Maritime Exploration

Over the years, thousands of tales both true and fantastic have been told about the dastardly thievery of pirates. Their rum-drunk exploits and high-seas violence never fail to delight. Now in a brand new series collection, The Best Pirate Stories Ever Told includes many of the very best pirate yarns ever created on history’s most debaucherous scalawags. Anyone who loves a good story full of excitement, adventure, thrills, and laughs will find this collection irresistible.

What happens when the ocean refuses to give up its dead? The sea is a vast, unforgiving wilderness, and for centuries it has been the setting for some of history’s most baffling and tragic mysteries. From the deck of the world's most infamous ghost ship to the crushing depths of the Atlantic, this book uncovers the chilling true stories of the vessels and souls that vanished without a trace. Step aboard the Mary Celeste, found drifting and eerily deserted. Investigate the colossal disappearance of the USS Cyclops in the heart of the Bermuda Triangle. Witness the final, harrowing hours of ...

Beneath the waves lie stories the world was never meant to forget. From the doomed voyage of the Titanic to the eerie silence of the Mary Celeste, Drowned in Silence dives deep into fifteen of the most chilling, mysterious, and tragic sea disasters ever recorded. Author James Calloway brings each tale to life with immersive, emotional storytelling that will haunt readers long after the final page. Survival. Mystery. Loss. The sea remembers everything.

Set against the backdrop of the Age of Exploration, Black Flags, Blue Waters reveals the dramatic and surprising history of American piracy's "Golden Age" when lawless pirates plied the coastal waters of North America and beyond. Best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin illustrates how American colonists at first supported these outrageous pirates in an early display of solidarity against the Crown, and then violently opposed them. Upending popular misconceptions and cartoonish stereotypes, Dolin provides this wholly original account of these seafaring outlaws.

The thrill of the chase turns into a voyage of damnation. Captain Vorlag and his hardened pirates aboard the Sea Serpent are masters of the crimson tide, hunting for treasure. But when their relentless pursuit sails them into an eerie, unnatural calm, the familiar ocean whispers of an ancient dread. The hunt is over. Something else is hunting them. From the crushing abyssal depths, an unimaginable horror awakens. A creature of countless teeth and insatiable hunger begins its assault, turning their mighty vessel into a slaughterhouse. Trapped miles from land, under a sky that weeps blood, ...

In the great wars of modern history, maritime powers have always prevailed over land-based empires, whether Habsburg, Napoleonic, Nazi, or Soviet. In contrast to the rigid hierarchies and centralization of land-based empires, those nations attaining mastery at sea have been distinguished by liberty, flexibility, and enterprise. The 17th-century Dutch were the first to achieve naval and trading dominance.

Three centuries ago, captain Gideon Rake buried a staggering fortune on an uncharted Atlantic outpost before leaving a frantic warning about the massive beasts that forced him to flee. Now, historian Dr. Tessa Vale has decoded Rake's lost notes and led a salvage team to the exact coordinates. She hopes to document a biological impossibility and secure her academic legacy. The heavily armed rival crew tracking her wake simply wants the gold, and they are willing to slaughter anyone standing in their way. As a massive hurricane traps both teams, they are forced to navigate a labyrinth of ...

“A Perfect Storm for a new generation, Rachel Slade's Into the Raging Sea is a masterful page-turning account of the El Faro's sinking.” —Ben Mezrich, bestselling author of The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook On October 1, 2015, Hurricane Joaquin barreled into the Bermuda...

A gripping biography of one of the seventeenth century’s greatest sea captains. Courage, ambition and treachery on the high seas… Perfect for fans of Andrew Lambert, Kevin Jackson, N. A. M. Rodger, and Eric Jay Dolin. In June 1611, Henry Hudson, captain of the Discovery, his young son, and seven other crew members were forced into a small gig and set adrift amongst the ice floes of Hudson Bay. They were never seen again. Shy and aloof, yet courageous and sometimes recklessly daring, English explorer and navigator Hudson made four momentous voyages in 1607, 1608, 1609, and 1610, journeys...

A supernatural thriller book set in the vast, eerie expanses of the Pacific Ocean during the late 19th century. "The Haunted Voyage" reveals a chilling tale of a cursed ship, the ill-fated St. John, set within the dramatic canvas of the Pacific deep. From the protagonist, Kelly's desperate step to join the crew to his horrifying ordeal towards the end, every detail is masterfully woven in this tale of maritime horror and supernatural terror. The On-Board ChillsAs quick as they set sail, the crew of the St. John, particularly Kelly, are plagued with inexplicably strange and terrifying ...

""As thrilling as any tale from the heroic age of exploration. ... Bound’s account is a triumph. The storytelling is piano-wire taut, the writing saturated with polar moodiness."" ― Sunday Times The extraordinary story of how the Endurance, Ernest Shackleton's legendary lost ship, was found...

Zheng He's Treasure Fleets: The Voyages That Could Have Changed the World In 1405, sixty years before Columbus crossed the Atlantic in a 60-foot ship with 90 men, China launched an armada of over 300 vessels and 27,000 crew into the Indian Ocean. The flagship was 400 feet long. The commander was a castrated slave who had risen to become the most powerful admiral in the world. His name was Zheng He. And the story of what he accomplished — and why China chose to stop — is one of the great untold dramas in world history. In this book, you'll discover: The extraordinary personal journey of ...

A nautical adventure novel set in the Atlantic Ocean near Sable Island during the late 18th century. In "The Secrets of Sable Isle," join Captain Jeremy and his spirited crew aboard the Antelope as they navigate the treacherous waters of the Atlantic. Adrift and desperate, they encounter the infamous Sable Island, a haunting silhouette against the horizon that could either be their doom or a promise of refuge. As the intrepid crew approaches the island, they are met with the unexpected hospitality of the local Governor, who shares tales of the island's shipwreck-laden history. Captivated by...

The year is 1585. England and Spain are moving toward open war. And John Davys — navigator, theorist, one of the most accomplished seamen of his age — is sailing north, looking for a passage through the Arctic ice that will open a new route to the riches of Asia. He will not find it. He will find instead something that no map yet contains: coastlines, currents, latitudes, the precise and dangerous truth of what lies beyond the edge of the known world. Dumas takes the extraordinary life of the historical John Davys — three Arctic voyages, the naming of a strait, service against the ...

The Navigational Reality of the Atlantic Expansion The overlooked story of how Norse explorers mastered the Atlantic—and why their logistical experiment ultimately collapsed. For centuries, the Viking discovery of America has been treated as a mythic legend or a heroic adventure. That focus misses the far more consequential reality: the transatlantic crossing was a brutal, calculated exercise in open-ocean survival, risk mathematics, and supply-chain logistics. When the Norse moved west, they were not sailing blindly. They were executing the final, fragile extension of a maritime system ...

Without warning, Russia starts an operation to seize control of a vital arctic waterway off the Alaska coast. For hot-wired naval aviator, Karen 'Bunny' O'Hare, it's about to be a bad day at the office. Not everyone takes impending nuclear Armageddon as calmly as O'Hare. From an airfield in...

In June 2023, the world watched as the Titan submersible vanished during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic. Days later, search teams discovered the unthinkable—Titan had suffered a catastrophic implosion, ending the lives of all five aboard. The tragedy gripped global headlines, sparked intense debate, and left many questionings how such a disaster could have happened in an era of advanced engineering and safety standards. This eBook tells the full story of Titan: its bold but unconventional design, the risks that were overlooked, and the leadership decisions that shaped its fate. It ...

In the age when the world was being measured by the length of a sail and the courage of those who dared to follow it, Portugal stood at the edge of history and looked outward. Its ships cut paths into seas no European fleet had mastered before. Its kings dreamed of spices, gold, souls, and glory. Its sailors carried iron and faith into waters where neither had yet ruled. This is often told as a story of empire. It is also a story of hunger. The Age of Discoveries did not begin on the deck of a caravel, nor in the halls of kings, but in fields where grain failed, in villages where children ...

It is two years since Thomas Kydd was spirited away in the night aboard the old ship Duke William. Now, he and the other members of the ill-fated Artemis are shipwrecked sailors, back in London to be summoned as court martial witnesses. Then, in a political act to shield an officer's reputation...

In an era when a single ocean voyage could alter the geopolitical balance of the globe, one English mariner embarked on an expedition that would challenge the mightiest empire of the sixteenth century. The Queen's Pirate: Francis Drake and the Voyage that Shook an Empire offers a long, detailed, and politically neutral account of the legendary circumnavigation of 1577–1580. This work of maritime history moves beyond romanticized mythology to deliver a grounded, balanced exploration of a journey defined equally by audacity, extreme survival, and high-stakes diplomacy. The narrative ...