In the early morning hours of April 15, 1912 the R.M.S. Titanic slipped below the waters of the Atlantic becoming one of the greatest maritime disasters of the 20th century. 68 years later, a young boy would learn about the lost liner while spending the day with his grandfather. This is the story of that day and the collection of memorabilia which would be amassed over the years, the unbreakable bond between a grandfather and grandson joined together by the interest in the unsinkable ship.

"Finally Fram showed herself in all her glory as the best sea-boat in the world. It was extraordinary to watch how she behaved. ... the Fram gave a wriggle of her body and was instantly at the top of the wave, which slipped under the vessel. Can anyone be surprised if one gets fond of such a ship?" --Captain Nilsen of the Fram, 1912. From her launch in 1892, to the triumphant return to Norway in 1914, the polar expeditionary ship Fram sailed north almost to the North Pole, and south to Antarctica. supporting three of the most daring of all polar adventures. In the centenary year of Roald Amundsen's successful trek to the South Pole, this is the story of his ship, the Fram, and her voyages to the ends of the earth.

While Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary, USN, Retired, previous to his 1911 promotion to flag rank, spend 24 years of his life in Nicaragua, surveying a route for a transoceanic canal and during Arctic exploration, from 1885 to 1909, this Monograph will focus primarily on his last two efforts to discover the North Pole, namely his 1905 and 1908 adventures, during which he employed his new, specially, constructed ship the SS Roosevelt for the singular purpose of fulfilling his destiny-the Conquest of the North Pole.

On April 1, 1865, the steamboat Bertrand, a sternwheeler bound from St. Louis to Fort Benton in Montana Territory, hit a snag in the Missouri River and sank twenty miles north of Omaha. The crew removed only a few items before the boat was silted over. For more than a century thereafter, the Bertrand remained buried until it was discovered by treasure hunters, its cargo largely intact. This book categorizes some 300,000 artifacts recovered from the Bertrand in 1968, and also describes the invention, manufacture, marketing, distribution, and sale of these products and traces their route to the frontier mining camps of Montana Territory. The ship and its contents are a time capsule of mid-nineteenth-century America, rich with information about the history of industry, technology, and commerce in the Trans-Missouri West. In addition to enumerating the items the boat was transporting to Montana, and offering a photographic sample of the merchandise, Switzer places the Bertrand itself in historical context, examining its intended use and the technology of light-draft steam-driven river craft. His account of steamboat commerce provides multiple insights into the industrial revolution in the East, the nature and importance of Missouri River commerce in the mid-1800s, and the decline in this trade after the Civil War. Switzer also introduces the people associated with the Bertrand. He has unearthed biographical details illuminating the private and social lives of the officers, crew members, and passengers, as well as the consignees to whom the cargo was being shipped. He offers insight into not only the passengers' reasons for traveling to the frontier mining camps of Montana Territory, but also the careers of some of the entrepreneurs and political movers and shakers of the Upper Missouri in the 1860s. This unique reference for historians of commerce in the American West will also fascinate anyone interested in the technology and history of riverine transport.

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

In May 1940, following the rapid advance of German troops through Holland, Belgium and France, the British Expeditionary Force and French army retreated to Dunkirk. Operation Dynamo was instigated in an attempt to rescue as many of them as possible. With the harbour at Dunkirk severely damaged, much of the evacuation would have to take place from the beaches; only small, shallow-draught boats could do this. After appealing to boatyards, yacht clubs and yachtsmen throughout the South East of England, the Admiralty managed to round up around 700 small craft which, along with 200 military vessels, were able to rescue an astonishing 338,226 troops over nine days. In 1965, forty-three vessels which had taken part in the evacuation commemorated the twenty-fifth anniversary by crossing from Ramsgate to Dunkirk, and the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships was formed soon afterwards. More than fifty years on, over 120 Little Ships are still in commission and it is thought that hundreds of others may still survive. This is their story.