History Fishing

The Turning Tide is a hymn to a sea passage of world-historical importance. Combining social and cultural history, nature-writing, travelogue and politics, Jon Gower charts a sea which has carried both Vikings and saints, invasion forces and furtive gun-runners, writers, musicians and fishermen. The divided but interconnected waters of the Irish Sea—from the narrow North Channel through St George’s Channel to where the Celtic sea opens out into wide Atlantic—have a turbulent history to match the violence of its storms.

Residents of St. James City adore the serenity of their isolated fishing village. But, when Hurricane Irma threatens to destroy everything they love they band together to help save what they can. As they begin to put their lives back together following the storm's near miss they learn that someone has senselessly stolen an old fishing chart. Initially, the loss of this chart is considered trivial. But, before long they begin to believe that the stolen chart contained clues to the location of one of Southwest Florida's legendary lost treasures. But, shortly they start to worry that the chart...

Untouched for thousands of years, Australia continues to host some of the oldest and most captivating cultures on our planet to this very day: those of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. By the close of the 18th century and within a mere few decades, colonization abruptly terminates a way of life as ancient as the world itself, rupturing traditions and propelling entire communities into warfare, decline, and hopelessness. However, to the south of the expansive Australian continent, a vast and isolated island endures an even more dreadful fate: the utter vanishing of its ...

When eight-year-old Cappy discovers a whale swimming outside of his bedroom window, it's fair to say he's quite surprised. Given how long he's spent in hospital, Cappy has had plenty of time to read a LOT of books on animals, and he's never heard of a whale that can fly. What with his leukaemia, Cappy's used to not being allowed to do things he wants—like eating sweets, playing with dogs, or roaming too far from his protective family—so he's delighted when the amazing whale not only speaks to him, but asks him to join him for a ride in the sky.

The European eel, Anguilla anguilla, is one of the strangest creatures nature ever created. Remarkably little is known about the eel, even today. What we do know is that it’s born as a tiny willow-leaf-shaped larva in the Sargasso Sea, travels on the ocean currents toward the coasts of Europe - a journey of about 4,000 miles that takes at least two years. Upon arrival, it transforms itself into a glass eel and then into a yellow eel before it wanders up into fresh water.

Following Abraham Lincoln's election, many Democratic newspapers across the North mistrusted Lincoln's claim that he would not abolish slavery, and their lukewarm support collapsed after Lincoln announced his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in the fall of 1862. The advent of a national draft in the spring of 1863 only added fuel to the fire with anti-Lincoln Democrats, who argued that it was illegal to draft civilians.