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Books > Humanities > History > History of specific subjects > Maritime history

Scottish Fishing Boats - A New Look (Paperback): James A. Pottinger Scottish Fishing Boats - A New Look (Paperback)
James A. Pottinger
R513 R464 Discovery Miles 4 640 Save R49 (10%) Ships in 9 - 17 working days

A companion to his successful first book, James Pottinger's new volume Scottish Fishing Boats: A New Look looks farther afield, and covers the fishing history of the areas of north-east Scotland, the west coast and Shetland. Topics covered include miscellaneous types from today and the past, pursers, smaller craft, visiting boats and boats which were lost to sea or have been scrapped. A number of older boats are included to illustrate shapes and designs, which are often held to retain a measure of character and individuality, perhaps not as prevalent today. Touching on some of the changes in boat types and fishing methods, as well as changes and developments in design and catching methods, this second selection of images brings the story of Scotland's fishing boats up to date.

Shipwrecks of the Pacific Northwest - Tragedies and Legacies of a Perilous Coast (Hardcover): Maritime Archaeological Society Shipwrecks of the Pacific Northwest - Tragedies and Legacies of a Perilous Coast (Hardcover)
Maritime Archaeological Society; Edited by Jennifer Kozik
R672 Discovery Miles 6 720 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Submerged stories in the Graveyard of the Pacific Thousands of ships have wrecked off the coast of Washington and Oregon. Shipwrecks of the Pacific Northwest will uncover the tragic tales, close calls and heroic feats of vessels that met their end off of the 150 miles of coastline between northern Oregon and southern Washington, including the mouth of the Columbia River where an untold number of shipwrecks are concentrated. This book will recount the most compelling of these historic shipwrecks. Some are infamous, while others are lesser known. The accurate history of the wrecks and stories of the people involved will be enhanced by new research and by the addition of recently available primary source material. These dramatic tales are uniquely tied to the present by their tangible remains.

Encountering Water in Early Modern Europe and Beyond - Redefining the Universe through Natural Philosophy, Religious... Encountering Water in Early Modern Europe and Beyond - Redefining the Universe through Natural Philosophy, Religious Reformations, and Sea Voyaging (Hardcover, 0)
Lindsay Starkey
R3,921 Discovery Miles 39 210 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Both the Christian Bible and Aristotle's works suggest that water should entirely flood the earth. Though many ancient, medieval, and early modern Europeans relied on these works to understand and explore the relationships between water and earth, sixteenth-century Europeans particularly were especially concerned with why dry land existed. This book investigates why they were so interested in water's failure to submerge the earth when their predecessors had not been. Analyzing biblical commentaries as well as natural philosophical, geographical, and cosmographical texts from these periods, Lindsay Starkey shows that European sea voyages to the southern hemisphere combined with the traditional methods of European scholarship and religious reformations led sixteenth-century Europeans to reinterpret water and earth's ontological and spatial relationships. The manner in which they did so also sheds light on how we can respond to our current water crisis before it is too late.

Shipwreck in French Renaissance Writing (Hardcover): Jennifer H. Oliver Shipwreck in French Renaissance Writing (Hardcover)
Jennifer H. Oliver
R3,064 Discovery Miles 30 640 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

In the sixteenth century, a period of proliferating transatlantic travel and exploration, and, latterly, religious civil wars in France, the ship is freighted with political and religious, as well as poetic, significance; symbolism that reaches its height when ships-both real and symbolic-are threatened with disaster. The Direful Spectacle argues that, in the French Renaissance, shipwreck functions not only as an emblem or motif within writing, but as a part, or the whole, of a narrative, in which the dynamics of spectatorship and of co-operation are of constant concern. The possibility of ethical distance from shipwreck-imagined through the Lucretian suave mari magno commonplace-is constantly undermined, not least through a sustained focus on the corporeal. This book examines the ways in which the ship and the body are made analogous in Renaissance shipwreck writing; bodies are described and allegorized in nautical terms, and, conversely, ships themselves become animalized and humanized. Secondly, many texts anticipate that the description of shipwreck will have an affect not only on its victims, but on those too of spectators, listeners, and readers. This insistence on the physicality of shipwreck is also reflected in the dynamic of bricolage that informs the production of shipwreck texts in the Renaissance. The dramatic potential of both the disaster and the process of rebuilding is exploited throughout the century, culminating in a shipwreck tragedy. By the late Renaissance, shipwreck is not only the end, but often forms the beginning of a story.

Handling Cargo - Freighters of the 1950s and '60s (Paperback): William H. Miller Handling Cargo - Freighters of the 1950s and '60s (Paperback)
William H. Miller
R612 R543 Discovery Miles 5 430 Save R69 (11%) Ships in 9 - 17 working days

Freighters of the 1950s and '60s - with masts, booms and hatches - were the last of their generation. It was the end of an era, just before the massive transition to faster, more efficient containerised shipping on larger and larger vessels. These were 'working ships', but many would be retired prematurely and finish up under flags of convenience, for virtually unknown owners, before going off to the scrappers in the 1970s and '80s. For some ships, their life's work was cut short and their decommissioning was quick. In Handling Cargo, William H. Miller remembers the likes of Cunard, Holland America and United States Lines on the North Atlantic, Moore McCormack Lines to South America, Farrell Lines to Africa and P&O out East.

Piracy in the Early Modern Era - An Anthology of Sources (Hardcover): Kris Lane, Arne Bialuschewski Piracy in the Early Modern Era - An Anthology of Sources (Hardcover)
Kris Lane, Arne Bialuschewski
R1,431 Discovery Miles 14 310 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

"This volume represents a sea change in educational resources for the history of piracy. In a single, readable, and affordable volume, Lane and Bialuschewski present a wonderfully diverse body of primary texts on sea raiders. Drawn from a variety of sources, including the authors' own archival research and translations, these carefully curated texts cover over two hundred years (1548--1726) of global, early-modern piracy. Lane and Bialuschewski provide glosses of each document and a succinct introduction to the historical context of the period and avoid the romanticized and Anglo-centric depictions of maritime predation that often plague work on the topic." -Jesse Cromwell, The University of Mississippi

British Naval Administration in the Age of Walpole (Paperback): Daniel A. Baugh British Naval Administration in the Age of Walpole (Paperback)
Daniel A. Baugh
R2,520 Discovery Miles 25 200 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

This historical analysis of the problems faced by the British navy during the War of 1739-1748 also sheds light on the character, limitations, and potentialities of eighteenth-century British administration. Originally published in 1965. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Sea Nomads of Southeast Asia - From the Past to the Present (Paperback): Berenice Bellina, Roger Blench, Jean-Christophe... Sea Nomads of Southeast Asia - From the Past to the Present (Paperback)
Berenice Bellina, Roger Blench, Jean-Christophe Galipaud
R902 R790 Discovery Miles 7 900 Save R112 (12%) Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Sea nomads have been part of the economic and political landscape of Southeast Asia for millennia. They have played many roles over the longue-durEe: in certain periods proving central to the ability of land-based polities to generate wealth, by sourcing valuable maritime commodities, facilitating trade, forming a naval force to secure and protect vital sea lanes and providing crucial connectivity. They have existed in complex, codified relations with different sedentary populations, as pirates, guardians of the sea-lanes, merchants and explorers. Paradoxically, as modern states emerged, the sea-nomads became progressively marginalized and impoverished. For many years, the sea nomads were assumed to be without history, and even without archaeology. This has proven far from the case, and recent archaeological findings allow us to more closely describe sea nomadism from the Pleistocene through the early Holocene up to the present. Integrating these findings with the latest in historical research, linguistics, ethnography and historical genetics allows us to better understand sea-nomad ways of life over a scale of millennia and to appreciate the diversity and flexibility of this sea-nomad world. This in turn enriches our understanding of nomadism and mobility as ways of life more generally, and of the sea not only as a landscape of resources, but as a home and spiritual landscape.

Scotland's Great Ships (Hardcover, New): Brian D. Osborne, Ronald Armstrong Scotland's Great Ships (Hardcover, New)
Brian D. Osborne, Ronald Armstrong
R648 Discovery Miles 6 480 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

From the Celtic sea-farers to the Cutty Sark and the Royal Yacht Britannia - Osborne and Armstrong champion great ships. Combining the ships' histories with their involvement and significance in Scottish life and imagination, this is a unique study of Scotland's oft forgotten maritime legacy. Not just a book for ship enthusiasts, this lavishly illustrated, highly accessible and readable account of Scotland's great ships will capture your imagination and leave you dreaming of life on the high seas.

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea - Merchant Seamen, Pirates and the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1700-1750 (Paperback,... Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea - Merchant Seamen, Pirates and the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1700-1750 (Paperback, New Ed)
Marcus Rediker
R875 R763 Discovery Miles 7 630 Save R112 (13%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea focuses upon the seamen's experience in order to illuminate larger historical issues such as the rise of capitalism, the genesis of free wage labor, and the growth of an international working class. These epic themes were intimately bound up with the everyday hopes and fears of the common men who toiled upon the deep.

The Punishment of Pirates - Interpretation and Institutional Order in the Early Modern British Empire (Paperback, 1): Matthew... The Punishment of Pirates - Interpretation and Institutional Order in the Early Modern British Empire (Paperback, 1)
Matthew Norton
R880 Discovery Miles 8 800 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

A sociological investigation into maritime state power told through an exploration of how the British Empire policed piracy. Early in the seventeenth-century boom of seafaring, piracy allowed many enterprising and lawless men to make fortunes on the high seas, due in no small part to the lack of policing by the British crown. But as the British empire grew from being a collection of far-flung territories into a consolidated economic and political enterprise dependent on long-distance trade, pirates increasingly became a destabilizing threat. This development is traced by sociologist Matthew Norton in The Punishment of Pirates, taking the reader on an exciting journey through the shifting legal status of pirates in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Norton shows us that eliminating this threat required an institutional shift: first identifying and defining piracy, and then brutally policing it. The Punishment of Pirates develops a new framework for understanding the cultural mechanisms involved in dividing, classifying, and constructing institutional order by tracing the transformation of piracy from a situation of cultivated ambiguity to a criminal category with violently patrolled boundaries-ending with its eradication as a systemic threat to trade in the English Empire. Replete with gun battles, executions, jailbreaks, and courtroom dramas, Norton's book offers insights for social theorists, political scientists, and historians alike.

Ship Decoration 1630-1780 (Hardcover): Andy Peters Ship Decoration 1630-1780 (Hardcover)
Andy Peters
R955 R813 Discovery Miles 8 130 Save R142 (15%) Ships in 9 - 17 working days

This book is a detailed comparative study of the decorative work - figurehead, topside ornamentation and stern gallery design - carried by the ships of the major maritime states of Europe in the zenith of the sailing era. It covers both warships and the most prestigious merchant ships, the East Indiamen of the great chartered companies. The work began life in the year 2000 when the author was commissioned to carry out research for an ambitious project to build a full-size replica of a Swedish East Indiaman, which produced a corpus of information whose relevance stretched way beyond the immediate requirements of accurately decorating the replica. In tracking the artistic influences on European ship decoration, it became clear that this was essentially the story of the baroque style, its dissemination from France, and its gradual transformation into distinct national variations in Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. It is an inherently visual subject and the book illustrates developments with numerous photographs of contemporary ship models, paintings and plans, as well as the author's own interpretive illustrations of details. As the first major work on the topic for nearly a century, it will be of obvious appeal to ship modellers and historians, but with comparative examples drawn from architecture and sculpture, it also makes a broader contribution to the history of the applied arts.

Rise of American Naval Power (Paperback): Harold Hance Sprout, Margaret T. Sprout Rise of American Naval Power (Paperback)
Harold Hance Sprout, Margaret T. Sprout
R1,819 Discovery Miles 18 190 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Attempts to assemble the historic pattern of contributing factors which shaped the course of American naval development from 1776 to 1918. Originally published in 1966. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Yankee Surveyors in the Shogun's Seas (Paperback): Allan Burnett Cole Yankee Surveyors in the Shogun's Seas (Paperback)
Allan Burnett Cole
R1,085 Discovery Miles 10 850 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

When Commodore Perry opened Japan to the West, the U.S. Navy sent a surveying expedition to the North Pacific. The officers of that expedition, 1853-1856, recounted their experiences, and especially their dealings with the Japanese, in vivid and outspoken letters which are here reproduced for the first time. Entertaining reading, as well as important naval and diplomatic history. Originally published in 1947. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Escape to the Sea - Memoirs of a Victorian Merchant Mariner (Paperback, New): Mike Starke Escape to the Sea - Memoirs of a Victorian Merchant Mariner (Paperback, New)
Mike Starke
R520 Discovery Miles 5 200 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Written by Tom 'Jack' Sullivan Green, AB of Bristol in the 1920s, "Escape to the Sea" is an inspiring, first-hand account of survival against the odds of an orphan boy in early Victorian England. Recounted in a fluent style and peppered with dialogue, this gripping tale of a seaman's life chronicles both tragedy and comedy amongst the everyday lot of a working world unimaginable in the modern era. Tom traces his early life when cholera claimed his Irish immigrant parents in the London slums of 1848; being apprenticed to a tailor before running away to sea to escape a 'miserable life'. His new life as an Ordinary Seaman began at Rochester on a West Hartlepool-based ship, but when a new and tyrannical skipper made terrifying death threats he was again forced to run away.Walking from London to Liverpool in 1866 to try his hand on trans-Atlantic passages, he gives a chilling account of the last public hanging at Stafford of a murderer, William Collier. Later in the same year, Tom's travels take him to Georgia, USA where he gives an eye-witness account of the tragic plight of slaves who were freed after the American Civil War. Homeless and weakened by starvation and disease, they came to the river bank to collect driftwood only to be grabbed by alligators. This description and other harrowing sights he saw ashore leave a searing impression of the aftermath of a devastating conflict. Following various brushes with authority, Tom changes his name to Jack Green and lies low taking shore jobs near Cardiff where he turns down working digging the Severn Tunnel due to claustrophobia. Eventually settling and marrying near Bristol, he experienced more exotic times as a mariner before he 'swallowed the anchor'.These included plying the former slave routes to West Africa; accompanying the third mate of his ship with some locally-recruited native sailors to collect the future bride of a chieftain which incurred a series of adventures, some at gunpoint. "Escape to the Sea" is complemented with documents such as the author's discharge certificates, illustrations of vessels and harbours visited, maps and photographs including his handwritten will, which required that 'when the breath is out of my body' it should be buried 'with no ceremony whatsoever'. A modest end for a colourful character whose wish was that his experiences should be made available to a wider audience than his immediate family. This action-packed maritime autobiography will be of especial interest to anyone with an interest in maritime history, ships and shipping and anyone looking for a good read.

Semi-State Actors in Cybersecurity (Paperback): Florian J. Egloff Semi-State Actors in Cybersecurity (Paperback)
Florian J. Egloff
R889 Discovery Miles 8 890 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

The universe of actors involved in international cybersecurity includes both state actors and semi- and non-state actors, including technology companies, state-sponsored hackers, and cybercriminals. Among these are semi-state actors-actors in a close relationship with one state who sometimes advance this state's interests, but are not organizationally integrated into state functions. In Semi-State Actors in Cybersecurity, Florian J. Egloff argues that political relations in cyberspace fundamentally involve concurrent collaboration and competition between states and semi-state actors. To understand the complex interplay of cooperation and competition and the power relations that exist between these actors in international relations, Egloff looks to a historical analogy: that of mercantile companies, privateers, and pirates. Pirates, privateers, and mercantile companies were integral to maritime security between the 16th and 19th centuries. In fact, privateers and mercantile companies, like today's tech companies and private cyber contractors, had a particular relationship to the state in that they conducted state-sanctioned private attacks against foreign vessels. Pirates, like independent hackers, were sometimes useful allies, and other times enemies. These actors traded, explored, plundered, and controlled sea-lanes and territories across the world's oceans-with state navies lagging behind, often burdened by hierarchy. Today, as cyberspace is woven into the fabric of all aspects of society, the provision and undermining of security in digital spaces has become a new arena for digital pirates, privateers, and mercantile companies. In making the analogy to piracy and privateering, Egloff provides a new understanding of how attackers and defenders use their proximity to the state politically and offers lessons for understanding how actors exercise power in cyberspace. Drawing on historical archival sources, Egloff identifies the parallels between today's cyber in-security and the historical quest for gold and glory on the high seas. The book explains what the presence of semi-state actors means for national and international security, and how semi-state actors are historically and contemporarily linked to understandings of statehood, sovereignty, and the legitimacy of the state.

Sir Francis Drake - Behind the Pirate's Mask (Paperback): Andrew Norman Sir Francis Drake - Behind the Pirate's Mask (Paperback)
Andrew Norman
R245 Discovery Miles 2 450 Ships in 12 - 19 working days
The Wexford - Elusive Shipwreck of the Great Storm, 1913 (Paperback): Paul Carroll The Wexford - Elusive Shipwreck of the Great Storm, 1913 (Paperback)
Paul Carroll
R756 R672 Discovery Miles 6 720 Save R84 (11%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Winner for the 2010 SOS Marine Heritage Award The steamer Wexford, with her flared bow, tall masts, and her open, canvas-sided hurricane deck, charmed spectators as she carried cargo across the Great Lakes. The romance and adventure of her British and French history in the South American trade followed her. Under newly appointed 24-year-old captain Bruce Cameron, her fateful final voyage was punctuated with opportunities to be saved from destruction, but his persistence in trying to make port at Goderich led to tragedy - a victim of the storm of 1913. Over a period of 87 years, she eluded many efforts to locate her remains, but was finally discovered in 2000 by a sailor using a fish-finding device. Since then, she has been visited by thousands, but sadly plundered. Our story traces her history from her British origins in 1883, through the transition to become a "Laker," the eventful storm, the search, and her ultimate discovery in southern Lake Huron, and the controversy over how she should be protected.

Vital Guide: Fighting Ships of World War Ii (Paperback): Leo Marriott Vital Guide: Fighting Ships of World War Ii (Paperback)
Leo Marriott
R311 Discovery Miles 3 110 Ships in 9 - 17 working days

This book includes the principal ships engaged in the war at sea between 1939 and 1945. The mighty battleships and cruisers that roamed the oceans, great aircraft carriers deployed in the Mediterranean and Pacific campaigns and the hard-pressed destroyers and U boats engaged in the Battle of the Atlantic are described and illustrated. The proudest ships of the British, American, German, Italian, French and Japanese navies evoke memories of the momentous sea battles that changed the course of the war. Bismark, Scharnhorst, Hood, Ark Royal, Independence and Yamato are well-known large capital ships, but most smaller ships were better known by their class and names like Tribal, Fletcher and Buckly represent many of the more numerous work-horses of naval might.

The Sea in History - The Ancient World (Hardcover): Philip De Souza, Pascal Arnaud The Sea in History - The Ancient World (Hardcover)
Philip De Souza, Pascal Arnaud; Edited by (general) Christian Buchet
R4,349 Discovery Miles 43 490 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

An assessment of how important the sea was in the development of the ancient world. How important has the sea been in the development of human history? Very important indeed is the conclusion of this ground-breaking four volume work. The books bring together the world's leading maritime historians, who address the question of what difference the sea has made in relation to around 250 situations ranging from the earliest times to the present. They consider, across the entire world, subjects related to human migration, trade, economic development, warfare, the building of political units including states and empires, the dissemination of ideas, culture and religion, and much more, showing how the sea was crucial to all these aspects of human development. The Sea in History - The Ancient World ranges very widely in its coverage, beginning with pre-historical maritime activity and going on to cover not only the classical Greek and Roman Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds but also Africa, Asia and the Americas. Fascinating subjects covered include the migration of the Taino people in the pre-historic Caribbean, the Athenian maritime empire at its height, the port of Alexandria in classical times, andships, sailors and kingdoms in ancient Southeast Asia. 25 of the contributions are in English; 18 are in French. PHILIP DE SOUZA is Associate Professor of Classics at University College Dublin. PASCAL ARNAUD is Professor of the History of the Roman World at the University of Lyon II, Senior Fellow at Institut Universitaire de France and co-director of the ERC-funded Grant Portus-Limen. CHRISTIAN BUCHET is Professor ofMaritime History, Catholic University of Paris, Scientific Director of Oceanides and a member of l'Academie de marine.

Shaping the Royal Navy - Technology, Authority and Naval Architecture, C.1830-1906 (Hardcover): Don Leggett Shaping the Royal Navy - Technology, Authority and Naval Architecture, C.1830-1906 (Hardcover)
Don Leggett
R2,490 Discovery Miles 24 900 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

The nineteenth-century Royal Navy was transformed from a fleet of sailing wooden walls into a steam powered machine. Britain's warships were her first line of defence, and their transformation dominated political, engineering and scientific discussions. They were the products of engineering ingenuity, political controversies, naval ideologies and the fight for authority in nineteenth-century Britain. Shaping the Royal Navy provides the first cultural history of technology, authority and the Royal Navy in the years of Pax Britannica. It places the story firmly within the currents of British history to reconstruct the controversial and high-profile nature of naval architecture. The technological transformation of the Navy dominated the British government and engineering communities. This book explores its history, revealing how ship design became a modern science, the ways that actors competed for authority within the British state and why the nature of naval power changed. -- .

Ancient Athenian Maritime Courts (Paperback): Edward Cohen Ancient Athenian Maritime Courts (Paperback)
Edward Cohen
R1,237 Discovery Miles 12 370 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Athenian power and prosperity in the fourth century B.C. was based largely on commerce. The complex litigation arising from commercial activities was heard in special maritime courts, dikai emporikai, the subject of this monograph. Using both ancient and secondary sources, Edward E. Cohen has pieced together the evolution of these courts and has explored their procedure and jurisdiction. He successfully treats the much-discussed problem of why they were termed "monthly," and makes it clear that "supranationality" was a feature of all Hellenic maritime law. He shows conclusively that their jurisdiction was limited ratione rerum, not ratione personarum, because a legally defined "commercial class" did not exist in Athens at this time. Classicists and lawyers alike will find this a fascinating study. It not only contributes to our understanding of the Athens of Plato, Aristotle, and Demosthenes, but also points out that certain principles of Athenian maritime law are still imbedded in the modern international law of maritime commerce. Originally published in 1973. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

In the Wake of Madness (Paperback): Joan Druett In the Wake of Madness (Paperback)
Joan Druett
R536 Discovery Miles 5 360 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

After more than a century of silence, the true story of one of history's most notorious mutinies is revealed in Joan Druett's riveting "nautical murder mystery" (USA Today). On May 25, 1841, the Massachusetts whaleship Sharon set out for the whaling ground of the northwestern Pacific. A year later, while most of the crew was out hunting, Captain Howes Norris was brutally murdered. When the men in the whaleboats returned, they found four crew members on board, three of whom were covered in blood, the other screaming from atop the mast. Single-handedly, the third officer launched a surprise attack to recapture the Sharon, killing two of the attackers and subduing the other. An American investigation into the murder was never conducted--even when the Sharon returned home three years later, with only four of the original twenty-nine crew on board.
Joan Druett, a historian who's been called a female Patrick O'Brian by the Wall Street Journal, dramatically re-creates the mystery of the ill-fated whaleship and reveals a voyage filled with savagery under the command of one of the most ruthless captains to sail the high seas.

The Frontier Below - The 2000 Year Quest to Go Deeper Underwater and How it Impacts Our Future (Hardcover): Jeff Maynard The Frontier Below - The 2000 Year Quest to Go Deeper Underwater and How it Impacts Our Future (Hardcover)
Jeff Maynard
R745 R640 Discovery Miles 6 400 Save R105 (14%) Ships in 9 - 17 working days

A journey through time and water, to the bottom of the ocean and the future of our planet. We do not see the ocean when we look at the water that blankets more than two thirds of our planet. We only see the entrance to it. Beyond that entrance is a world hostile to humans, yet critical to our survival. The first divers to enter that world held their breath and splashed beneath the surface, often clutching rocks to pull them down. Over centuries, they invented wooden diving bells, clumsy diving suits, and unwieldy contraptions in attempts to go deeper and stay longer. But each advance was fraught with danger, as the intruders had to survive the crushing weight of water, or the deadly physiological effects of breathing compressed air. The vertical odyssey continued when explorers squeezed into heavy steel balls dangling on cables, or slung beneath floats filled with flammable gasoline. Plunging into the narrow trenches between the tectonic plates of the Earth's crust, they eventually reached the bottom of the ocean in the same decade that men first walked on the moon. Today, as nations scramble to exploit the resources of the ocean floor, The Frontier Below recalls a story of human endeavour that took 2,000 years to travel seven miles, then investigates how we will explore the ocean in the future. Meticulously researched and drawing extensively on unpublished sources and personal interviews, The Frontier Below is the untold story of the pioneers who had the right stuff, but were forgotten because they went in the wrong direction.

The Plimsoll Sensation - The Great Campaign to Save Lives at Sea (Paperback, Revised): Nicolette Jones The Plimsoll Sensation - The Great Campaign to Save Lives at Sea (Paperback, Revised)
Nicolette Jones
R400 R365 Discovery Miles 3 650 Save R35 (9%) Ships in 9 - 17 working days

This enthusiastically reviewed, scrupulously researched and prize-winning book, which was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, chronicles a resonant episode of Victorian history. It is the tale of the agitation led by Samuel Plimsoll MP, 'The Sailor's Friend', and by his wife Eliza, who worked together to defend sailors against nefarious practices including overloading and the use of unseaworthy 'coffin-ships'. The backlash of libel cases and vilification almost ruined Plimsoll, but his drive and passion made him feverishly popular with the public; he was the subject of plays, novels, street ballads and music hall songs. With the demonstrative support of the nation, he faced down his enemies, came close to ousting Disraeli's government and achieved lasting safety measures for merchant sailors, including the load line that bears his name. Nicolette Jones throws light on a cross-section of Victorian society and tells the story of an epic legal, social, and political battle for justice, which is still an inspiring example of how the altruism and courage of determined individuals can make the world a better place.

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