0
Your cart

Your cart is empty

Browse All Departments
Price
  • R50 - R100 (1)
  • R100 - R250 (70)
  • R250 - R500 (466)
  • R500+ (1,845)
  • -
Status
Format
Author / Contributor
Publisher

Books > History > History of specific subjects > Maritime history

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea - Merchant Seamen, Pirates and the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1700-1750... Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea - Merchant Seamen, Pirates and the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1700-1750 (Hardcover)
Marcus Rediker
R2,486 Discovery Miles 24 860 Ships in 9 - 15 working days

The common seaman and the pirate in the age of sail are romantic historical figures who occupy a special place in the popular culture of the modern age. And yet in many ways, these daring men remain little known to us. Like most other poor working people of the past, they left few first-hand accounts of their lives. But their lives are not beyond recovery. In this book, Marcus Rediker uses a huge array of historical sources (court records, diaries, travel accounts, and many others) to reconstruct the social cultural world of the Anglo-American seamen and pirates who sailed the seas in the first half of the eighteenth century. Rediker tours the sailor's North Atlantic, following seamen and their ships along the pulsing routes of trade and into rowdy port towns. He recreates life along the waterfront, where seafaring men from around the world crowded into the sailortown and its brothels, alehouses, street brawls, and city jail. His study explores the natural terror that inevitably shaped the existence of those who plied the forbidding oceans of the globe in small, brittle wooden vessels. It also treats the man-made terror--the harsh discipline, brutal floggings, and grisly hangings--that was a central fact of life at sea. Rediker surveys the commonplaces of the maritime world: the monotonous rounds of daily labor, the negotiations of wage contracts, and the bawdy singing, dancing, and tale telling that were a part of every voyage. He also analyzes the dramatic moments of the sailor's existence, as Jack Tar battled wind and water during a slashing storm, as he stood by his "brother tars" in a mutiny or a stike, and as he risked his neck by joining a band of outlaws beneath the Jolly Roger, the notorious pirate flag. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea focuses upon the seaman's experience in order to illuminate larger historical issues such as the rise of capitalism, the genesis the free wage labor, and the growth of an international working class. These epic themes were intimately bound up with everyday hopes and fears of the common seamen.

Maritime History at the Crossroads - A Critical Review of Recent Historiography (Paperback): Frank Broeze Maritime History at the Crossroads - A Critical Review of Recent Historiography (Paperback)
Frank Broeze
R995 Discovery Miles 9 950 Ships in 12 - 17 working days
Shipping at Cardiff - Photographs from the Hansen Collection (Hardcover, New Updated): David Jenkins Shipping at Cardiff - Photographs from the Hansen Collection (Hardcover, New Updated)
David Jenkins
R307 R188 Discovery Miles 1 880 Save R119 (39%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

One of the greatest treasures in the archives of the Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum is the Hansen Collection, consisting of over 4500 negatives of shipping taken at Cardiff Docks between 1920 and 1975. Lars Peter Hansen, a native of Copenhagen, settled in Cardiff in 1891 and he and his third son Leslie established a photographic business in the docks; taking pictures of ships for sale to seamen and shipowners was an important part of their business. Following the retirement of Leslie Hansen in 1975, the museum purchased the negative collection. Its historical value cannot be overstated and this album is intended as a tribute to the Hansens, who through their work have bequeathed to Wales a pictorial record of shipping activity at the nation's premier port.

Plain Yarns from the Fleet (Hardcover, New edition): Charles Owen Plain Yarns from the Fleet (Hardcover, New edition)
Charles Owen
R282 Discovery Miles 2 820 Ships in 12 - 17 working days
Guide to the Records of Merseyside Maritime Museum, Volume 1 (Paperback, illustrated edition): Gordon Read, Michael Stammers Guide to the Records of Merseyside Maritime Museum, Volume 1 (Paperback, illustrated edition)
Gordon Read, Michael Stammers
R906 Discovery Miles 9 060 Ships in 12 - 17 working days
Atlantic's Last Stop - Courage, Folly, and Lies in the White Star Line's Worst Disaster Before Titanic (Paperback):... Atlantic's Last Stop - Courage, Folly, and Lies in the White Star Line's Worst Disaster Before Titanic (Paperback)
Robert G Chaulk
R709 R591 Discovery Miles 5 910 Save R118 (17%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days
Kirkcudbright's Prince of Denmark - And Her Voyages in the South Seas (Paperback): David R. Collin Kirkcudbright's Prince of Denmark - And Her Voyages in the South Seas (Paperback)
David R. Collin
R627 R585 Discovery Miles 5 850 Save R42 (7%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

This is the story of the unusually long and interesting career of a small Scottish schooner spent primarily in the southern hemisphere. From the construction of the vessel to the careers of those who sailed in her, the story is full of rogues, heroes, the famous and infamous, as well as ordinary people calmly going about their daily business in tempestuous and difficult times. Visionary colonists, whalers, sealers, Maoris, botanists, butchers, missionaries, cannibals, convicts, aristocrats, explorers and more are linked in this narrative and thereby exemplify the courage, skill and vision of people who experience hardship, danger and adversity in their quest for riches in colonial lands.

The Diary of John Holt (Paperback): Peter N. Davies The Diary of John Holt (Paperback)
Peter N. Davies
R911 Discovery Miles 9 110 Ships in 12 - 17 working days
Titanic: A Survivor's Story (Paperback): Archibald Gracie Titanic: A Survivor's Story (Paperback)
Archibald Gracie
R312 R256 Discovery Miles 2 560 Save R56 (18%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Here is a survivor's vivid account of the greatest maritime disaster in history. The information contained in Gracie's account is available from no other source. He provides details of those final moments, including names of passengers pulled from the ocean and of those men who, in a panic, jumped into lifeboats as they were being lowered, causing injury and further danger to life. Walter Lord, author of "A Night to Remember," comments that Gracie's book--written shortly before he died from the exposure he suffered on that night--is "invaluable for chasing down who went in what boat," and calls Gracie "an indefatigable detective."

Accounts of China and India (Paperback): Abu Zayd Al-Sirafi Accounts of China and India (Paperback)
Abu Zayd Al-Sirafi; Foreword by Zvi Ben-Dor Benite; Translated by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
R393 R323 Discovery Miles 3 230 Save R70 (18%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

The ninth and tenth centuries witnessed the establishment of a substantial network of maritime trade across the Indian Ocean, providing the real-life background to the Sinbad tales. An exceptional exemplar of Arabic travel writing, Accounts of China and India is a compilation of reports and anecdotes about the lands and peoples of this diverse territory, from the Somali headlands of Africa to the far eastern shores of China and Korea. Traveling eastward, we discover a vivid human landscape-from Chinese society to Hindu religious practices-as well as a colorful range of natural wilderness-from flying fish to Tibetan musk-deer and Sri Lankan gems. The juxtaposed accounts create a kaleidoscope of a world not unlike our own, a world on the road to globalization. In its ports, we find a priceless cargo of information. Here are the first foreign descriptions of tea and porcelain, a panorama of unusual social practices, cannibal islands, and Indian holy men-a marvelous, mundane world, contained in the compass of a novella. An English-only edition.

Poseidon's Curse - British Naval Impressment and Atlantic Origins of the American Revolution (Hardcover): Christopher P.... Poseidon's Curse - British Naval Impressment and Atlantic Origins of the American Revolution (Hardcover)
Christopher P. Magra
R1,511 Discovery Miles 15 110 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Poseidon's Curse interprets the American Revolution from the vantage point of the Atlantic Ocean. Christopher P. Magra traces how British naval impressment played a leading role in the rise of Great Britain's seaborne empire, yet ultimately contributed significantly to its decline. Long reliant on appropriating free laborers to man the warships that defended British colonies and maritime commerce, the British severely jeopardized mariners' earning potential and occupational mobility, which led to deep resentment toward the British Empire. Magra explains how anger about impressment translated into revolutionary ideology, with impressment eventually occupying a major role in the Declaration of Independence as one of the foremost grievances Americans had with the British government.

A Select Bibliography of British and Irish University Theses about Maritime History, 1792-1990 (Paperback): David M. Williams,... A Select Bibliography of British and Irish University Theses about Maritime History, 1792-1990 (Paperback)
David M. Williams, Andrew P. White
R910 Discovery Miles 9 100 Ships in 12 - 17 working days
The War Against the Pirates - British and American Suppression of Caribbean Piracy in the Early Nineteenth Century (Hardcover,... The War Against the Pirates - British and American Suppression of Caribbean Piracy in the Early Nineteenth Century (Hardcover, 1st ed. 2018)
Barry Gough, Charles Borras
R2,957 Discovery Miles 29 570 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Based on hitherto unused sources in English and Spanish in British and American archives, in this book naval historian Barry Gough and legal authority Charles Borras investigate a secret Anglo-American coercive war against Spain, 1815-1835. Described as a war against piracy at the time, the authors explore how British and American interests - diplomatic and military - aligned to contain Spanish power to the critically influential islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico, facilitating the forging of an enduring but unproclaimed Anglo-American alliance which endures to this day. Due attention is given to United States Navy actions under Commodore David Porter, to this day a subject of controversy. More significantly though, through the juxtaposition of British, American and Spanish sources, this book uncovers the roots of piracy - and suppression- that laid the foundation for the tortured decline of the Spanish empire in the Americas and the subsequent rise of British and American empires, instrumental in stamping out Caribbean piracy for good.

The Myth of the Press Gang - Volunteers, Impressment and the Naval Manpower Problem in the Late Eighteenth Century (Paperback):... The Myth of the Press Gang - Volunteers, Impressment and the Naval Manpower Problem in the Late Eighteenth Century (Paperback)
J. Ross Dancy
R783 Discovery Miles 7 830 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Overturns the generally held view that the press gang was the main means of recruiting seamen by the British navy in the late eighteenth century. SHORTLISTED for the Society for Nautical Research's prestigious Anderson Medal. The press gang is generally regarded as the means by which the British navy solved the problem of recruiting enough seamen in the late eighteenth century. This book, however, based on extensive original research conducted primarily in a large number of ships' muster books, demonstrates that this view is false. It argues that, in fact, the overwhelming majority of seamen in the navy were there of their own free will. Taking a long view across the late eighteenth century but concentrating on the period of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars of 1793-1815, the book provides great detailon the sort of men that were recruited and the means by which they were recruited, and includes a number of individuals' stories. It shows how manpower was a major concern for the Admiralty; how the Admiralty put in place a rangeof recruitment methods including the quota system; how it worried about depleting merchant shipping of sufficient sailors; and how, although most seamen were volunteers, the press gang was resorted to, especially during the initial mobilisation at the beginning of wars and to find certain kinds of particularly skilled seamen. The book also makes comparisons with recruitment methods employed by the navies of other countries and by the British army. J. ROSS DANCY is Director of Graduate Studies in History and Assistant Professor of History at Sam Houston State University

Life in Treaty Port China and Japan (Hardcover, 1st ed. 2018): Donna Brunero, Stephanie Villalta Puig Life in Treaty Port China and Japan (Hardcover, 1st ed. 2018)
Donna Brunero, Stephanie Villalta Puig
R4,760 Discovery Miles 47 600 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

This edited volume moves beyond the traditional examination of the treaty ports of China and Japan as places of cultural interaction. It moves 'beyond the Bund', presenting instead the history of material culture, the everyday life of the residents of the treaty ports beyond the symbology of Shanghai's waterfront. Bringing for the first time together scholars of China and Japan, museum curators, legal, economic and architectural historians, it studies the treaty ports not only as sites of cultural exchange, but also as sites of social contestation, accommodation and mobility, covering topics as varied as day to day life itself, such as family, property and law, health and welfare, travel, visual culture and memory. The call of this volume is to peel the multiple layers of the encounter between East and West in the treaty ports of China and Japan.

From Wheel House to Counting House - Essays in Maritime Business History in Honour of Professor Peter Neville Davies... From Wheel House to Counting House - Essays in Maritime Business History in Honour of Professor Peter Neville Davies (Paperback)
Lewis R. Fischer
R1,003 Discovery Miles 10 030 Ships in 12 - 17 working days
People of the Northern Seas (Paperback): Lewis R. Fischer, Walter Minchinton People of the Northern Seas (Paperback)
Lewis R. Fischer, Walter Minchinton
R913 Discovery Miles 9 130 Ships in 12 - 17 working days
The Channel - England, France and the Construction of a Maritime Border in the Eighteenth Century (Hardcover): Renaud Morieux The Channel - England, France and the Construction of a Maritime Border in the Eighteenth Century (Hardcover)
Renaud Morieux
R3,131 Discovery Miles 31 310 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Rather than a natural frontier between natural enemies, this book approaches the English Channel as a shared space, which mediated the multiple relations between France and England in the long eighteenth century, in both a metaphorical and a material sense. Instead of arguing that Britain's insularity kept it spatially and intellectually segregated from the Continent, Renaud Morieux focuses on the Channel as a zone of contact. The 'narrow sea' was a shifting frontier between states and a space of exchange between populations. This richly textured history shows how the maritime border was imagined by cartographers and legal theorists, delimited by state administrators and transgressed by migrants. It approaches French and English fishermen, smugglers and merchants as transnational actors, whose everyday practices were entangled. The variation of scales of analysis enriches theoretical and empirical understandings of Anglo-French relations, and reassesses the question of Britain's deep historical connections with Europe.

The Law of the Whale Hunt - Dispute Resolution, Property Law, and American Whalers, 1780-1880 (Hardcover): Robert Deal The Law of the Whale Hunt - Dispute Resolution, Property Law, and American Whalers, 1780-1880 (Hardcover)
Robert Deal
R2,669 Discovery Miles 26 690 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Whale oil lit the cities and greased the machines of the Industrial Revolution. In light of its importance, competition between whalers was high. Far from courts and law enforcement, competing crews of American whalers not known for their gentility and armed with harpoons tended to resolve disputes at sea over ownership of whales. Left to settle arguments on their own, whalemen created norms and customs to decide ownership of whales pursued by multiple crews. The Law of the Whale Hunt provides an innovative examination of how property law was created in the absence of formal legal institutions regulating the American whaling industry in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Using depositions, court testimony, logbooks, and other previously unused primary sources, Robert Deal tells an exciting story of American whalers hunting in waters from the North Atlantic to the South Pacific and the Sea of Okhotsk.

Victory at Sea - Naval Power and the Transformation of the Global Order in World War II (Hardcover): Paul Kennedy Victory at Sea - Naval Power and the Transformation of the Global Order in World War II (Hardcover)
Paul Kennedy; Illustrated by Ian Marshall
R875 Discovery Miles 8 750 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

A sweeping, lavishly illustrated one-volume history of the rise of American naval power during World War II "When he is at his best, as he often is in these pages, Kennedy can be dazzling."-Ian W. Toll, New York Times "The book makes for enjoyable reading, owing to the author's easygoing style. . . . Kennedy is an academic who does not write like one; he writes a story, not a treatise."-Robert D. Kaplan, Washington Post "Engrossing."-Brendan Simms, Wall Street Journal In this engaging narrative, brought to life by marine artist Ian Marshall's beautiful full-color paintings, historian Paul Kennedy grapples with the rise and fall of the Great Powers during World War II. Tracking the movements of the six major navies of the Second World War-the allied navies of Britain, France, and the United States and the Axis navies of Germany, Italy, and Japan-Kennedy tells a story of naval battles, maritime campaigns, convoys, amphibious landings, and strikes from the sea. From the elimination of the Italian, German, and Japanese fleets and almost all of the French fleet, to the end of the era of the big-gunned surface vessel, the advent of the atomic bomb, and the rise of an American economic and military power larger than anything the world had ever seen, Kennedy shows how the strategic landscape for naval affairs was completely altered between 1936 and 1946.

The Journal of Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp - Anno 1639 (Paperback): C.R. Boxer The Journal of Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp - Anno 1639 (Paperback)
C.R. Boxer
R823 Discovery Miles 8 230 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Originally published in 1930, this book presents an English translation of the 1639 journal of Dutch naval commander Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp (1598-1653), who led the Dutch fleet in a decisive victory over the Spanish at the Battle of the Downs during that year. Translation of the journal was carried out by Charles Ralph Boxer (1904-2000), a renowned specialist in Dutch and Portugese naval history and the early colonial expansion of European nations. Created in response to 'an increasing interest shown by English historians in naval matters', the text provides both an insight into Dutch naval strategy and a revealing portrait of Tromp's character. A highly detailed introduction, illustrative figures and a bibliography are included. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in European and Maritime history.

The Royal Netherlands Navy of World War II (Paperback): Ryan K. Noppen The Royal Netherlands Navy of World War II (Paperback)
Ryan K. Noppen; Illustrated by Paul Wright
R307 Discovery Miles 3 070 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

In the late 19th and early 20th century, a combination of coastal defence for the homeland and fleet defence for the East Indies became the established naval strategy for the Royal Dutch Navy and set the template for the world wars. Battleships were too expensive to build and maintain, so after World War I, there was significant investment in submarine development and construction. A handful of modern light cruisers and a new class of destroyers were also constructed during the interwar years to serve as a small Fleet-in-Being in the East Indies, as well as to support the actions of the navy's submarines. The light cruiser HNLMS De Ruyter and the Java-class light cruisers were the most powerful units of the new fleet whilst the backbone of the destroyer fleet was the Admiralen-class and the Tromp-class of destroyer leaders. Beginning in December 1941, the Dutch Navy played a very active role in the defence of the East Indies against the Japanese during World War II. The Battle of the Java Sea at the end of February 1942 crushed Dutch naval power in the East Indies, sinking the cruisers Java and De Ruyter and killing Admiral Karel Doorman. However, several Dutch surface warships and submarines continued the fight against the Axis powers alongside the Allies until the end of World War II, including a pair of British-built destroyers, Van Galen and Tjerk Hiddes. This beautifully illustrated book from a leading scholar on Dutch military history provides a comprehensive guide to the Royal Netherlands Navy of the World War II period, complete with detailed cutaways and battleplates of the fleet in action.

This Accursed Land - An epic solo journey across Antarctica (Paperback): Lennard Bickel This Accursed Land - An epic solo journey across Antarctica (Paperback)
Lennard Bickel
R190 Discovery Miles 1 900 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Sir Edmund Hillary described Douglas Mawson's epic and punishing journey across 600 miles of unknown Antarctic wasteland as 'the greatest story of lone survival in polar exploration'.This Accursed Land tells that story; how Mawson declined to join Captain Robert Scott's ill-fated British expedition and instead lead a three-man husky team to explore the far eastern coastline of the Antarctic continent. But the loss of one member and most of the supplies soon turned the hazardous trek into a nightmare. Mawson was trapped 320 miles from base with barely nine days' food and nothing for the dogs. Eating poisoned meat, watching his body fall apart, crawling over chasms and crevices of deadly ice, his ultimate and lone struggle for survival, starving, poisoned, exhausted and indescribably cold, is an unforgettable story of human endurance. Grippingly told by Lennard Bickel, this is the most extraordinary journey from the brutal golden age of Antarctic exploration. Perfect for fans of Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air or Michael Palin's Erebus.

Figureheads - On the Bow of the Ship (Hardcover): Sue Prichard, Michell, National Maritime Museum Figureheads - On the Bow of the Ship (Hardcover)
Sue Prichard, Michell, National Maritime Museum
R327 Discovery Miles 3 270 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Figureheads developed from an ancient tradition of decorating vessels with painted eyes, carved figures and animal heads. Vikings in Northern Europe adorned the bows of their ships with dragon heads, which were thought to help ships see their way through the sea. But what other purposes did sailors believe figureheads served? What stories do these beautiful objects tell? And what do the different characters symbolise? Exploring the history and traditions associated with figureheads, this illustrated guide contains 60 examples from the National Maritime Museum, home to the world's largest collection of figureheads. With a selection of short in-focus studies, the book looks at mythology, memorial, gender, empire, politics and literature surrounding these unique carvings. The National Maritime Museum is part of Royal Museums Greenwich.

An Historical Collection of the Several Voyages and Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean (Paperback): Alexander Dalrymple An Historical Collection of the Several Voyages and Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean (Paperback)
Alexander Dalrymple
R1,561 Discovery Miles 15 610 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

This important collection, published in two volumes in 1770-1 and reissued here in one, contains accounts of notable Iberian and Dutch voyages in the southern hemisphere, translated and edited by Alexander Dalrymple (1737-1808). Hydrographer to the Admiralty from 1795, Dalrymple produced this work as part of his research into the belief at the time that there existed an undiscovered continent in the South Pacific. These volumes were intended to demonstrate the knowledge of the region to date. The first volume covers sixteenth-century Spanish and Portuguese voyages, beginning with Ferdinand Magellan and including those of Juan Fernandez, Alvaro de Mendana y Neira and Pedro Fernandes de Queiros. The second volume contains the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Dutch voyages of Jacob Le Mair and Willem Schouten, Abel Tasman and Jacob Roggeveen. This volume also contains a chronological table of discoveries in the southern hemisphere since 1501.

Free Delivery
Pinterest Twitter Facebook Google+
You may like...
A Short History Of Mozambique
Malyn Newitt Paperback R265 R212 Discovery Miles 2 120
A History Of The World In Twelve…
David Gibbins Paperback R450 R299 Discovery Miles 2 990
Maritime Transport and Migration - The…
Torsten Feys, Lewis R. Fischer, … Paperback R909 Discovery Miles 9 090
The Development of the EU as a…
Finn Laursen Hardcover R3,023 Discovery Miles 30 230
The Vanished Texas Coast - Lost Port…
Mark Lardas Paperback R582 R481 Discovery Miles 4 810
Finding Endurance - Shackleton, My…
Darrel Bristow-Bovey Paperback R265 R179 Discovery Miles 1 790
Against All Odds - The Epic Story Of The…
Andrew Pike Paperback  (1)
R310 R248 Discovery Miles 2 480
The Wager - A Tale Of Shipwreck, Mutiny…
David Grann Hardcover R851 R662 Discovery Miles 6 620
Retoervloot - Kaapstad En Die VOC In…
Dan Sleigh Hardcover R399 R343 Discovery Miles 3 430
The Two-Headed Whale - Life and Loss in…
Sandy Winterbottom Hardcover R469 R425 Discovery Miles 4 250

 

Partners