Maritime Biography

In 1759, at the age of nineteen, Mary Lacy donned a pair of men's breeches, adopted the name of William Chandler, and went to sea. Her autobiography (first published in 1773) chronicles her sea-faring adventures and gives a fascinating insight into the hardships of ordinary sailors in the 18th-century Navy. For her these were compounded by having to pretend to be a man. She nonetheless earned a name as a strong and reliable worker and, back on dry land, became an accomplished ship builder. Destitution, betrayal and amorous encounters all play a part in this intriguing tale. A brief introduction by Margarette Lincoln, Deputy Director of the National Maritime Museum, provides the historical context for this remarkable account.

Following one of the most inspiring and fascinating stories linked to the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, this book centres on the life and achievements of John Harrison designer and builder of the first accurate marine timekeepers. Harrison is a fascinating account of one man driven by the need to solve one of the greatest practical problems of his time. This new edition has more than 40 illustrations, including drawings of the clocks mechanisms. Fresh insights on Harrison and his achievements are joined by a new section on Rupert Gould, the man who restored Harrison s timepieces in the inter-war years.

For decades, boat building has catered for the rich and the elite, and has been out of the reach of ordinary people both economically and culturally. Iain Oughtred has challenged this philosophy by designing beautiful yet inexpensive wooden boats ideal for amateur construction, often basing the designs on traditional local craft. Iain has a cult following around the world as a result of his exceptionally appealing yet easy to build small boat designs, and this compelling book shows just why. The photography showcases the beauty of Iain's boats, as well as the stunning Scottish landscape where he is based. Nic Compton's evocative text traces Iain's journey and the development of his designs, the growth of the woodenboat movement and the take-up of Iain's designs by mainstream boat builders all over the world. This is the only full colour, comprehensive book on this popular small boat designer, and will appeal to existing Iain Oughtred enthusiasts as well as the more general boat building market, attracted by the gorgeous photography and drawn by Iain's reputation and the philosophy of the wooden boat movement as a whole.

The author was a young New Zealander, serving his time for a mate's ticket. More than 50 years later he tells his story. Characters in the book include his shipmates - the ageing Arthur and the awful Horace - and skippers who were too mean to allow the crew a meal of tripe.

ISBN: 9780850363272

During his six-year voyage, sailing a small craft on the lowest body of water in the world, the Dead Sea in Israel and the highest, Lake Titicaca in the Andes, Tristan Jones travelled a distance equal to twice the circumference of the world. This book tells of his adventures.

ISBN: 9780713645309

Two of Jane Austen's brothers served in Nelson's Navy and later became admirals. Francis Austen, on board the 'Canopus', narrowly missed the Battle of Trafalgar; Charles Austen in 'Endymion' captured numerous small prizes. It is not surprising that the Austen family, including Jane, took a deep personal interest in naval affairs. Apart from the church, the Navy was the profession which she knew and admired most. Her novels reflect this. 'Mansfield Park' includes a vivid portrait of life in Portsmouth, the estimable midshipman William Price and the less attractive Admiral Crawford; 'Persuasion' presents her most extended account of naval officers and attitudes, from the redoubtable Admiral Croft to Captain Wentworth himself. 'Jane Austen and the Navy', based upon family papers and naval records, shows the novelist as a historian of Nelson's Navy- not the Navy of great victories at sea, but the Navy at home, and of sailors amongst their family and friends- but it is set against the background of war, with Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, fought across the globe between 1793 and 1815. Now published in paperback for the first time, this fully revised and updated edition features full colour photographs and many new additions to the original text.

Setting sail for California to seek her fortune, young French woman Fanny Loviot has little idea of the adventures that lie in wait. After a business opportunity takes her to China, her appetite for excitement is saturated when the ship is attacked by Chinese pirates. Held hostage and kept alive only in expectation of a hefty ransom, Fanny almost gives up hope . . . A brief introduction by Margarette Lincoln, Deputy Director of the National Maritime Museum, provides historical context for this reprint of a long-neglected true-life adventure.

In 1960, when Sir Francis Chichester first raced singlehanded across the Atlantic, it was widely regarded as an insane stunt. Nowadays, the Singlehanded Transatlantic Race is not only accorded the greatest of respect but is also recognised as a true test of stamina and seamanship. Almost half a century after Chichester's achievement, amateur sailor Paul Heiney entered the race to prove that the Corinthian spirit of the transatlantic pioneers can still get you from one side of the Atlantic to the other - if you try hard enough. "The Last Man Across the Atlantic" is an honest account of what it is like to be out there alone. Even the strongest yacht takes a battering after 3,000 miles and there's no pit stop for repairs. Sails are torn, water goes sour, the last apple turns to mush and there's still three weeks to go before sight of land. Paul Heiney fully expected to be the last man across the Atlantic and said it didn't bother him in the slightest. 'It's enough to be able to say you climbed Everest without having to run up it as well. And this is the sailing Everest - for me, anyway.'

ISBN: 9781845961077

'Daddy's a sailor, why don't we sail around the world?' On board their 43-foot schooner Lucette, the Robertson family set sail from the south of England in January 1971 - and in June 1972 Lucette was holed by killer whales and sank in the Pacific Ocean. Four adults and two children survived the next 38 days adrift, first in a rubber life raft and then crammed into a 9-foot fibreglass dinghy, before being rescued by a passing Japanese fishing vessel. This is the story of how they survived, but it also tells of the 18-month voyage of the Lucette, across the Atlantic, around the Caribbean, through the panama Canal and out into the Pacific. It is a vivid and candid account of the delights and hardships, the excitements and the dangers, the emotional highs and lows experienced by the family both before and after the shipwreck.. Douglas Robertson has taken his father's classic book Survive the Savage Sea as his starting point, and has drawn upon a wealth of other sources, not least his own memories of a life-changing experience, to bring us this true story of adventure, of relationships strained to bursting point, of conflict and resolution - ultimately a very human and humbling tale.

At the age of 18 and with a taste for adventure, Francis Chichester emigrated to New Zealand with only ten pounds in his pocket. With the impetuousness of youth he tried his hand at a myriad of jobs, and by the age of 26 he had been a farmhand, a boxer, a shepherd, a lumberjack, a member of three trade unions - the Firemen's, the Miners' and the Timber Workers' - a railway worker, a gold prospector, a coal miner, a door-to-door salesman, and a land agent. And it was only then that his real adventures began. It would be from a chance business venture that Chichester would discover the passion for travel that would change his life. With a fellow risk-taker, he helped to establish an early aviation company and began to fly the planes - though not necessarily with an immediate talent. But enthusiasm and experience made him a leader of the field, and in 1929 he embarked on his most famous flight: a solo enterprise in the "Gipsy Moth" from England to Australia. He was the second person ever to accomplish that feat. He was a great sailor as well as aviator, and he won a trans-Atlantic race in the yacht "Gipsy Moth III", and in 1967 he was knighted. This is Sir Francis Chichester's autobiography - a tale of ardour and adventure, of intrepid endeavours on land, on the sea and in the air, and of the physical and mental challenges he faced.

ISBN: 9781840242072

Written for all those who love to explore in small boats. It is a book that aims to enthrall anyone who is entranced by the peace and solitude of the creeks at night and the moan of the sea on the sands

ISBN: 9780713656916

An innovative study of naval women who stayed at home while their men went to sea. Focusing on the second half of the 18th century, a period when Britain was almost continuously at war, this book looks at different social groups, from the aristocratic elite to the labouring and criminal poor, prostitutes and petty thieves. Drawing on a range of material from personal letters to trial reports, from popular prints to love tokens, it exposes the personal cost of warfare and imperial ambition. It also reveals the opportunities for greater self determination that some women were able to grasp, as the responsibility for maintaining the home and bringing up children fell squarely on them in their husbands' absence.

"Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson rocketed to public fame in 1797. Eight years later he died, aged 47, in the moment of his greatest victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. This biography traces his spectacular and often controversial career.

ISBN: 9781860075070

Elizabeth I was originally dubbed 'the pirate queen' by Philip II of Spain and acknowledged as such by the pope. Extravagant, whimsical, hot-tempered, sexually enticing and the epitome of power, Elizabeth I has never ceased to amaze, entertain, and educate through the centuries. Yet very little has been written, and no books have been dedicated to, Elizabeth I for the financial magician that she was. She played the helpless woman in a man's world to great effect and beleaguered Protestant queen in a predominantly Catholic Europe, using her wiles to exploit every political and social opportunity at hand.Yet her many accomplishments would have never been possible without her daring merchants, gifted rapscallion adventurers, astronomer philosophers, and stalwart Privy Councilors like William Cecil, Francis Walsingham, and Nicholas Bacon. All these men contributed their vast genius, power, greed, and expertise to the rise of England and the foundations of the British Empire. Her foundation of empire was built on a carefully choreographed strategic plan where privateering - piracy to us today - was the expedient method she and her advisors selected to turn her rogue state into the greatest empire the world has ever seen.

ISBN: 9780060820671

This is the first history to be published on the life of Lou Tercel, a working-class Auckland crane driver turned legendary yacht designer, and his best-known creation. Built in the backyard of the family home, Ranger dominated the A-class competition from her launch in 1938 until finally outclassed by the technological advances of the 1960s, and is credited with inspiring today's crop of successful Kiwi sailors, many of whom have made it to the pinnacle of world yacht racing. Yachtsmen from Chris Bouzaid and the late Peter Blake to Chris Dickson and Russell Coutts have credited Ranger on their path to success in the Whitbread, One Ton Cup and America's Cup. Lou Tercel's name is well known in the international yachting community, and was posthumously honoured when Ranger was selected to represent New Zealand and the America's Cup team at Cowes, England in 2001.

ISBN: 9781869661069

What time is it? We are surrounded by accurate time. We can hear time signals on the radio or look at automatically-corrected kitchen clocks. Our home computers are synchronized by the internet or we can pick up the telephone and call the speaking clock. But how did people check the time before all this existed? Ruth Belville: the Greenwich Time Lady tells the tale of how Greenwich Mean Time was distributed around London. From 1836 until 1940, the Belville family sold time by carrying an eighteenth-century pocket watch round their subscribers in central London. Drawing on original sources, including personal correspondence, official papers, newspaper reports and eye-witness accounts, David Rooney has uncovered the fascinating truth behind what previous historians dismissed as a service 'maintained more as a tradition than out of necessity'. Quite the reverse, Rooney argues. John, Maria and Ruth Belville operated a service that was much in demand and, for many users, the best option available. Ruth's story is interwoven with a colourful cast of characters, from millionaires and murderers to the Girl with the Golden Voice. There are scientists, telephonists, terrorists and horologists, poets and paupers, bombers and bell-ringers. In this thoughtful, richly detailed and spirited book, David Rooney reveals the human faces behind the remorseless tick of the clock.

Joshua Slocum's epic solo voyage around the world in 1895 in the 37-foot sloop "Spray" stands as one of the greatest sea adventures of all time. Starting from Boston in 1895, by the time he dropped anchor in Newport, Rhode Island over three years after his journey began, he had cruised some 46,000 miles entirely by sail and entirely alone. It remains one of the major feats of single-handed voyaging, and has since been the inspiration for the many who have gone to sea in small boat.

ISBN: 9780713667776

In the 1890s Captain Joshua Slocum, an ageing Massachussetts merchantman, was the first man to circumnavigate the globe single-handed. He did so in a 37-foot sailboat he had rebuilt from a derelict oyster sloop. He set down the story of his odyssey in this volume.

ISBN: 9780911378207

Joshua Slocum's solo voyage around the world stands as one of the greatest sea adventures of all time. Starting from Boston in 1895, by the time he dropped anchor in Rhode Island over three years later, he had cruised some 46,000 miles entirely by sail and entirely alone.

ISBN: 9781574092615

When nineteen year old Alexander Scrimgeour lost his life at the Battle of Jutland in 1916, he had already left a legacy - complete diaries spanning the previous six years, chronicling first his life as the son of a wealthy stock broker, then his time as a young sea cadet and finally as a Sub-Lieutenant in His Majesty's Navy. Like all good midshipmen were required to do, Scrimgeour took great pride in writing his journals and was careful to recount every event with marked sincerity. Appalled by some of the actions of the British Admiralty and the Germans alike, Scrimgeour risked court-martial to record some of the more notorious incidents during World War I, and what really happened...His candid way of writing coupled with an articulate and imaginative turn of phrase has left us with first hand evidence shedding light on some extraordinary moments of the Great War. Among his revelations, Scrimgeour reveals the real reason behind the sinking of the HMS Hawke, the events preceding the capture of the infamous Baron Von Wedel - head of the German Spy Bureau and Privy Councilor to the Kaiser and what he learnt from dining with his Naval Commanders as the ship's interpreter. A great deal of attention is devoted to his personal life, including his numerous love affairs, his relationship with his family and his anguish at the loss of close friends killed during the war.Up until now, the few existing war diaries have generally been written by those who fought in the trenches. To have such a detailed and well preserved account of the Great War, written so eloquently from a naval standpoint is nothing less than a marvel.With thousands of British sailors losing their lives at sea during World War I, it is important to draw on all remaining first hand evidence so that we remember, and never forget the heroic actions of our ancestors during one of our country's darkest episodes...Through the diaries of Alexander Scrimgeour, we can do just that.

ISBN: 9781844860753

In Shackleton's Forgotten Men Lennard Bickel honours the memory of a group of men who carried out some of the most heroic and devoted journeys ever made in the Antarctic. This is the stirring account of the little-known, tragic expedition launched by Ernest Shackleton in 1915 to provide support for his own Antarctic expedition that would follow.These journeys were made to set up depots across the Great Ice Shelf to supply the coming Shackleton expedition: a crossing of the Antarctic continent from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea. But the group lost their ship and supplies when a fierce polar gale ripped the ship from its moorings, and had to haul sledges almost 2000 miles across the hostile interior of the Antarctic. Despite enduring unimaginable deprivation, from bad weather to disease and madness, this heroic band accomplished their mission, laying the way for Shackleton and his men. But Shackleton and his men never came and the drama of their own disastrous journey has until now overshadowed the extraordinary story of those brave men who came before them. Lennard Bickel tells the story of these forgotten heroes in a gripping account, drawing largely from interviews with one team member, Dick Richards, and from the diary of another. This new account underscores the capacity of ordinary men for tragedy, endurance and noble action.

ISBN: 9780712668071

In June 1972 Dougal Robertson's yacht with his family aboard was attacked by killer whales in the Pacific Ocean and sank in seconds. This book is the story of their fight for survival.

ISBN: 9780713643169

A couple of quiet weeks sailing on the river Severn was the intention, 'Somehow things got out of hand...' Writes A J Mackinnon. 'A year later I had reached Romania and was still going.' Equipped with his cheerful optimism and a pith helmet, this Odysseus in a Mirror dinghy takes you with him from the borders of North Wales to the Black Sea-4900 kilometres over salt and fresh water, under sail, at the oars or at the end of a two rope-through twelve countries, 282 locks and numerous trials and adventures including an encounter with Balkan pirates. An epic voyage undertaken with courage and recounted with flair and humour.

ISBN: 9780953818051

Features humorous description of a life spent sailing in different boats, and many adventures.

ISBN: 9780954706272

On Friday 14 June 1968 Suhaili, a tiny ketch, slipped almostunnoticed out of Falmouth harbour steered by the solitary figure at herhelm, Robin Knox-Johnston. Ten and a half months later Suhaili,paintwork peeling and rust streaked, her once white sails weathered andbrown, her self-steering gone, her tiller arm jury rigged to the rudderhead, came romping joyously back to Falmouth to a fantastic receptionfor Robin, who had become the first man to sail round the worldnon-stop single-handed. By every standard it was an incredible adventure, perhaps the lastgreat uncomputerised journey left to man. Every hazard, everytemptation to abandon the astounding voyage came Robin's way, frompolluted water tanks, smashed cabin top and collapsed boom to lostself-steering gear and sheered off tiller, and all before the tinyketch had fought her way to Cape Horn, the point of no return, thefearsome test of any seaman's nerve and determination. A World of My Own is Robin's gripping, uninhibited, movingaccount of one of the greatest sea adventures of our time. An instant bestseller, it is now reissued for a new generation of readers to beenthralled and inspired.

ISBN: 9780713668995

A collection of some of Tristan Jones's seagoing adventure tales.

ISBN: 9780713642131