This book provides for the first time a complete look at all of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's contributions to the great age of steamship design. From modelling boats as a child to his youthful dreams of leading a fleet of ships, he was excited by maritime ventures. Brunel was fortunate to be part of an exciting age of maritime steam and he was the great innovator, bringing together the best of the emerging technologies. His first ship was the Great Western, a wooden paddle steamer launched in 1837, and he is well known for the Great Britain and the Great Eastern. But these are not his only vessels and here they are all revealed. From humble industrial craft, his work with the Admiralty on the first screw propelled warships to vast ocean liners, Brunel was constantly sketching out his ideas. His ships travelled the world, speeding up communications and carrying large numbers of passengers across the oceans. This book provides an overview of all of Brunel's vessels, small and large, from boats to ships, leisure craft to gunboats, and follows his progression as he pushed boundaries and tested new technology. Dr Helen Doe is a maritime historian, specialising in the nineteenth century. She is a Fellow of the University of Exeter, Vice Chairman of the British Commission for Maritime History, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Trustee of the SS Great Britain. She has published extensively and her previous book was The First Atlantic Liner: Brunel's Great Western Steamship.

The 1960s witnessed a magnificent, if misguided, swansong for the ocean liner. As the decade progressed a steady succession of elaborate new 'ships of state' populated the world's sea lanes, in futile defiance of the vapour trails above them. Into this atmosphere of one-upmanship the Italian Line introduced Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raffaello, the largest, fastest and most prestigious passenger liners in the nation's post-war merchant marine. Named after the Renaissance masters, this book tells their stories, from troubled inception to heart-rending finale. It explains their design origins and interior decor, relates the triumph and tragedy of their all-too-brief careers and provides an insight into what it was like to live, work and take passage on these vessels, each with their own special personality. Profusely illustrated throughout, this book pays tribute to the ships and the people who brought them to life.

Tom Christian is on the trail of revenge and a fortune in gold. As square-jawed and rugged as Clark Gable in his prime, Tom is headed deep into the jungles of the Solomon Islands to find Punjo Charlie-the ruthless criminal who killed his partner. But these jungles are thick with danger . . . as greed, temptation and sudden violence threaten to draw Tom into the heart of darkness. There's a pile of gold. . . . There's a beautiful blonde. . . . And there's a bloodthirsty tribe of headhunters who have fallen under the spell of Punjo Charlie. The trap has been set. The question is: will Tom fall into it? Will he lose his way and lose his head . . . or will he get his revenge, get the gold and get the girl? The answer lies buried in the rain forest . . . and in Tom's heart. And as he's about to discover, there's only one way out of the jungle: all-out war. In 1927, L. Ron Hubbard sailed across the Pacific to Guam to meet his naval officer father. It was the beginning of an adventure that would take him from the Western Hills of China to the South Pacific islands. Along the way he met Cantonese pirates, Chamorro natives, British spies, and headhunters of the South Pacific. He was one of the few Westerners to come away from an encounter with a headhunter tribe not only unscathed, but bearing gifts as well. Those experiences and knowledge proved invaluable in the writing of such stories as The Headhunters.