Showing titles in Maritime History & Piracy

This audiobook attempts to answer as many of those questions as possible through an informal, narrative style. It focuses on the overall experience and the feelings and emotions of the people going through it rather than just on facts and figures. It covers every aspect of the Titanic saga from inception and construction to the recent rediscovery of the ship. It also examines the impact of the disaster on society and culture.

This is a book about sailing, which is the ancient and noble art of spending a small fortune to go somewhere very slowly while getting wet, sunburned, and yelled at by ropes. Sailing Through History is a sarcastic, sweary, slightly educational romp through humanity’s long-standing obsession with getting very lost at sea. From ancient Egyptians on reed surfboards to modern billionaires pretending a yacht is a personality, Saša Fegić takes you on a whirlwind tour of naval nonsense, bad decisions, and the occasional heroic disaster. You’ll meet fearless explorers, clueless aristocrats, ...

Hard Aground brings together three intertwined stories documenting the US Navy's strategic and materiel evolution from the end of Civil War through the First World War. The first story focuses on the reconstruction of the US Navy following the swift and near-total dismantling of the Union Navy infrastructure after the Civil War. Jampoler argues that the federal government discovered that the fleet requested by the navy, and paid for by Congress, was the wrong fleet.

In the murky depths of the world's vast oceans lie the forsaken vessels of the damned, their spectral forms haunting the seas with malevolent intent. "Haunted Ships: And Their Malevolent Mysteries" delves deep into the eerie mysteries surrounding these ghostly behemoths, uncovering the chilling secrets that lurk within their decaying hulls.

Ruim vier eeuwen geleden zwermden Nederlandse schepen en hun bemanningen uit over de wereldzeeën. Ze voeren naar het noorden, over de Atlantische Oceaan naar het westen en rond Kaap Hoorn en voorbij Kaap de Goede Hoop naar Azië. Ze dreven handel, gingen de strijd aan met Europese concurrenten, onderwierpen goed- of kwaadschiks inheemse volken en stichtten nederzettingen en koloniën. Het vervoer van goederen en mensen via het water was in veel opzichten bepalend voor de ontwikkeling van scheepstypen, navigatiemiddelen en handelsnetwerken.

In 1785, a young American named James Leander Cathcart is kidnapped at sea and carried as prisoner to the maverick North African statelet of Algiers. The piratical corsairs of Algiers have decided to exploit the vulnerability of the United States by seizing its mariners and holding them for ransom. Today, the name of James Leander Cathcart has been all but forgotten.

Two Years Before the Mast is Richard Henry Dana Jr.’s captivating account of life as a common sailor on board a merchant ship in the early 1830s. Dana captures the cruel conditions on board the ship, the injustices of merchant seamen at the hands of brutally unforgiving captains, and the treacherous icy weather at Cape Horn. An iconic maritime memoir said to have influenced Herman Melville, Two Years Before the Mast remains one of America’s greatest and most vivid seafaring tales.

In Tactics and Triumphs, Author Terry Sloan takes you deep into the violent, wind-powered world of early 18th-century maritime conflict — an era where pirates, privateers, and naval captains waged deadly duels for supremacy on the high seas. Centered around the legendary final voyage of the Sloop William — the ship that marked the end of Blackbeard’s reign — this book unpacks the battle-tested strategies, tactical maneuvers, and ship-to-ship combat techniques that defined the Age of Sail. Inside, you’ll discover: Detailed analysis of real naval engagements involving pirates and ...

Discover the world of underwater treasure hunting with this practical handbook. Do you want to embark on a hobby of underwater search and recovery? Are you a new or experienced diver who wants to expand their skillsets, try new things, and unearth the treasures lying deep beneath the water's surface? Then this book is for you. Underwater search and recovery is a unique and rewarding pastime which more and more divers are getting into. Countless lost wrecks, objects and artifacts are hidden on the seafloor, in lakes and rivers, waiting for the right people to uncover them and bring their ...

Im Januar 1742 wird ein windschiefes Segelboot an die Küste Brasiliens gespült. An Bord 30 Männer, die einzigen Überlebenden des königlichen Eroberungsschiffs »The Wager«, das in einem Sturm zerschellt ist. Sechs Monate später landen drei Schiffbrüchige an der Küste Chiles und behaupten, die 30 Männer seien Meuterer, die sich den königlichen Befehlen widersetzt und skrupellos gemordet hätten... Wer lügt, wer sagt die Wahrheit? Das soll ein britisches Kriegsgericht entscheiden. Es geht um Leben oder Tod.

On Wide Seas: The US Navy in the Jacksonian Era details the ways in which the US Navy transformed from an antiquated arm of the nation’s military infrastructure into a more dynamic and effective force that was soon to play a pivotal role in a number of national and international conflicts. Jackson developed a clear, concise naval strategy that policymakers and officers alike could seize and execute. They carried out a collective vision that coincided with the national literary movement that recognized America’s future would rely upon the Navy.

Drawing on maritime stories from various languages and continents – from Brazil and Southeast Africa to India and the Philippines – Wreckers shares dramatic tales of the sea and the events on land that followed. This offers an alternative timeline for the century after Columbus’ 1492 voyage and sheds light on the fractures and fault lines that accompanied the increasing geographical range of European ships.

We may think of "globalism" as a recent development but its origins date back to the fifteenth century and beyond, when seafarers pioneered routes across the oceans with the objectives of exploration, trade, and profit. These voyages only became possible after certain technical innovations—improvements in ship design, compasses, and mapping—enabled navigation across unprecedented distances.

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.

April 14, 1912. It was an unforgettable night. In the last hours before the Titanic struck the iceberg, passengers in all classes were enjoying unprecedented luxuries. Innovations in food, drink, and décor made this voyage the apogee of Edwardian elegance. Veronica Hinke’s painstaking research and deft touch bring the Titanic’s tragic but eternally glamorous maiden voyage back to life. In addition to stirring accounts of individual tragedy and survival, The Last Night on the Titanic offers tried-and-true recipes, newly invented styles, and classic cocktails.

This is a harrowing survivor account of the sinking of the Lusitania, a luxury, trans-Atlantic passenger ship which was struck by a German torpedo on May 7, 1915 during WWI. The Foreword and Afterword contain other survivor accounts as well as the backstory of the ocean liner and the events (and cover-up, suppressed for a hundred years) which led to that fateful journey during which 1198 British, Canadian, and American souls, including dozens of children and babies, were tragically drowned just eleven miles off the coast of Ireland and one day away from their destination in England.

In 1870, a man took a bet. He said he could sail a twenty-foot yawl across the Atlantic. East to west. The hard way. Most men would have laughed. He didn’t. He just went. The Ocean Wager tells the true story of Captain Nikola Primorac, a quiet sailor from Dubrovnik who risked everything to cross the sea in a boat smaller than most lifeboats. No engine. No charts worth trusting. No backup. Just sails, salt, and the will to endure. This is not a tale of glory. There are no parades here. No medals. Just storms and silence. Just two men and a dog, soaked and half-mad, crawling across a grey ...

Es gilt als unberechenbar und zugleich als Sehnsuchtsort: das Meer. Die unendliche Weite, die Schönheit, aber auch die Gefahren, die die Hohe See birgt, faszinieren Abenteurer und Autoren seit Jahrhunderten. Doch zusehends gefährden Überfischung und Umweltverschmutzung das Meer als Lebensraum und als Ressource für den Menschen. Der mit dem Pulitzer-Preis ausgezeichnete amerikanische Journalist Ian Urbina spürt einerseits dieser Faszination nach und deckt andererseits Missstände auf, wie moderne Sklaverei auf Fischerbooten oder das Aussetzen blinder Passagiere auf hoher See.

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 ...

Nestled at the bottom of an old leather trunk for well over a century lay a forgotten manuscript—a long-lost story the author's great-great-grandson has now brought to life. At the heart of A Whaler at Twilight is the true account of an American whaler who embarked on a harrowing adventure in the South Pacific during the mid-nineteenth century in search of absolution and redemption. After the deaths of his parents, young Robert Armstrong lived with a successful uncle—a well-respected Methodist shopkeeper in bustling 1840s Baltimore—and attended the nation’s first dental school.