Maritime English

In June 1631, pirates from Algiers and armed troops of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, led by the notorious pirate captain Morat Rais, stormed ashore at the little harbor village of Baltimore in West Cork. They captured almost all the villagers and bore them away to a life of slavery in North Africa. The prisoners were destined for a variety of fates—some would live out their days chained to the oars as galley slaves, while others would spend long years in the scented seclusion of the harem or within the walls of the Sultan's palace.

WATER AND ICE is both an exciting, newly-discovered sea story, and a detailed reference book that belongs in the book-collection of anyone interested in maritime or immigration history. Arthur Mattson’s original research into the maritime history of Long Island and the Port of New York in the 1830s tells of: • Two dramatic shipwrecks and rescue attempts on the South Shore of Long Island. • A mass grave in the village of Lynbrook, containing 139 victims. • Merchants, sailors, passengers, and tall ships in the Age of Sail. • The brave men and women (and the cowards) involved in the ...

Follow Christoph Swift and his diverse band of companions as they navigate the treacherous waters of the Traders World. In a realm where minosium—a gem of extraordinary power—fuels both progress and conflict, every wave conceals a potential ally or enemy. But in this world where ambition and magic intertwine, every alliance harbors a hidden agenda. As Christoph and his unlikely crew sail from sun-drenched archipelagos to mist-shrouded islands, each discovery brings them closer to the mythical Labyrinth—and to danger. Facing ruthless factions and ancient mysteries, they must master ...

The Royal Navy to which Admiral Lord Nelson sacrificed his life depended on thousands of sailors and marines to man the great wind-powered wooden warships. Drawn from all over Britain and beyond, often unwillingly, these ordinary men made the navy invincible through skill, courage and sheer determination.

In October 1902, the barque Veronica set sail from Ship Island, Biloxi, Mississippi, on what proved to be her last voyage. Carrying a cargo of pitchpine and a crew of twelve men, the ship never reached her intended destination, Montevideo. Tensions among the mixed crew and officers on board quickly built up, culminating in mutiny and disaster in mid Atlantic. "Blood on the ocean" is the first full-length account, based on extensive research, dealing with this strange and unsolved maritime mystery. It is an exciting story, bringing back to life the last days of the big sailing ships and the ...

The fearsome wrath of the storms that brew over the Great Lakes has challenged and defeated some of the staunchest vessels constructed in the shipyards of port cities along the US and Canadian lakeshores. Here Richard Gebhart tells the tales of some of these ships and their captains and crews, from their launches to their sad demises—or sometimes, their celebrated retirements. This volume is a must-hear for anyone intrigued by the maritime history of the Great Lakes.

With Bonaparte held to a stalemate in Europe, the race to empire is now resumed. Britain's ambitions turn to the Spice Islands, the Dutch East Indies, where Admiral Pellew has been sent to confront the enemy's vastly rich holdings in these tropical islands. Captain Sir Thomas Kydd joins reinforcements to snatch these for the British Crown. The two colonial masters of India and the East Indies face each other in mortal striving for the region—there can be only one victor to hold all the spoils.

Captain Alan Lewrie and his small squadron defeat four French frigates off northern Spain, winning honor, glory, and renown. So, why is such a successful captain suddenly without a ship, or another active commission? Why do rumors swirl that jealous foes' powerful patrons are blighting his career? Months on end ashore, even in entertaining London getting his portrait painted, put him in serious sulks. Well, the artist is the sister of one of his midshipmen, a delightful and talented young lady of a modern outlook, but not modern enough to become Lewrie's lover.

Between August and October 1720, two female pirates named Anne Bonny and Mary Read terrorized the Caribbean in and around Jamaica. Despite their short career, they became two of the most notorious pirates during the height of the eighteenth-century Golden Age of Piracy. In a world dominated by men, they became infamous for their bravery, cruelty and unwavering determination to escape the social constraints placed on women during that time.

In 1808, an American merchant ship happened upon an uncharted island in the South Pacific and unwittingly solved the biggest nautical mystery of the era: the whereabouts of a band of fugitives who, after seizing their vessel, had disappeared into the night with their Tahitian companions. Pitcairn Island was the perfect hideaway from British authorities, but after nearly two decades of isolation, its secret society had devolved into a tribalistic hellscape; a real-life Lord of the Flies, rife with depravity and deception.

Robert Fairchild thought he had it all—until the U.S. government knocked on the door of his Park Avenue apartment. Accused by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of owning shares in a VLCC trading sanctioned Russian oil, the hedge fund manager turned shipowner watches his world capsize. His fortune. His reputation. His marriage. Even his freedom. Exiled to a trailer park in the Florida Keys, Robert searches for a way out. But when his volatile partner—Norwegian shipping tycoon Coco Jacobsen—vanishes on his yacht, the crisis deepens. Then a Boston private equity ...

In the early eighteenth century, the British and Spanish Empires were fighting for economic supremacy in the Americas. Tensions between the two powers were high, and wars blossomed like violent flowers for nearly a hundred years, from the War of Spanish Succession, culminating in the War of Jenkins' Ear. Even though it happened decades before American independence, The War of Jenkins' Ear reveals that this was truly an American war; a hard-fought, costly struggle that determined the fate of the Americas, and in which, for the first time, American armies participated.

2015 saw the worst American maritime disaster in decades. The captain of the SS El Faro commanded his crew to sail straight into a hurricane. The ship sank and all 33 crew members died. The sinking raised troubling questions: Why did the captain choose to sail into the hurricane? Why did no one on board or on shore stop him? And why was such an old and heavily loaded ship even allowed on the water?

The Great Lakes shipping industry can trace its lineage to 1679 with the launching on Lake Erie of the Griffon, a 60-foot galley weighing nearly 50 tons. Built by LaSalle, a French explorer who had been commissioned to search for a passage through North America to China, it was the first sailing ship to operate on the upper lakes, signaling the dawn of the Great Lakes shipping industry as we know it today. Steamboats and Sailors of the Great Lakes is the most thorough and factual study of the Great Lakes shipping industry written this century.

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 ...

"China Sea Gold" is a thriller novel set in the mysterious and tumultuous waters of the China Sea in the early 20th century. Its narrative, filled with maritime escapades, dangerous and deceiving conspiracies, and an unending quest for hidden treasure, unfolds aboard a creaky, rickety ship navigating through some of the most treacherous waters on Earth. The Story The harrowing tale centers around Mr. Smith, a foreign correspondent who finds himself caught up in a web of deceit and treachery aboard the steamship Kut Sang. As he joins the vessel bound for Hong Kong, he crosses paths with a ...

Beginning with the Continental Navy, Small Boats and Daring Men traces maritime missions through the wars of the early republic, from the coast of modern-day Libya to the rivers and inlets of the Chesapeake Bay. Armstrong brings a uniquely informed perspective to his subject; and his work is at once an exciting narrative of danger and combat at sea and a thoroughgoing analysis of how these events fit into concepts of American sea power.

Think you know about the commercial diving industry? Think again. Low pay, hard conditions, constant travel and substance abuse are just some of the absurdities Scott A. Kilgore witnessed and took part in while working in this wild and dangerous profession. Under Dark Waters gives a true picture of the working diver’s world. It lays waste to old presumptions that presented a more glamorous lifestyle believed by many to be the truth. It exposes the dysfunctions and absurdities while still showing the intensities, camaraderie and tough lifestyle endured by commercial divers everywhere. This...

From 1792 to 1795, George Vancouver sailed the Pacific as the captain of his own expedition and as an agent of imperial ambition. To map a place is to control it, and Britain had its eyes on America's Pacific coast. And map it Vancouver did. His voyage was one of history's greatest feats of maritime daring, discovery, and diplomacy, and his marine survey of Hawaii and the Pacific coast was at its time the most comprehensive ever undertaken.

The Battle of Dunkirk, in May/June 1940, is remembered as a stunning defeat yet a major victory as well. The Nazis had beaten back the Allies and pushed them across France to the northern port of Dunkirk. In the ultimate race against time, more than 300,000 Allied soldiers were daringly evacuated across the Channel. This moment of German aggression was used by Winston Churchill as a call to Franklin Roosevelt to enter the war.