Ships Shipbuilding category: 835 books

The technological marvel of its age, the Erie Canal grew out of a sudden fit of inspiration. Proponents didn't just dream; they built a 360-mile waterway entirely by hand and largely through wilderness. As excitement crackled down its length, the canal became the scene of the most striking outburst...

The true story of one of history’s most notorious mutinies is revealed in this riveting “nautical murder mystery” (USA Today). In May 1841, the Massachusetts whaleship Sharon set out for the whaling ground of the northwestern Pacific. A year later, while most of the crew was out hunting,...

“The hunting down and sinking of the magnificent German battle cruiser Scharnhorst was one of the epic actions of World War II . . . stirring” (Work Boat).   On December 25, 1943, the German battle cruiser Scharnhorst slipped out of Altenfjord in Norway to attack Arctic convoy JW55B which...

Against fantastic odds, a small group of men had built a fleet that proved one of the decisive factors in the American Revolution and the War of 1812. They had gathered the wealth that founded the first banks in the United States and built its first railroads, factories, and steamships. Now, they were...

All along the Mississippi--on country plantation landings, urban levees and quays, and the decks of steamboats--nineteenth-century African Americans worked and fought for their liberty amid the slave trade and the growth of the cotton South. Offering a counternarrative to Twain's well-known tale from...

For passengers of the steamboat Wawaset, August 8, 1873, began with a pleasant cruise from Washington, D.C., down the Potomac River. As the Wawaset came into sight of a small Virginia landing, fire broke out below decks, and frantic passengers leapt from the flames only to be pulled down by the swift...

From renowned pirate historian David Cordingly, author of Under the Black Flag and film consultant for the original Pirates of the Caribbean, comes the thrilling story of Captain Woodes Rogers, the avenging nemesis of the worst cutthroats ever to terrorize the high seas. Once a marauding privateer...

Riveting account traces careers of buccaneers of many nationalities across 2 centuries and around the globe — from the West Indies to the South Seas. True stories of such notorious brigands as Captain Kidd and Edward (Blackbeard) Teach, as well as such lesser-known pirates as John Quelch, Christopher Scudamore, and Erasmus Peterson.

The historian R. H. Tawney famously wrote, ‘The sixteenth century lives in terror of the tramp.’ The eighteenth century lived in terror of the tramps of the seas – pirates. Pirates have fascinated people ever since. It was a harsh life for those who went ‘on the account’, constantly overshadowed...

The execution of Captain William Kidd on 23 May 1701 is one of the most controversial and revealing episodes in the long history of piracy. The legend that has grown up around Kidds final voyage, his concealed treasure and the dubious conduct of his trial, has made him into one of the most intriguing...

A bloody mutiny on a whaling journey, followed by an incredible tale of survival on land and sea. Samuel Comstock knew he was born to do some great thing, but his only legacy was a reign of terror. Two years out of Nantucket on a whaling voyage in 1824, he organized a mutiny and murdered the...

"Highly entertaining and well-documented." — The*New York Times*While history has painted most pirates as "abominable brutes," capable of the worst cruelties and driven by insatiable greed, the author of this fascinating study insists that pirates have suffered more than their share of bad press,...

World War II helped to define Tristan Jones as an adventurous Welsh youth. After losing his parents, he spent much of his life working on sailing barges and so he is no stranger to the seas when he’s called to fight for Britain during the Blitz in 1940. Tristan Jones is not only caught in the middle...

The official volume marking the centenary of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, known as the 'Wavy Navy' because of the distinctive wavy gold stripes on the reservists' uniforms, from its formation in 1903 through its unification with the mercantile Royal Reserve in 1958, and on to its present complete...