Pack your cutlass and blunderbuss--it's time to go a-pirating "The Invisible Hook" takes readers inside the wily world of late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century pirates. With swashbuckling irreverence and devilish wit, Peter Leeson uncovers the hidden economics behind pirates' notorious, entertaining, and sometimes downright shocking behavior. Why did pirates fly flags of Skull & Bones? Why did they create a "pirate code"? Were pirates really ferocious madmen? And what made them so successful? "The Invisible Hook" uses economics to examine these and other infamous aspects of piracy. Leeson argues that the pirate customs we know and love resulted from pirates responding rationally to prevailing economic conditions in the pursuit of profits.

"The Invisible Hook" looks at legendary pirate captains like Blackbeard, Black Bart Roberts, and Calico Jack Rackam, and shows how pirates' search for plunder led them to pioneer remarkable and forward-thinking practices. Pirates understood the advantages of constitutional democracy--a model they adopted more than fifty years before the United States did so. Pirates also initiated an early system of workers' compensation, regulated drinking and smoking, and in some cases practiced racial tolerance and equality. Leeson contends that pirates exemplified the virtues of vice--their self-seeking interests generated socially desirable effects and their greedy criminality secured social order. Pirates proved that anarchy could be organized.

Revealing the democratic and economic forces propelling history's most colorful criminals, "The Invisible Hook" establishes pirates' trailblazing relevance to the contemporary world.

Beneath the icy waters of Lake Superior lies a vast museum of maritime treasures, relics, and souls that in years past were lost to the crashing waves of this massive body of water. Those, those who remain on the surface can glimpse some of the sunken bounty, but most of it is accessible only to those who slip into scuba gear and brave the darkness of the deep.
In "Shipwrecks Along Lake Superior's North Shore," veteran diver Stephen B. Daniel, in collaboration with the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society, provides in-depth tours of the many sunken ships submerged in the waters of this region of Lake Superior. Readers will not only learn the maritime history and structural details of the original vessels, they'll also find the fascinating stories of the wrecks themselves-how they happened, what actions were taken to save both crew and vessel, and the modern-day efforts to preserve these sites. With detailed descriptions and hundreds of photographs, charts, and diagrams that will impress even the most seasoned diver, this book will also appeal to anyone who has ever wondered what nautical mysteries lie beneath the waves of the greatest of the Great Lakes.
Stephen B. Daniel is an active certified diver, shipwreck historian, and current president of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society. He is a communications professional at 3M and lives in Woodbury, Minnesota.

The Herbert Fuller, a three-masted sailing ship loaded with New England lumber, left Boston bound for Buenos Aires on July 8, 1896 with twelve people on board: captain-owner Charles Nash, his wife and Maine childhood-sweetheart Laura, two mates, the 'mulatto' steward, six crewmen, and one passenger. Just before 2 A.M. on the sixth day at sea, the captain, his wife, and the second mate were slaughtered in their individual bunkrooms with the ship's axe, seven or eight blows apiece. Laura Nash was found with her thin nightgown pushed above her hips, her head and upper body smashed and deformed. Incredibly, no one saw or heard the killings... except the killer. After a harrowing voyage back to port for the survivors, the killer among them, it didn't take long for prosecutors to charge, and a Boston jury to convict, the first mate, a naturalized American of mixed blood from St. Kitts. But another man on board, the passenger, a twenty-year-old Harvard quitter from a proper Boston family, had his own dark secrets. Who was the real killer, and what became of these two men? Not a Gentleman's Work is the story of the fates of two vastly different men whose lives intersected briefly on one horrific voyage at sea--a story that reverberates with universal themes: inescapable terror, coerced confession, capital punishment, justice obscured by privilege, perseverance, redemption, and death by tortured soul.

"A thorough, exciting examination of 18th-century pirate life, with wonderful details."
--Publishers Weekly

"Interesting and exciting . . . a thoroughly enjoyable chronicle of an interesting life and interesting era."
--Booklist

The definitive biography of history'smost fearsome and famous pirate

Of all the colorful cutthroats who scoured the seas in search of plunder during the Golden Age of Piracy in the early eighteenth century, none was more ferocious or notorious than Blackbeard. As unforgettable as his savage career was, much of Blackbeard's life has been shrouded in mystery--until now.

Drawing on vivid descriptions of Blackbeard's attacks from his rare surviving victims, pirate expert Angus Konstam traces Blackbeard's career from its beginnings to his final defeat in a tremendous sea battle near his base at Ocracoke Island. Presenting dramatic accounts of the pirate's very effective tactics and his reputation for cruelty, Konstam offers a fascinating examination of the life and business of piracy and the lure of this brutal and bloody trade.

The Mary Rose was one of King Henry VIII's favourite warships until she sank during an engagement with the French fleet on 19 July 1545. Her rediscovery and raising were seminal events in the history of nautical archaeology. Apart from the Captain and the Vice Admiral, nothing is known about the crew of the Mary Rose - the only evidence about her complement of 415 men rests with their skeletal remains. In The Men of the Mary Rose A.J. Stirland uses archaeological and skeletal evidence to give the reader a welcome insight into the soldiers of the Mary Rose, from their ages and height to their health, diet and physical condition. This book examines the building, sinking and raising of the Mary Rose and her historical context, before moving on to the examination of what the remain of the crew can reveal to us about the fighting men of that period. Many new findings have been made through analysis of their bones, including the effects of some activities and occupations on the skeletons of the men. This is the first book to deal with the men who made up the crew of the Mary Rose. It provides an exciting glimpse of Tudor life and the Tudor navy, relating archaeological findings to existing documentary evidence, opening a fascinating window into one of Henry VIII's great ships and a frozen moment of sixteenth-century time. This book will appeal both to professionals in the area, and to those for whom Tudor history holds a general fascination.

European Navies and the Conduct of War considers the different contexts within which European navies operated over a period of 500 years culminating in World War Two, the greatest war ever fought at sea. Taking a predominantly continental point of view, the book moves away from the typically British-centric approach taken to naval history as it considers the role of European navies in the development of modern warfare, from its medieval origins to the large-scale, industrial, total war of the twentieth century. Along with this growth of navies as instruments of war, the book also explores the long rise of the political and popular appeal of navies, from the princes of late medieval Europe, to the enthusiastic crowds that greeted the modern fleets of the great powers, followed by their reassessment through their great trial by combat, firmly placing the development of modern navies into the broader history of the period. Chronological in structure, European Navies and the Conduct of War is an ideal resource for students and scholars of naval and military history.

Finalist for the 2017 Washington State Book Award in General Nonfiction / History The plaque said this was the winter fishing hut of Thuridur Einarsdottir, one of Iceland's greatest fishing captains, and that she lived from 1777 to 1863. "Wait," anthropologist and former seawoman Margaret Willson said. "She??" So began a quest. Were there more Icelandic seawomen? Most Icelanders said no, and, after all, in most parts of the world fishing is considered a male profession. What could she expect in Iceland? She found a surprise. This book is a glimpse into the lives of vibrant women who have braved the sea for centuries. Their accounts include the excitement, accidents, trials, and tribulations of fishing in Iceland from the historic times of small open rowboats to today's high-tech fisheries. Based on extensive historical and field research, Seawomen of Iceland allows the seawomen's voices to speak directly with strength, intelligence, and - above all - a knowledge of how to survive. This engaging ethnographic narrative will intrigue both general and academic readers interested in maritime culture, the anthropology of work, Nordic life, and gender studies.

An introduction to the nautical history of the North Atlantic. For centuries the Atlantic hemmed Europe behind its storms and mysterious breadth. This was the ocean sea that extended to nowhere, or to the end of the world. Although there were legends of crossings by Celtic saints and Norse ocean farers, it took the vision of an Italian and the finance of a Spanish queen to shatter the shackles of superstition. Columbus was the catalyst who opened the door to the modern world. "Across the Pond" tells of the changing use of this ocean, from a barrier to a route to riches and a highway for trade. There are episodes of exploration and exploitation, there are fighting ships and fisheries, treasure and timber, and always the danger of the sea. There also slipped the slavers with their cargo of shame. This is an ocean that bred some of the world's hardiest mariners, famous men such as Cabot and Hudson and Vespucci, but also the nameless thousands who manned ships, the hard-used mariners from the Chesapeake, the Solway and Seville. Here was bred the down east Yankee, the Nova Scotian bluenose and the Scouser from Liverpool.

The Constitution was one of the US Navy's first six original frigates, ordered as a counter to the Barbary corsairs in the Mediterranean. Fast and heavily built, she was nominally rated as a 44 but mounted thirty 24-pdr and twenty-two 12-pdr cannon. Her most famous encounter, after which she became nicknamed 'Old Ironsides' due to British shot being seen bouncing off her hull, involved HMS Guerriere, which she smashed; the same treatment was meted out to HMS Java four months later. Now the oldest commissioned warship afloat in thw world, she is berthed in Boston Harbor. The 'Anatomy of the Ship' series aims to provide the finest documentation of individual ships and ship types ever published. What makes the series unique is a complete set of superbly executed line drawings, both the conventional type of plan as well as explanatory views, with fully descriptive keys. These are supported by technical details and a record of the ship's service history.

Fifty years ago-on April 26, 1956-the freighter Ideal X steamed from Berth 26 in Port Newark, New Jersey. Flying the flag of the Pan-Atlantic Steamship Company, she set out for Houston with an unusual cargo: 58 trailer trucks lashed to her top deck. But they weren't trucks-they were steel containers removed from their running gear, waiting to be lifted onto empty truck beds when Ideal X reached Texas. She docked safely, and a revolution was launched-not only in shipping, but in the way the world trades. Today, the more than 200 million containers shipped every year are the lifeblood of the new global economy. They sit stacked on thousands of "box boats" that grow more massive every year. In this fascinating book, transportation expert Brian Cudahy provides a vivid, fast-paced account of the container-ship revolution-from the maiden voyage of the Ideal X to the entrepreneurial vision and technological breakthroughs that make it possible to ship more goods more cheaply than every before. Cudahy tells this complex story easily, starting with Malcom McLean, Pan-Atlantic's owner who first thought about loading his trucks on board. His line grew into the container giant Sea-Land Services, and Cudahy charts its dramatic evolution into Maersk Sealand, the largest container line in the world. Along the way, he provides a concise, colorful history of world shipping-from freighter types to the fortunes of steamship lines-and explores the spectacular growth of global trade fueled by the mammoth ships and new seaborne lifelines connecting Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Masterful maritime history, Box Boats shows how fleets of these ungainly ships make the modern world possible-with both positive and negative effects. It's also a tale of an historic home port, New York, where old piers lie silent while 40-foot steel boxes of toys and televisions come ashore by the thousands, across the bay in New Jersey.

In addition to being commercialised and romanticised, piracy's history has also been distorted, with many works straying far from the facts recorded in the Age of Sail. In this book, author Joseph Gibbs goes back to many of the original materials about those who went "on the account" (a classic euphemism for piracy) to deliver an engaging, closely interpreted anthology of seven decades of primary sources. The text comprises original monographs, handbills, trial records, newspaper articles, and official reports that deal with piracy in and involving the Americas in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Joseph Gibbs annotates and explains these records in order to clarify the era's historical, legal, literary, and nautical references. Along the way readers will experience violent mutinies, vicious sea battles, anti-piracy raids on Louisiana islands and Latin American coasts, and the United States' first sustained encounter with the Barbary Corsairs. They will also catch glimpses of maritime brigands as remarkable as any that walked the decks of piracy's earlier "golden age" and encounter the naval officers and sailors who strove to bring them to rough justice. Enhanced with period maps and illustrations, the book provides an enlightening introduction to piracy's original canon as it emerged in the era of the quill pen and hand-turned press.

How the miracle on the beaches saved a nation. A gripping account of one of the most famous episodes of the Second World WarIn May 1940 British and Allied troops on mainland Europe were in a perilous situation: cut off and surrounded, at the conclusion of the bloody Battle of France they faced complete annihilation. It would be a devastating blow, handing Europe to the Nazis. But over a few frantic days, the greatest evacuation in history managed to salvage hope, saving the total destruction of the army and hundreds of thousands of soldiers lives. It was a pivotal and defining moment in the war, one Churchill described as a 'miracle' in his 'we shall fight them on the beaches' speech. Bestselling author John Harris describes in vivid detail how the evacuation developed on a day-by-day basis, and destroys more than one myth associated with Dunkirk. Packed with authentic atmosphere and first-hand recollections, the retreat and the desperate lifting of the weary British expeditionary force is seen in its tragic but spirited entirety, an epic of courage and confusion without parallel. Perfect for readers of James Holland and Guy Walters.

A gripping modern story of treasure, tragedy, and tenacity, in the tradition of Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea In 1622, the Spanish galleon Atocha sank in a hurricane off the coast of Florida. On board were more than forty tons of treasure gold and silver ingots, coins, emeralds, and jewelry, worth billions today. In 1969, Mel Fisher set out to find it. In this riveting narrative, reporter Jedwin Smith brings to life this decades-long quest. Since Mel's death in 1998, the Fisher family has continued this epic treasure hunt, which has resulted in astounding recoveries (treasure from part of the Atocha as well as from its sister ship, the Margarita), complex legal battles, including deaths, drug addiction, and madness. participating in the Atocha treasure hunt ever since. Writing with you-are-there immediacy, he captures like no other writer the romance of big-time treasure hunting as well as its sometimes horrible costs, taking us from astonishing discoveries of sunken gold and larger-than-life escapades in colorful Key West to foundering boats, dangerous dives, and personal loss. Written with the cooperation of the Fisher family and exclusive access to divers on the recovery team, this is the authoritative account of the most celebrated treasure hunt of our time and a surefire bestseller. Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He has been covering the Atocha recovery efforts since 1985 and has made numerous dives with the Fisher team; he himself actually recovered some gold and emeralds from the Atocha's wreck. His brother now works full-time for the Fisher family.

'There is no danger that Titanic will sink. The boat is unsinkable and nothing but inconvenience will be suffered by the passengers.' - Phillip Franklin, White Star Line Vice-President On April 15th, 1912, Titanic, the world's largest passenger ship, sank after colliding with an iceberg, claiming more than 1,500 lives. Walter Lord's classic bestselling history of the voyage, the wreck and the aftermath is a tour de force of detailed investigation and the upstairs/downstairs divide. A Night to Remember provides a vivid, gripping and deeply personal account of the 'unsinkable' Titanic's descent. WITH A NEW FOREWORD BY JULIAN FELLOWES

"Ashore and Afloat" tells the early history of the Halifax Naval Yard. From the building of the yard and its expansion, to the people involved in the enterprise, to the nuts and bolts of buying the masts and paying the bills, Julian Gwyn's history of the Halifax Naval Yard leaves no stone unturned. Dozens of illustrations and copious appendices, including a biographical directory, accompany this compelling history.

"Ashore and Afloat" tells the early history of the Halifax Naval Yard. From the building of the yard and its expansion, to the people involved in the enterprise, to the nuts and bolts of buying the masts and paying the bills, Julian Gwyn's history of the Halifax Naval Yard leaves no stone unturned. Dozens of illustrations and copious appendices, including a biographical directory, accompany this compelling history.

Filled with unforgettable characters and maritime adventure, the incredible story of a forgotten war that shaped the fate of the United States-and the entire Western Hemisphere. In the early 18th century, the British and Spanish Empires were fighting for economic supremacy in the Americas. Tensions between the two powers were high, and wars blossomed like violent flowers for nearly a hundred years, from the War of Spanish Succession (sometimes known as Queen Anne's War in the Americas), culminating in the War of Jenkins' Ear. This war would lay the groundwork for the French and Indian War and, eventually, the War of the American Revolution. The War of Jenkins' Ear was a world war in the truest sense, engaging the major European powers on battlefields ranging from Europe to the Americas to the Asian subcontinent. Yet the conflict that would eventually become known as the War of Jenkins' Ear-a moniker coined by the 19th century historian Thomas Carlyle more than a century later-is barely known to us today. Yet it resulted in the invasion of Georgia and even involved members of George Washington's own family. It would cost fifty-thousand lives, millions in treasure, and over six hundred ships. With vivid prose, Robert Gaudi takes the reader from the brackish waters of the Chesapeake Bay to the rocky shores of Tierra del Fuego. We travel around the Cape of Good Hope and across the Pacific to the Philippines and the Cantonese coast, with stops in Cartagena, Panama, and beyond. Yet even though it happened decades before American independence, The War of Jenkins' Ear reveals that this was truly an American war; a hard-fought, costly struggle that determined the fate of the Americas, and in which, for the first time, American armies participated. In this definitive work of history-the only single comprehensive volume on the subject-The War of Jenkins' Ear explores the war that established the future of two entire continents.

"In real life–especially off the Florida coast–things can have fatal consequences. Fatal Treasure is a truly compelling read."
–Aphrodite Jones, New York Times bestselling author of Cruel Sacrifice and All She Wanted

In 1622, hundreds of people lost their lives to the curse of the Spanish galleon Atocha–and they would not be the last. Fatal Treasure combines the rousing adventure of Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea with the compelling characters and local color of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It tells the powerful true story of the relentless quest to find the Atocha and reclaim her priceless treasures from the sea. You’ll follow Mel Fisher, his family, and their intrepid team of treasure hunters as they dive beneath the treacherous waters of the Florida Straits and scour the ocean floor in search of gold, silver, and emeralds. And you’ll discover that nearly four centuries after the shipwreck, the curse of the Atocha is still a deadly force.

"On this day, the sea once again relinquished its hold on the riches and glory of seventeenth-century Spain. And by the grace of God, I would share the moment of glory . . . . I was reaching for my eighth emerald, another big one, when the invisible hands squeezed my trachea. In desperation, I clutched at my throat to pry away the enemy’s fingers. But no one had hold of me."
–From the Prologue

"A stupendous feat of reportage."
–Ron Powers, cowriter of Flags of Our Fathers

Praise for Desperate Hours

"Goldstein’s book is packed with detail. . . . This description of the Doria’s sinking is especially moving."
–The New York Times

"A stupendous feat of reportage. Goldstein has virtually put us into lifeboats and sent us hurtling into the North Atlantic on the night of July 25, 1956."
–Ron Powers, cowriter, Flags of Our Fathers, and author of Dangerous Water and Tom and Huck Don’t Live Here Anymore

On an extraordinary summer’s night in 1956, in a fog off Nantucket, the world-renowned ocean liner Andrea Doria collided with the Swedish liner Stockholm and, eleven hours later, tragically sank. But in that brief time the Doria became, after the Titanic, the most storied vessel of the century, as nearly 1,700 people were saved in an unforgettable rescue punctuated by countless acts of heroism amid confusion, terror, and even cowardice.

In the tradition of Walter Lord’s A Night To Remember, Desperate Hours re-creates the ill-fated voyage, from the passengers’ parting waves at Genoa, to their last evening highball in the Doria’s lavish lounge, to the unbelievable realization that catastrophe was imminent. Richard Goldstein draws from dozens of interviews, court documents, memoirs, and reports that relate never-before-told stories. He also presents technical findings that shed light on the blame for the disaster. The result is a definitive history of a fateful day, a legendary liner, and a deadly shipwreck now considered by scuba divers to be the Mount Everest of the deep.

The present volume contains the proceedings of an international conference on the economic history of the seaports of Antwerp and Rotterdam (1870-2000). This venue was held at Antwerp on 10-11 May 2001 and was hosted by the Antwerp Port Authority. This international conference aimed at confronting the development of both ports. In the course of the last century and a half, economic growth in the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam has been staggering. Maritime economic historians, economists and geographers alike have investigated the development of both ports extensively, but separately. So far, only a limited number of attempts have been made to analyse Rotterdam-Antwerp port history from a comparative perspective. The papers presented at the conference provide a challenging starting point to - certain how and why both ports reacted differently to virtually the same economic and political stimuli. By bringing together both historians, economists and lawyers with different fields of interest, we have attempted to put the history of the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam in a broader international and comparative perspective.

This analysis of a crucial transformation in the history of world trade reveals how London and its surroundings grew during the eighteenth century to become the first true entrepot. The city developed a new kind of commercial structure sharply distinct from that of Holland and Amsterdam during the seventeenth century.

Being aboard a sinking ship is perhaps the most terrifying experience a human being can endure. Imagine those last peaceful moments as the vessel beneath you slides quickly into the dark waters that only moments before you had so confidently glided across. It is as one survivor you will read about in this stunning collection recalled, "a sudden sickening sense of disaster." Awaiting you are starvation, thirst and unimagined weather--perhaps blistering sun or soul-crushing cold. Outside your leaking and fragile craft are circling sharks waiting to tear you to shreds. Hope will fade quickly. Utterly absorbing and eminently entertaining, here is a collection of inspirational stories of life and death and hope-and of resilience and unimagined strength. These stories show more than anything the indomitable spirit of sailors who scoffed at death and moved on-doing what they had to do to live. Among the tales in this terrifying yet absorbing collection are the recollections of sailors from the USS Indianapolis who floated hopelessly as their companions were torn apart by sharks; of the crew whaleship Essex, who did the unthinkable; of small boat adventurers like Dougal Robertson, who survived for weeks on little but faith. The Greatest Sea Survival Stories Ever Told is a tribute to incredible men and women. It is a testament to the remarkable fortitude that made them quiet heroes.

In the tradition of Walter Lord’s A Night to Remember, a dramatic moment-by-moment account of the greatest peacetime sea rescue in history

Advance Praise for Desperate Hours

"A stupendous feat of reportage. Goldstein has virtually put us into lifeboats and sent us hurtling into the North Atlantic on the night of July 25, 1956." —Ron Powers, cowriter, Flags of Our Fathers, and author of Dangerous Water and Tom and Huck Don’t Live Here Anymore

"Riveting. A vivid reconstruction of the chain of small events leading to a disaster and its impact on a rich cast of characters from a vanished era." —Neil Hanson, author of The Custom of the Sea

This book examines the political and social impact of English overseas merchants during the upheavals of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It explores the merchant societies of London, York, and Liverpool, and illuminates the growing prominence of the overseas trader in the press and in Parliament.