Life Boat

The Chinese Economic miracle is happening despite, not because of, China's 900 million peasants. They are missing from the portraits of booming Shanghai, or Beijing. Many of China's underclass live under a feudalistic system unchanged since the 15th century. Wu Chuntao and Chen Guidi undertook a three-year survey of what had happened to the peasants in one of the poorest provinces, Anhui, asking the question: have the peasants been betrayed by the revolution undertaken in their name by Mao and his successors?

When I grew up in Hull during the 1950s and 60s, the city was a major seaport and the home, at the time, of the largest distant water fishing fleet in the country if not the world.As a fifteen-year-old it was natural that I wished to chance my luck in this world-famous industry and I left Hull’s Trinity House Navigation School and signed on my first trawler as a galley boy – without my parent’s permission.I soon progressed to become a deckie learner but already realised that there were easier and safer ways to earn a living, so leaving the icy cold wild Arctic waters around Iceland, ...

For the last two years Nell Andrews has been struggling to stay afloat. As her life tumbled down around her, the only safety net has been her cosy canal boat, The Nollie. Tucked away inside, Nell has found a place to heal her broken heart. And now she’s ready to move on and follow her dream.... Gorgeous Guy Cornish, with his easy Irish charm, makes him an instant hit with everyone at the marina and the perfect person to help Nell with her project. But Guy has his own reasons for being at the marina and a past that threatens to sink Nell’s dream....

Inspiring and exciting, Adams's memoir recounts the personal path leading to her historic achievements: a tomboy childhood in the Oregon high desert, an early marriage and painful divorce, and a second marriage that ended when her husband died of cancer. In the wake of his death and almost by accident, Adams discovered sailing. Six weeks after her first sailing lesson, she bought a boat, and within eight months, she set out to achieve her first world record.

Steve Haywood has been cruising the inland waterways for 50 years, and has amassed a following of readers and listeners keen to hear about his travelling tales on Britain’s beautiful canals and rivers. Tales from the Tillerman is both his tribute to Britain’s canals, rivers and countryside and a celebration of Britishness in all its eccentric glory. Unlike Steve’s previous titles, Tales from the Tillerman is casting the net wider and drawing from his full 50 years of experience, recounting the many hair-raising escapades he’s had up and down the country.

In Lifeboat, Maggie Craddock uses the stories of the survivors of the Titanic as a metaphor for hardworking professionals today facing uncertainty. They are swimming in waters jarred by sudden waves of downsizing, management shakeups, company mergers, dried-up funding, scandals, and probably a shark or two. The experiences of Titanic survivors, Craddock shows, offer lessons for a transformative workplace approach, one that recognizes that “every man for himself” does not work long-term.

Kirsten Bramble is too famous to have friends. That’s what she tells herself, anyway—but with the end of her hit reality TV show barreling toward her, Kirsten’s not sure she’s ready to say goodbye to her lonely life of fame. Luckily—or unluckily—Kirsten can’t help being plunged headfirst into a new adventure when she’s dragged on a class trip to visit the SS Great Britain. Because somehow, the ancient ship can speak to her—and she wants Kirsten to be her new captain.

One day Ellie builds up the courage to approach an older girl playing on her own in a beached rowboat. Piper has a gift, an imagination so great that she whisks Ellie off on grand adventures, going high in the air, deep below the ocean and everywhere in between in their little blue boat, their magic boat. When Piper has to leave, Ellie discovers she has her own vivid imagination.

Rätselhafte Zeichen führen Rick, Ava und Emilio an Bord der Nautilus tief hinab ins Meer. Ob ein sagenhafter Piratenschatz auf sie wartet? Tatsächlich stoßen die drei Freunde auf ein uraltes Geisterschiff! Doch als sie es erkunden wollen, werden sie in einen gefährlichen Strudel gerissen. Und was sie dann entdecken, hätten sie nie für möglich gehalten!

Lifeboat at the End of the World is an astonishing lyrical and literary book about the experience of being a lifeboat volunteer, migration, the sea, Dungeness and more. Rather than offering a political opinion, Dominic Gregory writes about the reality of the RNLI, of saving lives. He details the smells of the station, the emotions when the call to ‘a shout’ comes, how they are trained, the ethos of the service, and what it’s really like to sail out in the middle of the night.

I thought about my wife and four children, and was filled with a fear I’d never see them again…. For Donald Denihan, it was supposed to be the fishing trip of a lifetime. Instead, it ended up nearly costing him his life in a hard bargain he made with the sea. Near death experiences were nothing new to this successful real estate entrepreneur, though. At the age of sixteen, a hunting accident had nearly cost him his foot. A lengthy hospital stay, followed by an equally lengthy rehabilitation, filled Donald with resilience and made him think he could overcome anything. That is, until he ...

Author Jeff Spevak was confronted with a dilemma: How do you tell the story of a man who can’t bring himself to talk about the most epic moment of his life? A clever fellow who’d scrapped to survive in a fashion that seems quaint today, Coleman tested himself as a teenager by swimming across lakes, building homes from foraged lumber, and running a navy carpentry shop as though he were a member of the scamming crew of McHale’s Navy. He was a self-taught sailor who’d become a legend on Lake Ontario. At age 96, Ernie was still sailing.

Three men go fishing, leaving their wives and children behind. When the men don't return, two of their wives are understandably distraught. One wife, well, not so much. Kathy McNamara, a successful attorney, never thought she'd ever get married. Not after her heart was shattered by her high school boyfriend, Conor Clancy. But when Kathy meets Jack McNamara at her twentieth high school reunion and they marry after a whirlwind courtship, Kathy finally has the happily ever after she'd always dreamed of. Her heart, finally healed. So things are good. Not good, they're great, which is why Kathy ...

In July 1882, the steamboat Red Cloud hit a snag near Fort Peck, Montana, and settled into the bed of the Missouri River with a full cargo. The Red Cloud was a symbol-and a source-of the trading company's success. Bought for $25,000 in 1877, it was one of three boats that I. G. Baker employed on the Missouri. A stern-wheeled, wooden-hulled packet boat, the Red Cloud carried both cargo and passengers on a floating palace.

Randy Tagget and Keisha Miller return to the Augusta from their self-imposed exile, with orbital nomad Pierre Martin in tow. The environment has changed in their absence and the experiment in human survival is preparing to move into phase III. Yet even as they close in on their goal of returning to the surface of the planet to re-establish a human presence on earth, the risks inherent with achieving that goal become increasingly clear and intimidatingly unavoidable.

In the summer of 1914, the Empress Alexandra, a magnificent ocean liner, suffers a mysterious explosion on its voyage from London to New York City. On board are Henry Winter, a rich banker, and his young new wife, Grace. Somehow, Henry manages to secure a place in a lifeboat for Grace. But the survivors quickly realize it is over capacity and could sink at any moment. For any to live, some must die. As the castaways battle the elements, and one another, Grace watches and waits.

Inspired by the true history of the SS Great Britain, Starboard is about the friendship, heroism and bravery that you can find in others, whether they’re made of flesh or iron. It’s about taking control of your own life and going on epic adventures. But most of all, it’s about finding out who you really dare to be, when you’re completely out of your depth.

The human instinct for survival is strong, especially when the circumstances are dire. When five women and two men return to Earth as part of a disjointed and meager population, with the intent of completing a barely conceivable mission of reestablishing themselves on the surface and repopulating the planet, dire is an understatement.

The Earth is wrapped in a thick blanket of dense, dirt-infused cloud cover. It is the aftereffect of a massive slab of space debris slamming into the planet - potentially exterminating all animal life on the surface. Randy Tagget and several hundred survivors populate the Lifeboat Augusta, one of three orbiting space platforms intended to preserve human life. Tagget and his counterpart, Keisha Miller, launched into space with every intention of returning to earth as soon as it was safe.

In this fourth episode of The Wire Family series, meet Ambrose, the little brother, who discovers a small paper boat in the middle of a puddle in the school playground. How strange!