The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II" by Fernand Braudel revolutionised the study of Mediterranean history on its publication in 1949. Now, 60 years 'after Braudel', this book brings together work by area specialists and the latest research on the sea itself in the early modern period, the maritime trade that flourished there, the ships which travelled it and the men who sailed them. It opens up the subject to English-speaking readers interested in maritime history, naval history, the history of the early modern world and the historiographical legacy of Braudel.

The First World War showed the vital importance of oil. Use of oil fuelled aircraft, tanks, motor vehicles and especially warships increased greatly during the war. The war made it clear that major powers had to have secure oil supplies. Britain and its allies found themselves in an oil crisis in 1917. It was overcome, with difficulty, and the Allies' greater oil resources, mostly supplied by the USA, contributed to their victory. The situation was, however, been tight and it was not certain that the USA would be willing or able to provide such large quantities in a future conflict. It might not be friendly and there were fears that its oil production would soon peak. These proved to be wrong, but they influenced policy makers, including US ones, at the time. The most obvious place to obtain oil supplies was the Mosul province of the Ottoman Empire. Britain had several reasons to want the League of Nations mandate over Iraq, but oil was the main reason why it wanted Mosul to be part of Iraq. France, Italy and the USA were all also interested in Mosul's oil. The Sykes-Picot Agreement, signed before the need for oil became apparent, had put only about half of Mosul in the British zone. Britain successfully argued at the series of post war peace and inter-Allied conferences that it should have the mandate over an Iraq that included all of Mosul. Britain made several attempts to form a large, British controlled oil company, but it was impossible to create a scheme that suited all parties or that guaranteed that the company would act in the national interest. A realisation that control of oil bearing territory was more important than the nationality of companies allowed the British to give French and US companies a stake in Mosul's oil. This helped to improve relations between Britain and these two countries. The Italians, who had little to offer in return, did not get a stake in Mosul's oil.Oil did not cause the First World War, but the war showed Britain and other major powers that they needed secure oil supplies. As Mosul was the obvious place to obtain them, this quest for oil helped shape the post war Middle East.

Discover the maritime and human history of Florida's 30 awe-inspiring lighthouses along the East Coast, through the Keys, and up the west coast to the Panhandle. Both modern color and historical black-and-white photographs, as well as postcards and diagrams, illustrate their role in the settlement of not only Florida, but all of America. Florida's shores have been witness to over five centuries of maritime history, including battles in the Revolutionary War, the Seminole Wars, the Civil War, and World War II. Diving into the lives of the keepers of these beacons, the Tuerses describe how the lighthouse keepers navigated not only these political conflicts, but nature's wrath, braving hurricanes and wild storms to keep the lights burning. This meticulously researched book covers the technical-such as the engineering behind the design of the towers and lenses-as well as the personal, including stories of widowed women balancing raising a family with tending the lighthouse.

Founded in 1873, the Holland America Line provided services carrying passengers and freight between the Netherlands and North America. When the Second World War ended, only nine of Holland America Line's twenty-five ships had survived and the company set about rebuilding. The pride of HAL's post-war fleet was SS Rotterdam, completed in 1959, which was one of the first ships on the North Atlantic equipped to offer two-class transatlantic crossings and single-class luxury cruising. However, competition from the airlines meant that in the early 1970s Holland America ended their transatlantic passenger services; in 1973 the company sold its cargo-shipping division. Now owned by the American cruise line Carnival, Holland America offers round-the-world voyages and cruises in the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and Asia. In this book, renowned ocean liner historian and author William H. Miller takes a look at the Holland America Line and its post-war fleet up to 2015.

Two centuries before the daring exploits of Navy SEALs and Marine Raiders captured the public imagination, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps were already engaged in similarly perilous missions: raiding pirate camps, attacking enemy ships in the dark of night, and striking enemy facilities and resources on shore. Even John Paul Jones, father of the American navy, saw such irregular operations as critical to naval warfare. With Jones's own experience as a starting point, Benjamin Armstrong sets out to take irregular naval warfare out of the shadow of the blue-water battles that dominate naval history. This book, the first historical study of its kind, makes a compelling case for raiding and irregular naval warfare as key elements in the story of American sea power. Beginning with the Continental Navy, Small Boats and Daring Men traces maritime missions through the wars of the early republic, from the coast of modern-day Libya to the rivers and inlets of the Chesapeake Bay. At the same time, Armstrong examines the era's conflicts with nonstate enemies and threats to American peacetime interests along Pacific and Caribbean shores. Armstrong brings a uniquely informed perspective to his subject; and his work - with reference to original naval operational reports, sailors' memoirs and diaries, and officers' correspondence - is at once an exciting narrative of danger and combat at sea and a thoroughgoing analysis of how these events fit into concepts of American sea power. Offering a critical new look at the naval history of the Early American era, this book also raises fundamental questions for naval strategy in the twenty-first century.

This book is a compilation of papers presented at a day-long conference organised in Chennai, on March 28 2019 by the Chennai Centre for China Studies (C3S) in partnership with the National Maritime Foundation (NMF) and the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies, University of Madras, and supported by the Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard on the theme, "Securing India's Maritime Neighbourhood: Challenges and Opportunities". Contributors included a whole galaxy of luminaries from the serving and veteran echelons of the Indian Armed Forces, the diplomatic community, maritime industry, doyens of Indian academia, and distinguished personalities from the Fourth Estate. A number of facets of seminal importance to national security were addressed in the book. These included conceptual, geopolitical, economic, environmental and technological issues.