Because the title of this book denotes waterways of Russia, it is inherent that the text envelopes around that theme. Within the story related, transverse trajectories of some of the extensive waterways of Russia, including rivers, reservoirs, canals, and lakes, are passed over by the river cruise-boat named Bauman. Some included are Volga, Rybinsk, Sheksna, Kouzha, and Svir Rivers, as well as Rybinsk Reservoir, Moscow-Volga Canal, White Lake, Onega Lake, and Lake Ladoga, all within the confines of Russia. The cruise on the Bauman enlightened members with much of the geography of Russia's waterways, bringing them into close proximity with towns, monasteries, churches and other important sights along the way, encouraging meandering and contemplation. Preceding the water cruise Moscow City was explored and near the end of the cruise Helsinki, Finland. It all made for an exciting and rewarding journey. This book goes into detail on many of the sights explored, especially the exciting towns, churches, and waterways that were explored. However, the book should be especially rewarding to anyone interested in the city of Helsinki, Moscow and St. Petersburg, where special emphases has been placed.

This is an intriguing story which was written in a setting of over sixty years ago, during the Korean War by a sailor who was serving there on LST 840. Memories sometimes are short, however, during this journey, this sailor, the author of this story, kept a meticulously oriented journal, including many important facts and events throughout his cruise. This helped immensely in the writing. Fortunately, the author was an amateur photographer and was able to present and enlighten the text with numerous related pictures of engaging activities at that time. One of the chief duties of LST 840 during this cruise was in the evacuation of both North and South Koreans southward, away from the flight of the North Korean battle forces, an onslaught that often killed many civilians in their path, as well as destroying their homes. LST 840 evacuated thousands of civilians from their homes during this time. One picture in this text portrays hundreds of evacuees on the upper deck of the ship, and the closed lower deck held hundreds more. They were taken to safe islands below the 38th Parallel, which were under control of the United Nations. Here they were supplied with tents, supplies and food. The author remembers seeing rows of tents and stacks of wheat on the island of Paengnyong-do where many evacuees were brought. LST 840 helped evacuate islands of Sunwi-do and Cho-do. During one evacuation run, childbirth aboard ship was accomplished, perhaps the first birth ever aboard a LST. And a South Korean man whose leg was blown off at the knee was cared for by a corpsman aboard ship, as no doctors were aboard small ships like LSTs. The book is an interesting read and quite enlightening of some of the trials and tribulations of the Korean War era.

In 1929, a boy was born whose family would soon feel some of the calamitous problems incurred by the Great Depression, which began soon after the boy's birth. Responding to little more than the primitive instinct of survival required during these times, this is a story relating this boy's reminiscence of this period. His story is followed through the years of the depression and into his later boyhood, and is a narrative of his and his family's survival and resilience, causing the family of ten children the hardship of moving from place to place numerous times, twenty-four, seeking work where it was most available for the head of the family, whose occupation was a sign painter. It is a true story, inherent of the boy's experiences, reminisced in a manner that brings the reader in close proximity to the books main characters. However, intertwined between hardships of the bad times of the depression, the boy was able to bring out uplifting humor during his years relating to the story, years up to his nineteenth birthday, when he joined the U. S. Navy and ventured into years then nearly devoid of the depression

A description of a Grecian and Turkey land tour is presented in this book, encompassing cities and places circumvented by the Aegean Sea. The cities, towns and places were all reached by a combination of tour bus and cruise ship. The adventure begins in Athens, Greece, and crosses Central Greece reaching Delphi. From there it continues down into southwestern Greece into the town of Nafpaktos, on the Corinthian Strait. Ferrying across the strait into Peloponnese, the city of Nafplio is visited along with the Mycenae and Epidaurus ruins. From here the adventure retracts back to Athens by crossing over the Corinthian Canal. Here, mode of travel is switched from bus to cruise ship, Ocean Misty. The Grecian visit is continued when Santorini, Delos, and Mykonos Islands were all visited. Next the island of Rhodes, bordering the bottom of the Aegean Sea was reached. After this, Ephesus, Turkey, was approached by ship, visited, and from there the Ocean Misty was en route to the Dardanelles, the strait leading into the Sea of Marmara, thereby soon reaching Istanbul, Turkey, which was the adventure's highlight, including a visit to the Blue Mosque and a cruise up the Bosphorus to the Black Sea. The area is well explored in the writings of this book, a pleasure to read about these countries around the Aegean Sea.

This is a story written with a setting soon after the Armistice was signed for the Korean War, entitled Journey of USS Gunston Hall APD 5. It is a narration by an ex-sailor who relates the activity of the Gunston Hall APD 5 at this time, a ship he served on during this era. Fortunately, the author of this story had been previously advised by his school teacher, "If any of you ever have the opportunity to travel in the future, make it imperative to keep a journal or diary. If you don't, you will regret it in years to come. Without such written information, your recollection of the past might be no better than a flight of birds through the air, leaving no trace." He remembered these important words when he joined the US Navy, and the first ship he boarded there was a journal and diary book in his sea bag. He learned some sixty years later when writing this narration that it perhaps would not have been written without the help of his journal. Memory is often good of events years later, but time fades away memory, which often is somewhat diminished. Soon after the Korean War Armistice was signed the Gunston Hall was sent to an island, Koje-do, south of South Korea to transport North Korean prisoners from a large prison camp there to places to be repatriated back home. This story brings forth many problems within the prison where murders and killings were executed, but unable for the United Nations to adequately maintain control of the overall prison operation. Having 3,000 to 5,000 North Korean and Communist primers aboard the Gunston Hall at one time during their transportation was some concern to the crew, as they outnumbered its crew number by over 10 to 1. It is an interesting story, one that is intriguing to see out fold.

This book was written from a sailor's journal taken during his cruise on the Horace A, Bass APD 124 during the Korean War. The Bass was a high speed ship rigged to accommodate Royal Marines and Underwater Demolition Teams (Frogmen) and it did numerous reconnaissance raids on both coasts of North Korea. During this action in 1952 and eleven prisoners were taken. The raiding encompassed knocking out railroad sections and railroad bridges. The Horace A. Bass APD was just one of the many ships operating in Korea during that war. The book is a true story told by one of the crew members who served on the Bass as a radar operator. He kept a journal then which supported the book greatly.

This is a true story of a naval voyage to Barrow Alaska in the early 1950s to transport oil to there, before oil was discovered in Alaska. During the voyage there were exciting moments; a near collision with another ship and the cracking of the deck of the LST 1126, leaving a two inch open gap across its deck, with 6,500, 55 gallon barrels of oil below. This caused a delay of two weeks to get the ship repaired. A voyage transporting oil was performed yearly to Alaska. For the crew of LST 1126 it was an excitable but most enjoyable voyage. Numerous places were visited along the way.

This story carries one through four generations of the Coleman family, beginning with Sam Coleman, who married his young wife, Jeannette Freer, in Illinois. They moved by wagon to Virginia before it split into the northern state of West Virginia and the southern state of Virginia. The Thurmond family with its 13 children is also followed through four generations. Much of the story is centered on the years that the Civil War was fought, some of its major battles, and activity in the vicinity of the border of the two Virginias. It also portrays the post-war lives of both heroes, James Willard Coleman and William Dabney Thurmond, sons of the Virginias who became engrossed in the Civil War.

Seven adobes once stood in the Pajaro Valley in the Monterey Bay area in 1850, among them those of the Castro, Amesti, Rodriguez, and Vallejo families. All are now gone, with the exception of the two-story Rancho San Andres Castro Adobe, a few miles north of Watsonville, California. The structure has great historical significance because it is the only surviving rancho hacienda of the Mexican Colonial Period. Even the adobe mounds and stone remnants of the other six adobes which remained for awhile are now gone. The chronological presentation given in this book covers a period from the early 1800s to 2009 and is particularly dedicated to the Rancho San Andres Adobe and the owners and inhabitants of this residence. The purpose of this book is to give an account of memories and events associated with this unique hacienda and its owners and inhabitants. By 1823, Jose Joaquin Castro, a member of the Anza party from Mexico, was granted provisional concession from Mexico to the Rancho San Andres, a respectable spread of approximately 4,400 acres, ranging from Monterey Bay to Corralitos, and from the Pajaro River to Aptos. Along with his sons and daughters, their family holdings eventually included the greater part of what is now Santa Cruz County, from Pajaro to Aptos to Soquel, and almost to Davenport to the north, consisting of over 250,000acres. This was an interesting book to research and write, because once I had lived in a house on the grounds of the old Castro Adobe property which included 39 acres, two houses, one which my family lived in, and the Castro Adobe. We lived on this farm during a portion of my childhood. Fond memories of the beautiful adobe structure still linger with me and over time these memories often lured me back to visit the old adobe hacienda. But now many others will enjoy this setting, since it has been bought by the state and will be used as a park.

This book is about a POW, Ethan Gottschalk(Tex), and his experiences while imprisoned by the Japanese during World War II. It relates many of his experiences in the nine POW camps that he was imprisoned in, at Manila, Formosa and Japan. To reach these destinations he was transferred by what is usually known as Hell Ships. These in some cases were as bad as some of the POW camps. Many on these prisoners died during their travels and some were buried at sea.

This story takes place during the Gold Rush area of the mid-1850s. It begins in Holland when two young men, Hans and Johann, working in the tulip fields hear the news of the gold discovery in California and become interested in joining in on the rush to reach California and explore for gold. Prior to hearing about the gold discovery, they had contemplated traveling the world for adventure, but now decided to begin this adventure by heading for California and joining the gold seekers, making enough money so they could later have the means to travel more extensively. They eventually reach Illinois by Sail ship and train and team up with a wealthy farm owner, Tom Kelley, who wants to join a covered wagon train to travel across the states to California and reach the gold mines and mine for gold, but needs some help in doing so. They travel across country together, eventually reaching the El Dorado gold fields, where they become quite wealthy mining for gold. They use there funds well, and the final years of their lives are rewarded with great a great reward.