A boyhood visit to the battleship HMS Nelson left the author with the ambition to be a midshipman in the Royal Navy and to be in charge of a steam picket-boat with a brass funnel. The author relates how he went to sea, his adventures and experiences ashore and afloat during his 35 years service under the White Ensign and the Red Ensign. Starting as a Merchant Navy cadet in the British India Steam Navigation Company at the start of World War II, he subsequently joined the Royal Navy and progressed from midshipman to lieutenant during ten years of service. Captain Stewart's story includes details of his first ship, the SS Mulbera; coming home to the Clyde and later sailing around the Cape. During the war years he experienced life in a minesweeper and a corvette, and escorted convoys in the Arctic and the Mediterranean. Leaving the Navy after the war, he spent several years ashore before returning to seafaring in the Merchant Navy. He joined the fleet of a major oil company as a junior officer and quickly progressed through the ranks until he reached the rank of master, spending many years in command of large crude oil tankers. Although Captain stewart served in eight classes of warship and many more types of tanker, he never did command a picket boat with a brass funnel!

Relatively little has been recorded about the activities of the hundreds of coasting schooners that operated along the east coast of North America in the first part of the century. This unusually thorough history recounts the entire career of one of the last of these colorful sailing ships in American waters, the Albert F. Paul, from construction and launching in 1917 to her loss at sea in 1942.

Aided by his personal acquaintance with the Paul over a ten-year period and by his own experience of serving on a similar ship in his youth, Robert H. Burgess follows the schooner's service under her captain of sixteen years and includes a seaman's journal that describes general living conditions aboard the ship, various mishaps at sea, and the schooner's paint scheme, shipboard duties, and rigging details. Photographs, drawings, and sketches illustrate the Paul's crews and various shipboard scenes.

From river to harbor to ocean, tugboats are among the most ubiquitous but underappreciated craft afloat. Whether maneuvering ships out from between tight harbor finger piers, pushing rafts of forty barges up the Mississippi, towing enormous oil rigs, or just delivering huge piles of gravel to a river port near you, tugs exude a sense of genial strength guided by the wise experience of their crews. We can admire the precision of their coordination, the determination in their movements, the glow of signal lights at night, silently communicating their condition and intentions to vessels nearby. It is nearly impossible not to be intrigued and impressed by the way tugs work. In Tugboats Illustrated, Paul Farrell traces the evolution, design, and role of tugboats, ranging from the first steam-powered tug to today's hyper-specialized offshore workboats. Through extensive photographs, dynamic drawings, and enlightening diagrams, he explores the development of these hard-working boats, always shaped by the demands of their waterborne environment, by an ever-present element of danger, and by advancements in technology. Whether making impossible turns in small spaces, crashing through huge swells, pushing or pulling or prodding or coaxing or escorting, we come to understand not only what tugs do, but how physics and engineering allow them to do it. From the deck layout of a nineteenth-century sidewheel tug to the mechanics of barge towing-whether by humans, mules, steam or diesel engines-to the advantages of various types and configurations of propulsion systems, to the operation of an oil rig anchor-handling tug/supply vessel, Tugboats Illustrated is a comprehensive tribute to these beloved workhorses of the sea and their intrepid crews.

This amusing insight into Cunard's legendary liners begins more than fifty years ago when Paul Curtis joined the original Queen Mary as entertainments officer. Over a Cunard high tea in the Queens Room, Paul recounts the stories of these iconic ships. Then, over a drink in the Red Lion, he shares the tales of the antics of both passengers and crews. The facts are delivered in vivid detail - some of them things you should know and an occasional peep at things you shouldn't. Simply turning these pages releases a sniff of the sea and a whiff of champagne. Paul has worked, travelled upon or photographed every Cunard Queen ever built. He has an offbeat sense of humour and a keen appetite for the ridiculous. A life at sea can do that to you.

Captain William A. Hagelund is uniquely positioned to write a history of HBC's SS Beaver, the ship that did more than any other to explore and open the rugged BC coast. Over more than half a century the tiny, rugged ship was a familiar sight as she chugged up the BC waters, charting, trading, helping administer justice, carrying freight and generally serving as a lifeline and contact between the many isolated coastal communities and the outside world. In 1986, her exact replica, SS Beaver, was launched with Captain Hagelund as master. From then until he retired in 1995, Captain Hagelund, who first went to sea in 1940, and the new Beaver retraced many of the original's coastal voyages.

From Henri Fabre's first successful take off from water and landing near Marseilles, to the introduction of a hull rather than floats by American Glenn Curtiss, to the world-wide development of huge, ocean-crossing flying boats on both sides of the Atlantic - the passenger flying boat era continues to fascinate aviation enthusiasts and historians alike. Wartime necessity for paved runways to support long-range, high flying land-planes and the faster movement of airmail, overcame in peacetime the unique ability enjoyed by such craft to economically utilise the natural waterways of the world, thus depriving passengers of the ability to enjoy the panorama unfolding below in luxurious accommodation and ease. A sadly missed epoch of flight: though related in clear and vivid detail by Leslie Dawson in his account of a pre-war Imperial Airways flight from Southampton to South Africa. This extended pictorial edition of the author's previous book Fabulous Flying Boats, A History Of The World's Passenger Flying Boats provides a fast-moving journey from the first pioneers to the very last use of such craft in regions still reliant on waterborne communication with the outside world. From the Americas and the United Kingdom, to France, Germany and Italy, and on to Australia and New Zealand. Supported by world-wide private, public and corporate images, the work boasts a comprehensive and well-researched Appendix.

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 ... the buccaneers 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, he rescues a slave ship, unsheathes his sword, raises a pirate flag of his own and sets off to make love and war on the open seas in this nautical adventure. 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. "A riveting tale of sailing ships, piracy and the high seas." -Midwest Book Review * A National Indie Excellence Award Winner

In SS Great Britain, Helen Doe provides a narrative account of this famous and historically important ship. Experimental and controversial, Great Britain led the way for iron shipbuilding and screw propulsion. The book charts the ship's brilliant design and construction, and the tribulations of her owners as they battled financial crises to turn Isambard Kingdom Brunel's vision into reality. Brunel was passionate about this ship and was devastated when a navigational error stranded her in Dundrum Bay, Ireland. She was rescued in a great feat of salvage and went on to a long life at sea, carrying passengers to New York, troops to the Crimea and India, and thousands of emigrants to Australia. Helen Doe highlights the contribution of the many individuals connected to the ship, ranging from crew members to passengers, at least one grand Victorian scandal, and the mysterious disappearance of her long-serving captain. In this way, the ship's life and times are recreated and the history of a technical marvel is given a human face. The ship was salvaged a second time, when she was rescued from the Falkland Islands and towed home across the Atlantic. She now sits in splendour in her original dock in Bristol and is one of the most visited attractions in Britain. This a compelling account of an iconic ship and of an important moment in industrial history.

There is still some romance attached to the idea of sea travel; cruising the world's oceans in luxury and comfort; sailing to far-flung destinations as the first explorers did hundreds of years ago. Some cities are seen at their best by an arrival by water, gradually revealing themselves as the ship sails ever closer-Malta, Sydney and San Francisco to name a few. The Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. and, today P&O Cruises, have been taking passengers all over the world since 1837. Join the author on a world cruise in P&O Cruises' 180th celebration year. Find out how world travel has changed, and, in some cases, has not. Using extracts from old diaries, guide books and accounts, the writer compares cruising today with yesteryear. Get a captain's view of this special voyage; discover what goes into making it a unique experience; how they prepare over 7,500 meals every day. The author was commissioned to assist in planning the itinerary and special excursions, visiting ports that were instrumental in the growth of P&O and still welcome their ships today. Discover amazing countries, cultures, and sights on a journey that circumnavigates the world. A blend of travelogue and history.

This is the story of college-dropout John Kretschmer's quixotic voyage to retrace the route of the clipper ships, from New York to San Francisco by way of Cape Horn. This 'doubling the Horn', as it was called, was a formidable challenge to ships exceeding two hundred feet in length, as they routinely battled headwinds of fifty knots and mountainous seas. Kretschmer and crew took on the Horn in a 32-foot sloop. This is his chronicle of that voyage.

Simon Hall's second book is set in the mid-1970s during the closing years of the golden age of British shipping, when cargo carriage at sea saw radical change and the romance of being at sea in old-style cargo ships came to an end. Hall's account is of five years during which he worked as a junior officer in the Far East and South Pacific. This is no ordinary memoir; the prose is vividly expressed, often shocking, sometimes elegiac as evidenced by his description of a night watch in the Indian Ocean: alone on the bridge wing in the warm tropical night, I heard the wind sing through the stays as an Aeolian harp and I felt anointed by my good fortune. His descriptions of jaunts in forgotten parts of the world are strikingly expressed and there is added poignancy from the charting of Hall's struggle against decline into alcohol abuse, expressed in a way that is in turn both sad and shocking: I ordered another cold beer and lit another cigarette, then sat with the ghost of my past dreams while the afternoon died around us and we surveyed the wreckage of all my hopes. This is an important work that captures an age now vanished, written in a style too rarely encountered.

"Build wooden boats the Buehler way, which is to say inexpensively, yet like the proverbial brick outhouse." -- Wooden Boat "A WEALTH OF VALUABLE INFORMATION." -- American Sailing AssociationThe classic and definitive guide for the home boatbuilder--now updated Everybody has the dream: Build a boat in the backyard and sail off to join the happy campers of Pogo Pogo, right? But how? Assuming you aren't independently wealthy, if you want a boat that is really you, you gotta build it yourself. With irreverent wit and an engaging style, George Buehler shows you how to turn your backyard into a boatyard. Buehler draws his inspiration from centuries of workboat construction, where semiskilled fishermen built rugged, economical boats from everyday materials in their own backyards, and went to sea in them in all kinds of weather. Buehler's boats sail on every ocean and perform every task, from long-term liveaboards in Norwegian fjords to a traveling doctor's office in Alaska. The book contains complete plans for ten cruising boats--from an 18-foot schooner to a 48-foot Diesel Duck. For more than a quarter century, backyard boatbuilders have turned to George Buehler's acclaimed DIY guide for expert advice, step-by-step instructions, and the author's irreverent, no-nonsense commentary. Whether you're experienced or unskilled, over-budget or under-financed, into sailing or powerboats, you'll find everything you need to start building--and finish that boat--in one essential guide. Now updated for the 21st century, the undisputed "bible" for boatbuilders is more comprehensive, more practical, and more fun than ever. You'll find: 10 new, practical, rugged, and ready-to-build designs--including Buehler's popular Diesel Duck--with full plans and scantlingsUp-to-date commentary on the latest materials--epoxies, sealants, metals, fastenings, and moreStep-by-step guidance on choosing the size, complexity, and design that's right for your skillset, your workshop, and your walletStem-to-stern, inside-and-out tips on lofting, framing up, planking, decking, hatches, keels, bolt-ons, finishes, rigging, outfitting, and launching--everything you need to know! Jam-packed with photographs, helpful diagrams, and cost-effective techniques, this is a must-have reference for today's boatbuilders or those curious "makers" tinkering around the backyard. If you want to build that boat of your dreams, you can't find a better guide than Buehler's. "Immensely practical...clear and concise." -- Sailing "Everyone will revere this book." -- The Ensign George Buehler was born in Oregon in 1948, and has been messing around with boats ever since his sainted mother gave him a copy of Scuppers the Sea Dog. Buehler is an accomplished yacht designer who lives on Whidbey Island, Washington.

Skeletons on the Zahara chronicles the true story of twelve American sailors who were shipwrecked off the coast of Africa in 1815, captured by desert nomads, sold into slavery, and subjected to a hellish two-month journey through the perilous heart of the Sahara. The western Sahara is a baking hot and desolate place, home only to nomads and their camels, and to locusts, snails and thorny scrub -- and its barren and ever-changing coastline has baffled sailors for centuries. In August 1815, the US brig Commerce was dashed against Cape Bojador and lost, although through bravery and quick thinking the ship's captain, James Riley, managed to lead all of his crew to safety. What followed was an extraordinary and desperate battle for survival in the face of human hostility, starvation, dehydration, death and despair. Captured, robbed and enslaved, the sailors were dragged and driven through the desert by their new owners, who neither spoke their language nor cared for their plight. Reduced to drinking urine, flayed by the sun, crippled by walking miles across burning stones and sand and losing over half of their body weights, the sailors struggled to hold onto both their humanity and their sanity. To reach safety, they would have to overcome not only the desert but also the greed and anger of those who would keep them in captivity. From the cold waters of the Atlantic to the searing Saharan sands, from the heart of the desert to the heart of man, Skeletons on the Zahara is a spectacular odyssey through the extremes and a gripping account of courage, brotherhood, and survival.

The Norman Friedman Illustrated Design History series of U.S. warships books has been an industry standard for three decades and has sold thousands of copies worldwide. To mark and celebrate this achievement, the Naval Institute Press is proud to make these books available once more. Digitally remastered for enhanced photo resolution and quality, corrected, and updated, this series will continue to serve--for scholars and enthusiasts alike--as the foundation for U.S. naval warship research and reference for years to come. U.S. Cruisers is one the most comprehensive references available on the entire development of U.S. cruisers, from the first steel cruisers, the flawed designs of the Washington Naval Treaty era, the light, heavy, and large cruisers of World War II, the postwar rapid-fire artillery designs of the Des Moines and the Worcester classes, guided-missile conversions, and to the Aegis ships of the Ticonderoga-class. Like the other books in Norman Friedman's design-history series, U.S. Cruisers is based largely on formerly classified internal U.S. Navy records. Friedman, a leading authority on U.S. warships, explains the political and technical rationales of warship construction and recounts the evolution of each design. Alan Raven and A.D. Baker III have created detailed scale outboard and plan views of each ship class and of major modifications to many classes. Numerous photographs complement the text.

PLM Colliers 12 to 27; Herring & Caviar to Canada; A Country Ship; Fred Olsen Cruise Ships; Tanker to Ferry: Part 2; Photographers Paradise; Bank Line: Part 2; Aberdeen Scenes; Includes 16 pages of colour photographs.

David Mearns has discovered some of the world's most fascinating and elusive shipwrecks. From the mighty battlecruiser HMS Hood to the crumbling wooden skeletons of Vasco da Gama's 16th century fleet, David has searched for and found dozens of sunken vessels in every ocean of the world. The Shipwreck Hunter is an account of David's most intriguing and fascinating finds. It details both the meticulous research and the mid-ocean stamina and courage required to find a wreck miles beneath the sea, as well as the moving human stories that lie behind each of these oceanic tragedies. Combining the derring-do of Indiana Jones with the precision of a surgeon, in The Shipwreck Hunter David Mearns opens a porthole into the shadowy depths of the ocean.

Tales of escape and adventure on Britain's waterways; In The Pull of the River two foolhardy explorers do what we would all love to do: they turn their world upside down and seek adventure on their very own doorstep.; In a handsome, homemade canoe, painted a joyous nautical red the colour of Mae West's lips, Matt and his friend James delve into a watery landscape that invites us to see the world through new eyes.; Over chalk, gravel, clay and mud; through fields, woodland, villages, towns and cities, they reveal many places that otherwise go unnoticed and perhaps unloved, finding delight in the Waveney, Stour, Alde/Ore, upper and lower Thames, Lark, Great Ouse, Granta and Cam, Wye, Otter, Colne, Severn and the Great Glen Trail.; Showing that it is still possible to get lost while knowing exactly where you are, The Pull of the River is a beautifully written exploration of nature, place and friendship, and an ode to the great art - and joy - of adventure.