ocean crossings, and the all-aluminum ship rests in Philadelphia while groups of fans continue to try to repurpose it."

This long-awaited volume is a majestic guide and a tribute to the world's great yacht designers. Ten years in preparation, and with an expert editorial board giving it direction, "The Encyclopedia of Yacht Designers" defines the field with fascinating entries by eighty experts and over 800 photographs and drawings. In these pages such legendary figures from the past as William Fife, L. Francis Herreshoff, and John Alden share space with contemporary designers such as Jon Bannenberg, German Frers, and Ron Holland. They are joined by over five hundred others who have contributed to the colorful history of yachting, producing some of the most beautiful and swift vessels, whether sail or power.