Showing titles in Maritime History & Piracy

Triumphs and disasters in the deep sea This is a journey through time and water, to the bottom of the ocean and the future of our planet. We do not see the ocean when we look at the water that blankets more than two thirds of our planet. We only see the entrance to it. Beyond that entrance is a...

The Horn’s First Master is the gripping true story of a man who took on the deadliest sea on Earth. In 1834, Croatian-born Captain Pietro Giacomo Leva steered an Austro-Hungarian brigantine through the world’s most feared waters and into legend. With towering waves, freezing winds, and brutal conditions, Cape Horn was the ultimate test of skill, courage, and command. Leva passed that test — and carved his name into the history of both his island and his empire. Blending vivid maritime history with sharp-eyed narrative, The Horn’s First Master charts Austria’s unlikely bid for ...

On May 28, 1914, the RMS Empress of Ireland began her 192nd trip across the Atlantic from Quebec City, Canada, en route to Liverpool, England, carrying 1,056 passengers and a crew of 423. In the early hours of May 29, fog descended on the St. Lawrence River, and the ocean liner was rammed by the Storstad, a Norwegian coal ship. In the fourteen minutes it took for the Empress of Ireland to sink, there was time to launch only four of the forty lifeboats, and rather than women and children first, it was everyone for themselves.

Madagascar's lost pirate utopia represents some of the first stirrings of Enlightenment political thought. In this jewel of a book, he offers a way to 'decolonise the Enlightenment', demonstrating how this mixed community experimented with an alternative vision of human freedom, far from that being formulated in the salons and coffee houses of Europe. Its actors were Malagasy women, merchants and traders, philosopher kings and escaped slaves, exploring ideas that were ultimately to be put into practice in by Western revolutionary regimes a century later.

The terrifying true story of a fight for survival for 28 hours in shark-infested waters. October, 8, 2022. Three friends are fishing for red snapper when their boat, tied to an oil rig, begins taking on water and sinks 15 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico. Suddenly, the three men find themselves...

Jeremy Black takes the listener through its evolution to becoming one of the most important oceans in the world. He discusses the importance of the Atlantic in relation to world history as well as addressing topics such as those bravest to attempt to cross the ocean before Columbus, the beginnings of slavery from 1400-1600, the struggle for control between empires in the 1600s, the way technology adapted with steamships to telegraph cables, the battle of the Falkland and the Cold War.

Brought to you by Penguin. The remarkable true story of two amateur divers who discover a World War Two German U-Boat sunk 60 miles off the eastern coast of America In 1991, 60 miles off the coast of New Jersey, at the incredible depth of 230 feet underwater, two amateur divers, John Chatterton...

Historian Jonathan W. White tells the riveting story of Appleton Oaksmith, a swashbuckling sea captain whose life intersected with some of the most important moments, movements, and individuals of the mid-nineteenth century, from the California Gold Rush, filibustering schemes in Nicaragua, Cuban liberation, and the Civil War and Reconstruction. Most importantly, the book depicts the extraordinary lengths the Lincoln Administration went to destroy the illegal trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Celebrated historian Diana Preston presents betrayals, escapes, and survival at sea in her account of the mutiny of the Bounty and the flight of convicts from the Australian penal colony. The story of the mutiny of the Bounty and William Bligh and his men's survival on the open ocean for 48 days and 3,618 miles has become the stuff of legend. But few realize that Bligh's escape across the seas was not the only open-boat journey in that era of British exploration and colonization.

LONGLISTED FOR THE CUNDHILL HISTORY PRIZE 'An acerbic, compelling and always accessible account of how opium corrupted the world' TLS 'The writing is sublime, the research thorough, the eye for story superb' Sunday Telegraph 'A history of the opium poppy, which probes how the drug trade has...

Ensign Stephen Davenport was the most severely under qualified of the Ninety-Day Wonders, the derisive term for commissioned officers in the Naval Reserve with only ninety days of training, all of which were on dry land. For his final navigation exam, he actually plotted a course that landed a fictional destroyer somewhere in the Sierra Mountains. Nevertheless, in in August of 1953, he reported to his first assignment aboard the USS Vermillion. He would be overseeing the First Division for training in amphibious landings.

From the colorful row houses of St. John’s to the ancient echoes of Viking settlements, Newfoundland and Labrador: A Journey Through Time and Terrain takes you on an unforgettable exploration of one of the most breathtaking and culturally rich corners of the world. Whether you’re planning a visit, reliving a cherished trip, or simply captivated by places shaped by history and heart, this book brings the province’s landscapes and legends to life.

Deepwater archaeology uncovers secrets from the ancient maritime past...Thousands of shipwrecks and archaeological sites lie undiscovered in deep water, potentially holding important clues to our maritime past. Ships from the Depths surveys the dramatic advances in technology over the last few years that have made it possible for scientists to locate, study, and catalogue archaeological sites in waters previously inaccessible to humans. Søreide provides an introduction to and survey of the history, development, and potential of this exciting branch of nautical archaeology.

The twelve entries in The Golden Age of Piracy discuss why pirates thrived in the seas of the New World, how pirates operated their plundering ventures, how governments battled piracy, and when and why piracy declined. Separating Hollywood myth from historical fact, these essays bring the real pirates of the Caribbean to life with a level of rigor and insight rarely applied to the subject.

Following the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713) a decade-long wave of sea-robbery plagued the Atlantic rim—often glamorized as the "Golden Age of Piracy". Boston-based laborer, Edward Low, left his mark on pirate history as the most vicious and sadistic raider of them all.

Libertas: The Pearl Among States is the sweeping, cinematic history of Dubrovnik — the Republic of Ragusa — a tiny but fiercely independent city-state that thrived for centuries on the Adriatic. From the marble streets of its walled city to the galleys that sailed from Gruž to Alexandria and London, this book tells the story of how Dubrovnik balanced on the knife-edge between Venice and the Ottomans, survived plagues, sieges, and the great earthquake of 1667, and built a legacy of diplomacy, trade, and freedom that endured until Napoleon’s troops lowered the banner of St. Blaise in ...

All Kyle wanted to do was fish in the English Channel and love his country. Circumstances keep pushing him farther and farther away. Can a war in 1812 help bring him home?

Dutch explorers discovered for Europe many of the major island groups in the Pacific, while meting out immense brutality and privation. Some set out as pirates and privateers, others as traders seeking a new route to the Spice Islands. The voyagers left men in Hawai`i and the Tuamotus, and described for the first time the appearance and habits of many of the cultures of Polynesian islands as well those near Australia. They were the first Europeans to visit Australia, Easter Island, Fiji, Hawai`i, New Zealand, Samoa Tasmania, Tonga and many other islands.

A funny, honest, and unforgettable memoir of a young man’s life at sea during the final years of Britain’s great merchant fleet. In 1972, seventeen‑year‑old Denis Scott stepped aboard his first ship with more enthusiasm than experience. Over the next four years he sailed through the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean, and the Bay of Bengal, serving on tankers, cargo ships, and tramp steamers at a time when the world — and the Merchant Navy — was changing fast. What followed was a crash course in adulthood conducted on heaving decks, in sweltering engine rooms, and in bars ...

Two threats, two thousand years apart. A Bible-era shipwreck leads to perils for a modern-day Indiana Jones. Thirty years after Jesus' death the apostle Paul, victim of a Jewish plot, is arrested and led in chains aboard an old Egyptian grain carrier bound for Rome. Encountering the 'storm of the century,' the ship never arrives. 2000 years later, amateur archaeologist David Connor is on the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta looking for evidence of Paul's lost ship. With the help of smart - and beautiful - professor of ancient history, Caroline, he begins to build a credible case. But just...