Eye-opening and compelling, the overlooked world of freight shipping, revealed as the foundation of our civilization

On ship-tracking websites, the waters are black with dots. 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.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the first edition of Nautical Rules of the Road, Cornell Maritime Press has released a 4th Edition. This updated book has an easy-to-follow layout that aligns the International Rules with the corresponding Inland Rules. In addition to being highly descriptive, Nautical Rules of the Road, 4th Edition by Steven D. Browne, with early authors Larry C. Young and B. A. Farnsworth, gives the current rules as of publication and explicit comments to help readers thoroughly understand each rule. Some of the items detailed are proper lookout information to prevent collisions, positioning of light shapes, signals for fishing vessels fishing in close proximity, technical details of sound signal appliances, and violations of Inland Navigation Rules and Regulations, including penalties for negligent operations. To aid in Coast Guard examinations, the final chapter gives multiple choice, practice questions to test the reader's knowledge on the information found within the entire book. In addition, there is a descriptive study outline. Professional and recreational boaters alike need the new Nautical Rules on their vessels before leaving port. Don't toss your lines without it.

Fifty years ago-on April 26, 1956-the freighter Ideal X steamed from Berth 26 in Port Newark, New Jersey. Flying the flag of the Pan-Atlantic Steamship Company, she set out for Houston with an unusual cargo: 58 trailer trucks lashed to her top deck. But they weren't trucks-they were steel containers removed from their running gear, waiting to be lifted onto empty truck beds when Ideal X reached Texas. She docked safely, and a revolution was launched-not only in shipping, but in the way the world trades. Today, the more than 200 million containers shipped every year are the lifeblood of the new global economy. They sit stacked on thousands of "box boats" that grow more massive every year. In this fascinating book, transportation expert Brian Cudahy provides a vivid, fast-paced account of the container-ship revolution-from the maiden voyage of the Ideal X to the entrepreneurial vision and technological breakthroughs that make it possible to ship more goods more cheaply than every before. Cudahy tells this complex story easily, starting with Malcom McLean, Pan-Atlantic's owner who first thought about loading his trucks on board. His line grew into the container giant Sea-Land Services, and Cudahy charts its dramatic evolution into Maersk Sealand, the largest container line in the world. Along the way, he provides a concise, colorful history of world shipping-from freighter types to the fortunes of steamship lines-and explores the spectacular growth of global trade fueled by the mammoth ships and new seaborne lifelines connecting Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Masterful maritime history, Box Boats shows how fleets of these ungainly ships make the modern world possible-with both positive and negative effects. It's also a tale of an historic home port, New York, where old piers lie silent while 40-foot steel boxes of toys and televisions come ashore by the thousands, across the bay in New Jersey.

The world of ocean liners, those built for French lines were the epitome of style and panache, and SS Normandie perhaps the pinnacle of this. When she entered service in 1935, she was the largest, longest, fastest and certainly the best fed ship of her time, serving the finest food imaginable in a dining room longer than the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. Normandie embodied high glamour and was a firm favourite of many, albeit for a short time. Times were changing and even the French government's massive subsidies to the builders, an attempt to make Normandie a flagship for the drive out of the Depression. could only work for so long, as the Second World War drew nearer. She might have been a valuable troopship, and served a the USS Lafayette for a time, but caught fire at her New York pier in 1942. The great ship was salvaged, but with an expensive restoration in prospect she could not escape being scrapped in 1946-47. Through beautiful illustrations and evocative writing, William H.Miller presents the story of one of the most lavish liners ever to cross the seas.

This volume includes some very famous ships with tales of adventure and new trade routes, also sadness, the launch and then the loss of the largest sailing ship ever built in a British shipyard - the five-masted auxiliary sailing barque, Kobenhavn. It recounts the days when shipbuilding should have flourished and into the tough times of the Great Depression. It remains a testimony to the skill and determination of the people who built the ships and those who served on them. The fortunes of the three main shipyards are followed through good times to eventual closure or assimilation by the man who would open up the shipyard that took his name. Henry Robb Ltd, shipbuilders and engineers, began without a yard in which to build ships, but eventually took over firstly the old S&H Morton Shipyard, now occupied by Hawthorns & Co. Ltd. That gave Robb control of the Victoria Shipyard, and a few years later he would take over the Cran & Somerville yard, before acquiring the plant and goodwill of the Ramage & Ferguson Shipyard - the cream of the Leith shipyards. This last yard would always have a ship on one of its slipways; at the peak they had nine slips, and were pioneers in the building of diesel-powered coasters. Always innovative and with some of the best craftsmen in the industry, the shipyard of Henry Robb quickly acquired the reputation as builders of special ships. Leith Shipyards 1918-1939 continues the chronological story begun in Volume I and provides a fascinating illustrated story that reveals the remarkable and ongoing story of shipbuilding for which Scotland and the UK were renowned.

The SS Great Britain Story is a concise account of one of the most famous steamships ever built. The great Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel embraced the latest innovations, including an iron hull and a screw-propeller, to create an ocean liner that was decades ahead of its time. Launched by Prince Albert in 1843, the SS Great Britain was nearly lost three years later when she ran aground in Dundrum Bay, Ireland. Fortunately she weathered the winter storms and went on to enjoy a long and chequered career. She spent many years transporting emigrants to Australia, served as a cargo vessel, and almost ended her days stranded on the Falkland Islands. Following an incredible rescue mission in the 1970s, fully documented here, she was returned to dry-dock in Bristol, where she was originally built, and is now the centrepiece of a fascinating and ongoing restoration project.

Die S.M.S. "Planet," ein deutsches Forschungs- und Vermessungsschiff, unternahm in den Jahren 1906 und 1907 eine viel beachtete Forschungsreise durch Atlantik, Indischen und Stillen Ozean sowie durch die Sudchinesischen Meere. Die Ergebnisse dieser Reise sind in funf Banden festgehalten.

Die S.M.S. "Planet," ein deutsches Forschungs- und Vermessungsschiff, unternahm in den Jahren 1906 und 1907 eine viel beachtete Forschungsreise durch Atlantik, Indischen und Stillen Ozean sowie durch die Sudchinesischen Meere. Die Ergebnisse dieser Reise sind in funf Banden festgehalten.

A Captivating Account of the Golden Age of Piracy, the Search for Sunken Treasure, and the Business of Underwater Exploration

Bored by his successful life and obsessed with a boyhood dream of lost pirate treasure, Barry Clifford began a quest for legendary pirate Black Sam Bellamy's ship Whydah, which had supposedly wrecked off the coast of Cape Cod more than two centuries ago. Ignoring claims that he was a fool and a dreamer, Clifford pressed on, until he unbelievable found the Whydah...and then the real story begins in a spellbinding story that will capture your imagination.

Die S.M.S. "Planet," ein deutsches Forschungs- und Vermessungsschiff, unternahm in den Jahren 1906 und 1907 eine viel beachtete Forschungsreise durch Atlantik, Indischen und Stillen Ozean sowie durch die Sudchinesischen Meere. Die Ergebnisse dieser Reise sind in funf Banden festgehalten.

This meticulously researched and illustrated book focuses on the evolution of aircraft carriers and naval aircraft. It features chronological histories and comprehensive directories of the world's most important aviation ships and aircraft, including the first ships to launch primitive aircraft; biplanes that were catapulted from converted destroyers; modern warships capable of carrying jets and helicopters; and state-of-the-art jets that are unique for their vertical take-off ability. With more than 1100 magnificent photographs, this book provides historians and enthusiasts with key information about the world's greatest aircraft carriers and naval aircraft.

Die S.M.S. "Planet," ein deutsches Forschungs- und Vermessungsschiff, unternahm in den Jahren 1906 und 1907 eine viel beachtete Forschungsreise durch Atlantik, Indischen und Stillen Ozean sowie durch die Sudchinesischen Meere. Die Ergebnisse dieser Reise sind in funf Banden festgehalten.

P&O has operated some of the most famous passenger ships of all time, including the Oriana and Canberra, across its long history. Its early liners travelled around the globe and played a huge role in cementing immigration to Australia and New Zealand, while acting as a gateway to the Far East and India. The modern era has seen the company continue to evolve into a cruising giant, P&O Cruises being part of Carnival Corporation today. This beautifully crafted colouring book celebrates the long heritage of P&O, the stunning interiors and exteriors of the vessels, and much more besides. Supplemented with fascinating insights from maritime experts Chris Frame, Rachelle Cross, Rob Henderson and Doug Cremer, it is sure to captivate and educate children and adults alike.

Nachdruck des Grundwerkes zum Holzbootsbau von 1911. Mit vielen Rissen, Abbildungen und Zeichnungen.

Popular films about the Bounty mutiny only scratch the surface. This rebellion on a British vessel in 1789 sparked the voyages of H.M.S. Pandora-dispatched to track down the mutineers and return them to England for court-martial-and the Matavy, a schooner built by the mutineers in Tahiti. This is the first book to include eyewitness accounts from five men who endured these voyages. Presented in overlapping, chronological order are the first publication of a narrative by a member of Matavy's crew, who vividly describes a desperate struggle to survive with meager provisions among islands filled with hostile natives. A previously unpublished poem by an anonymous sailor on Pandora recounts the ship's sinking, the survivors' tortuous journey to the Dutch East Indies, and their return to England. The captain's unedited statement on the loss of Pandora is included and appendices summarize the Bounty and Pandora courts-martial and the later history of each narrator.

'Transatlantic Liners 1950-1970' is a glorious reference of a grand but bygone age to those passenger ships, large and small, that crossed the Atlantic. There were the likes of the 'Queen Mary' and 'Queen Elizabeth', 'SS United States', 'Caronia', 'Andrea Doria' but also smaller, less memorable ships such as the 'Noordam', 'Paryhia' and 'Laurentia'. The ships, over 150 of them, are grouped by owner--from the short-lived American Banner Line to Israel's Zim Lines. Each ship is given a full, detailed reference: details (routing, length, tonnage, builder, speed, passengers carried, etc.) as well as a full chronology of the vessel's career including it's ultimate disposition and fate. Overall, it will be an extensive reference work. And altogether, it will be a revival of an all-star maritime cast!

From a broad, historical perspective, the dreadnought represents an archetype, and its history a kind of moral tale. Its awesome size, its formidable presence, and its immense power have gained it tremendous respect, loyalty, and, as Robert O'Connell shows in this myth-shattering book, unwarranted longevity as well. With provocative insight and wit he offers us an irreverent history of the modern battleship and its place in American history, from the sinking of the coal-fueled Maine in 1898 to the deployment of the cruise missile-armed Missouri in the Persian Gulf War of 1991.
The modern navies were the first of the armed services faced with fundamental and abrupt technological change. The wooden sailing ships that had fought sea battles for nearly two centuries were, in only a few years, rendered obsolete by a veritable tidal wave of innovation. With the deployment of the revolutionary HMS Dreadnought in 1903, the new technology reached its full fruition: the gigantic sleek, steel-clad, many-gunned vessel that would rule the seas (or at least the minds of Naval commanders) for years to come. O'Connell shows how other nations raced to emulate this new prototype (much in the fashion of the nuclear arms race of later decades), usually at the expense of much more effective forms of naval force. He also demonstrates compellingly the dashed expectations for the battleship occasioned by the outbreak of war in 1914. While many anticipated a massive twentieth-century Trafalgar, in actuality dreadnoughts everywhere avoided battle, and when they did fight, the results were most often inconclusive or even irrelevant. With the Battle of Jutland in 1916--the only real naval showdown of the war--the ineffectiveness of the battleship as the pre-eminent weapon of war was made abundantly clear: the German navy scored on only 120 hits out of 3,597 heavy shells fired while the British had an even more dismal showing--100 out of 4,598, or a hit ratio of 2.17%. Yet, in spite of this display of impotence, the world's great naval yards continued to turn out the huge vessels. O'Connell observes that even after the heart of the American fleet was sunk by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, the almost superstitious faith in the battleship insured its survival. While they have never played a decisive role in the outcome of any modern war, they have continued to be resurrected and refurbished--even equipped with cruise missles--right up to the present day.
Sacred Vessels is more than the unmasking of a false idol of naval history. It is a cautionary tale about the often unacknowledged influence of human faith, culture, and tradition on the exceedingly important, costly, and suppossedly rational process of national defense. Not only is it a gripping tale well-told, it is essential reading for anyone hoping to understand the dynamics involved in the arming of nations.

This is a thought-provoking work, capturing the march of time which overtook the maritime world in the last quarter of the 20th century. The final crumbling of the British register caused officers like Hall to find themselves in a strange new world, sailing under flags of convenience with all the old certainties of life at sea having vanished. There is both sadness and a rage at seeing a way of life disappear forever under the wheels of commerce, made more poignant by the author himself swallowing the anchor and moving on. Expelled from Indonesia as an undesirable, medically discharged in Honolulu, confined in Nigeria, Hall's turbulent life takes him from West Africa to Japan, from Europe to the Persian Gulf to the South Pacific. At last a Master Mariner, he serves on one last break-bulk general cargo ship, before transferring to the new maritime world. The prose is as elegantly expressed as in his earlier works. Steaming along the Yemeni coast, he writes: The bleakness of the South Yemen coastline made the green sea seem sharper in contrast, almost emerald in colour.The sun sat as a bright white orb in a blue white sky, the colours scourged out by dust blown offshore from the desert interior. In a typhoon near the Macclesfield Bank: Us; wild-eyed in the wheelhouse, braced against the forward bulkhead, awaiting our fate, helpless against a show of nature's fickle anger that could take us down among the fishes before we could cry Noo-ooooo...Maturity and marriage finally see off his tendency towards alcohol abuse: I began to yearn to make myself a better person and abandon the self-serving creature I had become. Wistful, unvarnished, droll, in powerless rage against the changes, this is an important companion to Hall's previous acclaimed books, a fine work that captures, in arresting style, the life of men who go down to the sea in ships. .

Oceanic was the largest ship in the world when she was launched in 1899. The White Star Line's 'Ship of the Century', she was their last express liner before the Olympic and Titanic and her lavish first-class accommodation became renowned among Atlantic travellers. Serving on the company's express service for fifteen years, she earned a reputation for running like clockwork. Days after the outbreak of war, she was commissioned into the Royal Navy and converted into an armed merchant cruiser. However, her new-found status was not to last - she grounded on the rocks off Foula, in the Shetlands, within weeks and became a total loss. When she was wrecked, she had on board Charles Lightoller, Titanic's senior surviving officer. Oceanic: White Star's 'Ship of the Century' is the first book that looks at the entire career of this one-of-a-kind flagship. With human anecdotes, hitherto unpublished material and rare illustrations, Mark Chirnside's book is a beautiful tribute to a unique ocean liner.

The story of RMS Titanic resonates all around the world, the vessel immortalised on stage, screen and in print. This collection of drawings does not dwell on the tragedy that befell this magnificent ship, but rather seeks to showcase her great beauty, representing the pinnacle of a grand era of style and innovation, with experts Steve Hall and Bruce Beveridge providing insight and commentary. Colouring these scenes of Titanic's hope-filled early days at sea, sumptuous interiors and grand promenades will breathe life into a bygone age of luxury, opulence and transatlantic adventure. Suitable for children.

For centuries, ships' commanders kept journals that recorded their missions. These included voyages of discovery to unknown lands, engagements in war and sea and general trade. Many of their logs, diaries and letters were lodged at The National Archives and give a vivid picture of the situations that they encountered. Entries range from Captain James Cook's notes of his discovery of the South Pacific and Australia, to logs of the great naval battles, such as Trafalgar and the Battle of the Nile. From the ships that attempted to stop piracy in the Caribbean, to the surgeons who recorded the health of the men they tended and naturalists who noted the exotic plants and animals they encountered, comes a fascinating picture of life at sea, richly illustrated with maps, drawings and facsimile documents found alongside the logs in the archives.