Maritime Biography

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

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

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

"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

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

With the heart of a sailor and the narrative skill of a novelist, Dallas Murphy explores the enduring allure of the mythic Cape Horn. Located at the southernmost tip of the Andes, Cape Horn is a place where the storms are bigger, the winds stronger, the geography more dangerous for a seafarer than anywhere else in the world. From when it was named in 1616 until the present day, Cape Horn has had a rich history filled not only with the horrors of sailing disasters but also with the pleasures of Darwinian research into flora and fauna. The author uses his own voyage around Cape Horn to weave together the history of explorations, along with tales of Indians who lived there, the oceanography and meteorology of the region (with echoes of The Perfect Storm), the science of navigation and the natural history of the area. The result is the story of a sailor testing his own limits as well as a truly captivating depiction of one of the most fascinating areas on earth.

ISBN: 9780753818657

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

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