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Books > History > History of specific subjects > Maritime history
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.
A vivid account of the forgotten citizens of maritime London who
sustained Britain during the Revolutionary Wars In the half-century
before the Battle of Trafalgar the port of London became the
commercial nexus of a global empire and launch pad of Britain's
military campaigns in North America and Napoleonic Europe. The
unruly riverside parishes east of the Tower seethed with life, a
crowded, cosmopolitan, and incendiary mix of sailors, soldiers,
traders, and the network of ordinary citizens that served them.
Harnessing little-known archival and archaeological sources,
Lincoln recovers a forgotten maritime world. Her gripping narrative
highlights the pervasive impact of war, which brought violence,
smuggling, pilfering from ships on the river, and a susceptibility
to subversive political ideas. It also commemorates the working
maritime community: shipwrights and those who built London's first
docks, wives who coped while husbands were at sea, and early trade
unions. This meticulously researched work reveals the lives of
ordinary Londoners behind the unstoppable rise of Britain's sea
power and its eventual defeat of Napoleon.
![Endeavour (Paperback): Peter Moore](//media.loot.co.za/images/x80/217215092849179215.jpg) |
Endeavour
(Paperback)
Peter Moore
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R470
R384
Discovery Miles 3 840
Save R86 (18%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER. An inventive biography of one of the most
famous ships of all time – an alluring combination of history,
adventure and science.
‘HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR’ Christopher Hart, Sunday Times
From Johnson’s Dictionary to campaigns for liberty, the Enlightenment
was an age of endeavours. ‘Endeavour’ was also the name given to a
commonplace, coal-carrying vessel bought by the Royal Navy in 1768 for
an expedition to the South Seas. No one could have guessed that
Endeavour would go on to become the most significant ship in the
history of British exploration.
Endeavour famously carried Captain James Cook on his first great
voyage, but her complete story has never been told before. Here, Peter
Moore sets out to explore the different lives of this remarkable ship –
from the acorn that grew into the oak that made her, to her rich and
complex legacy.
‘Fascinating and richly detailed... Peter Moore has brought us an acute
insight into the ship that carried some of the most successful
explorers across the world. A fine book that’s definitely worth
exploring’ MICHAEL PALIN
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.
Here the late Raphael Patai (1910-1996) recreates the
fascinating world of Jewish seafaring from Noah's voyage through
the Diaspora of late antiquity. In a work of pioneering
scholarship, Patai weaves together Biblical stories, Talmudic lore,
and Midrash literature to bring alive the world of these ancient
mariners. As he did in his highly acclaimed book "The Jewish
Alchemists," Patai explores a subject that has never before been
investigated by scholars. Based on nearly sixty years of research,
beginning with study he undertook for his doctoral dissertation,
"The Children of Noah" is literally Patai's first book and his
last. It is a work of unsurpassed scholarship, but it is accessible
to general readers as well as scholars.
An abundance of evidence demonstrates the importance of the sea
in the lives of Jews throughout early recorded history. Jews built
ships, sailed them, fought wars in them, battled storms in them,
and lost their lives to the sea. Patai begins with the story of the
deluge that is found in Genesis and profiles Noah, the father of
all shipbuilders and seafarers. The sea, according to Patai's
interpretation, can be seen as an image of the manifestation of
God's power, and he reflects on its role in legends and tales of
early times. The practical importance of the sea also led to the
development of practical institutions, and Patai shows how Jewish
seafaring had its own culture and how it influenced the cultures of
Mediterranean life as well. Of course, Jewish sailors were subject
to the same rabbinical laws as Jews who never set sail, and Patai
describes how they went to extreme lengths to remain in adherence,
even getting special emendations of laws to allow them to tie knots
and adjust rigging on the Sabbath.
"The Children of Noah" is a capstone to an extraordinary career.
Patai was both a careful scholar and a gifted storyteller, and this
work is at once a vivid history of a neglected aspect of Jewish
culture and a treasure trove of sources for further study. It is a
stimulating and delightful book.
This is the fascinating history of the river pioneers who designed,
built, and used the early river dories and their successive
incarnations. Author Roger Fletcher has collected stories, diaries,
and photographs and recovered and recorded the lines and plans of
these early boats before they were irretrievably lost. With marine
artist Sam Manning's drawings, the book documents the traditional
free-form method of drift-boat construction. Whether you are a fly
fisherman who appreciates the gentle lapping of water on wood or a
boat builder who wants to recreate a piece of history, Drift Boats
and River Dories is sure to satisfy.
We have been cruising and exploring polar waters since the
nineteenth century, but very little has been written about them.
Drawing on expert research, Of Penguins and Polar Bears seeks to
rectify this, and looks at activity in both the Antarctic and
Arctic waters - the homes of the penguins and the polar bears - to
provide insight into how the passenger trades developed in these
regions. With over a hundred stunning pictures, this is a must-have
gazetteer for anyone thinking about cruising the Earth's 'last
frontier'. From William Bradford's cruise to Greenland in a
seal-hunting boat in 1869 to the newest builds of the twenty-first
century, let Arctic expert Christopher Wright take you on a journey
through lands less travelled.
![Mayflower (Paperback): Matt Newbury](//media.loot.co.za/images/x80/40876214657179215.jpg) |
Mayflower
(Paperback)
Matt Newbury; Edited by Tor Mark; Designed by Tor Mark
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R140
Discovery Miles 1 400
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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The Potemkin and Aurora are two ships that bookended the Russian
Revolution. The Potemkin, a battleship of the Black Sea Fleet, led
the first naval mutiny at Odessa in 1905. The Aurora, after sailing
round the globe in the service of the Tsar and taking part in the
defeat at Tsushima by the Japanese in 1905, was adopted by the
Bolsheviks to fire the fatal shot that signalled the storming of
the Winter Palace in 1917. She lived on, surviving two world wars
and was hailed as a 'Hero of the Revolution'.
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