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Books > Sport & Leisure > Transport: general interest > Ships & shipping: general interest
It was a desperate mission that made front-page headlines and
captured the attention of millions of readers around the world. In
January 1998, in the dead of an Alaskan winter, a cataclysmic
Arctic storm with hurricane-force winds and towering seas forced
five fishermen to abandon their vessel in the Gulf of Alaska and
left them adrift in thirty-eight-degree water with no lifeboat.
Their would-be rescuers were 150 miles away at the Coast Guard
station, with the nearby airport shut down by an avalanche.
The Last Run is the epic tale of the wreck of the oldest
registered fishing schooner in Alaska, a hellish Arctic tempest,
and the three teams of aviators in helicopters who withstood
140-mph gusts and hovered alongside waves that were ten stories
high. But what makes this more than a true-life page-turner is its
portrait of untamed Alaska and the unflappable spirit of people who
forge a different kind of life on America's last frontier, the "end
of the roaders" who are drawn to, or flee to, Alaska to seek a
final destiny.
This book collects together about sixty drawings of fishing boats
at Arbroath Harbour, completed between 1989 to 1995. There are also
fifteen drawings of the harbour at Montrose, and of other Scottish
harbours relevant to Arbroath, in the same period. The author's
viewpoint is that of an interested spectator who likes fishing
boats. While drawing, he gained valuable background information
from the local people, including some fishermen, that he met as he
worked. His notes on the harbours he draws, and on the boats and
people within them, are written in the hope that everyone reading
the book will 'feel close to the sea'. The main story unfolds
gradually, starting in 1989 and running through to 1995. It begins
with a bird's eye view of Arbroath Harbour, 'so that even if you
have never been to Arbroath, you will soon know your way around'.
At the end of the book there is a map that show the positions of
all the Scottish harbour towns mentioned in the text. 'I have
written not just for Arbroath people, or just for Scottish people,
or even just for British people. I have written the book for people
everywhere. The call of the sea is universal.'
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.
From the bestselling author of Darwin's Dragons and My Friend the
Octopus comes an exciting historical adventure - with a touch of
magic - set aboard the Titanic ... Young cabin steward, Sid, is
proud to be working on the Titanic, the greatest ship ever built.
Clara dreams of adventure too, but she's a stowaway in the hold of
a much smaller boat, Carpathia. Here she meets the biggest, best
dog she's ever known: Rigel, who is on his way to be reunited with
his owner. None of them could have imagined how they would need
each other one ice-cold terrible night - or that an extraordinary
sea creature might also answer their call ... The third
middle-grade historical adventure from the author of Darwin's
Dragons and My Friend the Octopus A new spin on the sinking of the
Titanic, offering an uplifting alternate history of real-life
survivor, Sid Daniels A touching animal friendship lies at the
heart of the story, as well as hints of mythology Showcases Lindsay
Galvin's trademark combination of exciting adventure, rip-roaring
history and non-fiction elements PRAISE FOR DARWIN'S DRAGONS: 'A
striking and original adventure ... just the sort of story I love.'
EMMA CARROLL 'WHAT a voyage! [Darwin's Dragons] is everything you
hope it will be ...' LUCY STRANGE '[A] beautifully fictionalised
story' THE TELEGRAPH
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