About 15,000 people live permanently afloat on canals, rivers and coasts in Great Britain alone, but thousands more enjoy holidaying on boats or own them as weekend retreats in the UK and abroad. This book will feature not only static residential boats and floating dwellings but also those used as holiday homes and funky modern businesses - houseboats can range from canal boats, riverboats, narrow and wide beam boats, barges, Dutch barges, static houseboats and even seaworthy cruisers moored in marina. The book will cover stylish boats from the UK, North America, Europe and Australia. The houseboats engage the reader through their history and owners' stories, which are told in lively text and colourful images. People fall in love with boats and own them for a variety of reasons: out of affordability and necessity; a love of the water; closeness to nature and the environment; or just because they yearn for a different and more relaxed style of living/working space. This book shows how houseboats can offer an attractive, practical and alternative solution, as well as amazing and often idiosyncratic solutions to living successfully in a small space. My cool houseboat covers the following themes: stylish architectural, from San Francisco to Prague; thrifty and eclectic, as an affordable solution to conventional city dwelling; businesses, using houseboats as unusual workspaces, from a book barge to an allotment; modernist, from a Finnish floating office to an Amsterdam watervilla; recycled, ranging from an Ellis Island ferry houseboat to a converted minesweeper; and soulful, covering alternative ways of life, relaxation and recreation, from a New York City houseboat to a stylish Paris home. Word count: 25,000

"Stop the presses One hundred thousand dollar reward offered for the return of George Harley Rockham "
That's more than enough to turn Shanghai newspaperman Jimmy Vance's head. Throw in the gorgeous dame who's offering the reward--Rockham's daughter Virginia--and he might lose his head altogether. As fast-talking as Jimmy Stewart in "The Philadelphia Story," Vance jumps at the chance . . . the money . . . and the girl.
But as Jimmy quickly discovers, there are several billion reasons to watch his back. Because that's how much Rockham is worth, and there are some very hard cases out there willing to kill to separate the old man from his money.
Next thing Jimmy knows, Virginia's tied to a chair, and he's got a couple of guns pointed at his head. But it'll take more than a little rope and a couple of firearms to keep this reporter down. The truth is tied to the mysterious fate of a steamship named "Shanung"--and what Jimmy finds could be the biggest story of his life . . . if he lives to tell it.
In the issue of "Smashing Novels" where this story first appeared the editor wrote: ""Loot of the Shanung "is a soul-stirring tale of the China Sea, a story of modern piracy set in the Far East. L. Ron Hubbard wrote it. He knows China. He has been there. He traveled through the country and met the people and observed their customs. "Smashing Novels" will have other stories from him--stories of far-off places and little known people. "He knows of what he writes.""

This book contains a memoir written by Miriam Lawrence describing the extraordinary voyage she made in 1848-50 aged 20. She had accompanied her husband, Captain Alexander Lawrence, on the maiden voyage of the Charlotte Jane, a wooden 3 mast merchant sailing ship. They set sail with their baby daughter, a teenage nursemaid, a surgeon and 264 emigrants for Sydney, Australia. Then they sailed to Hong Kong, Singapore, Bombay, Whampoa (Canton), returning via Cape Town to London. Besides the memoir, there are extracts from her husband's logbook and letters to and from Miriam's parents. There are also maps showing each stage of the voyage, illustrations of the ship from the Canterbury Museum Christchurch, New Zealand, and contemporary pictures of the places visited. They were nearly shipwrecked, faced fearful storms and at one point a near mutiny. Their second child was born in the China Seas. Miriam's writing provides an evocative account of what it had been like for a young woman to take part in such an adventure; one which many British merchant seamen were undertaking at that date: circumnavigating the world.

To celebrate 60 years of sailing Scottish waters, the author single-handedly sailed Halcyon, a 32' wooden yawl, from Fairlie on the Clyde, round the Mull of Kintyre by way of numerous inner islands to Barra in the Outer Hebrides and to the Atlantic side of the islands, not often visited by cruising yachts. Bad weather forced a diversion to explore the sea lochs of the west coast of Harris and Lewis, the islands of Taransay (of the BBC's Castaway series) and Scarp, famed for its ingenious 'Rocket Post' experiment. While visiting these numerous islands, he met local people and experienced the sometimes violent extremes of weather such as when he was storm-bound in Stornoway for several days. There are stories galore about the island people, snippets of interesting history, legends and folklore, tales of the sea and island life, the Hebridean fishermen and lighthouses - thus uncovering another dimension of island life. Bob recounts his travels and tales, some previously unpublished, in a relaxed and highly-readable style. As well as being a unique travel book, it is an insight into the rapidly-changing ways of island life and a useful sailing guide to the Western Isles and anchorages in the Hebrides. It would be of immeasurable help to sailors keen to venture into some of the lesser-known sailing areas of Western Scotland. This vivid and entertaining story of adventurous sailing among Scotland's beautiful but challenging Western Isles will be enjoyed by keen sailors and armchair travellers alike - a truly memorable journey of over 1000 miles!