Besides being a skillful woodworker and accomplished model shipbuilder, (check out his model of the bark Wanderer on display at the special orders counter) Ken is also our in-house expert on all things nautical. Here are a few new and noteworthy titles now available in our local interest and nautical history sections.

Ten Hours Until Dawn: The True Story of Heroism and Tragedy Aboard the Can Do Michael Tougias St. Martin's Press © Aug. 2005 $24.95 hardcover		Ten Hours Until Dawn: The True Story of Heroism and Tragedy Aboard the Can Do tells the story of pilot boat Captain Frank Quirk and his four man crew as they attempt a daring rescue in Salem sound, off the Massachusetts coast. Book List called Ten Hours "Arguably the best book of peril at sea since Sebastian Junger's Perfect Storm."

Nantucket Sleigh-Ride: A Notebook of Nautical Expressions Edward Lodi Rock Village Pub. © 2005 $14.95 paperback		Brace up! Stop your blubbering. Don't be a deadbeat. Just because you're in the doldrums, fagged out, at loose ends, and all at sea when it comes to recognizing nautical expressions such as slush fund or shanghai or splice the mainbrace doesn't necessarily mean you've come to the end of your rope, or even to the bitter end. Tell that to the marines! This A-1 book contains more than 250 expressions which, by and large, will in the long run -- if you keep your weather eye open -- help you see the point and get the drift on all the scuttlebutt of seafaring heritage. Nantucket Sleigh-Ride will keep you on an even keel even if you're half seas over or three sheets to the wind, so that from now on it will all be plane sailing For whom is this first-rate book intended? Why, you son of a sea cook! for students, writers, wordsmiths, historians, folklorists and other lovers of language and our cultural heritage, as well as for the idly curious and those for whom a story about the history of words is about as good as it gets.

The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty Caroline Alexander Viking Pr. © Sep. 2003 $27.95 hardcover		More than two centuries have passed since Master's Mate Fletcher Christian mutinied against Lieutenant Bligh on a small, armed transport vessel called the H.M.S. Bounty. Why the details of this obscure adventure at the end of the world remain vivid and enthralling is as intriguing as the truth behind the legend. Best-selling author Caroline Alexander (The Endurance) reveals the startling truth behind the legend using a fresh perspective that wonderfully revivifies the entire saga.

The Ultimate Book of Lighthouses Samuel Willard Crompton and Michael J. Rhein Thunder Bay Pr. © Sep. 2003 $29.98 hardcover		The sheer beauty of the elegant, lonely lighthouses along our shores -- and their unspoiled, scenic natural settings -- has captivated our collective imagination. More than simply picturesque, the lighthouse has become an enduring symbol of salvation, fortitude, and heroic folklore. The Ultimate Book of Lighthouses is a panoramic, lavishly illustrated history of these legendary buildings and celebrates the rich heritage of our ancestors' courageous efforts to guide mariners through treacherous seas and storms.

Dead Men Tapping Kate Yeomans International Marine Pub. © Sep. 2003 $24.95 hardcover		The gripping true story of a failed rescue and a tragedy at sea in the predawn darkness of September 5, 1996, the Heather Lynne II was struck by a barge and overturned in calm seas 10 miles off Cape Ann, Massachusetts. As the story unfolds, we come to know the trapped fisherman, their community, their would-be rescuers, the Coast Guardsmen, and the crew of the tug and barge that ran down the Heather Lynne II. These ordinary people, doing what they think is their best, propel Dead Men Tapping to its heartbreaking conclusion.

Evolution's Captain: The Dark Fate of the Man Who Sailed Charles Darwin Around the World Peter Nichols HarperCollins © Oct. 2003 $24.95 hardcover		Evolution's Captain is the story of a visionary but now forgotten English naval officer but for whom the "Darwinian Revolution" would never have occurred. When Captain Robert FitzRoy, the twenty-six-year-old captain of the H.M.S. Beagle, set out for Tierra del Fuego in the fall of 1831, he invited a young naturalist to accompany him. That twenty-two-year-old gentleman was Charles Darwin, and perhaps no single voyage in history had a greater impact on how we would come to understand the world -- in both religious and scientific terms.

Cook: The Extraordinary Sea Voyages of Captain James Cook Nicholas Thomas Walker & Company © Oct. 2003 $28.00 hardcover		The publication of Nicholas Thomas's brilliant Cook heralds what will be our generation's definitive biography of a giant of the eighteenth century. Blending an elegant, assured style with bold, cross-disciplinary originality. Thomas breathes life into the complex and controversial legacy of an often-misunderstood man.

Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe Laurence Bergreen William Morrow & Co. © Oct. 2003 $27.95 hardcover		A groundbreaking tale of discovery that brings to life Ferdinand Magellan's daring circumnavigation of the globe in the 16th century, a three-year odyssey filled with sex, violence, and amazing adventure -- based on first-hand accounts that have never been used before.

Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy Diana Preston Walker & Co. © May 2002 $28.00 hardcover		The deliberate sinking of the ocean liner Lusitania was no less a shock to the world of 1915 than the September 11 terrorist attacks were to the world of 2001. Dubbed "The Greyhound of the Seas" by her admiring passengers, the Cunard liner Lusitania was a floating grand hotel with style, elegance, and a clientele of the rich and famous. While her sister ship, Mauretania, became a troop ship at the onset of war, Lusitania continued passenger service through a North Atlantic that had become the hunting grounds of German U-boats. Controversy continues over whether the ship was carrying munitions, and if this made her a legitimate wartime target. Setting the tragedy in its historical and cultural perspective, Preston explores these and other issues in this definitive volume, a must for any ocean liner or First World War collection.
Readers may also try, Lusitania: Saga and Myth David Ramsay W.W. Norton & Co. © May 2002 $29.95 hardcover		The Lusitania's sinking in May 1915 by a German U-boat was widely publicized, and from that day the ship's history has been filled with legend and speculation. David Ramsay unravels those myths to give a clear and enthralling account of the people involved, potentates and presidents, ambassadors and ministers of state, bankers, shipping magnates, spies, and not least the captain, William Turner. Based on detailed research, this new book includes an extensive, exciting account of the history and circumstances surrounding the sinking.

After the Storm John Rousmaniere McGraw-Hill © May 2002 $24.95 hardcover		Throughout history, storms at sea have transformed the lives of those who lived them and those left behind on shore. Seafarers and the terrifying weather they have faced come to life in these interrelated stories of survival. Rousmaniere, author of Fastnet, Force 10, has lived through such a storm, and that experience helps give the narratives their emotional power.

Sea Life in Nelson's Time John Masefield Naval Inst. Pr. © Jun. 2002 $32.95 hardcover		First published in 1905, this nautical history classic by John Masefield, originator of the term tall ship, illuminates the world of Lord Horatio Nelson's Royal Navy. Gigantic oak-timbered ships like HMS Victory were warships in every sense, but were also part of a very "Upstairs, Downstairs" sort of world, in which officers and other "gentlemen" lived in relative comfort and some privacy, while ordinary crewmen slept in cramped common areas below. A time of dramatic action and change, "Nelson's era" had become romanticized, even glamorized, in the public imagination during the latter part of the nineteenth century. Masefield's text describes a harsh, sometimes brutal, life lived under strict discipline and constant threat from enemies and the elements.

Atlantic: The Last Great Race of Princes Scott Cookman John Wiley & Sons © Mar. 2002 $24.95 hardcover		Delineating a glorious era in maritime history, Atlantic is the first comprehensive account of the legendary 1905 Kaiser's Cup Transatlantic Race and the international - and individual - intrigue that fueled it. In the hands of master storyteller Scott Cookman - with characters no fiction can duplicate - this dazzling chronicle vividly recounts one of the most dramatic long-distance yacht races in history."

Wood, Wind and Water: A Story of the Opera House Cup Race of Nantucket Carolyn M. Ford, photos by Anne T. Converse On Cape Publications © Jun. 2002 $55.00 hardcover		This beautiful volume is like a gallery of marine photography. Indeed, each page features an image of wooden yacht racing that would look great on a wall, with the gray skies and steel blue water off Nantucket contrasted by the bright hulls and gleaming topsides of gorgeous wooden boats. The informative complementary text gives a history of Nantucket Island and the Opera House Cup. Arranged by vessel type, the book also tells of the competing yachts' personal histories and unique designs.

Until the Sea Shall Free Them Robert Frump Doubleday © May 2002 $24.95 hardcover		In 1983 the Marine Electric, a "reconditioned" World War II vessel, was on a routine voyage thirty miles off the East Coast of the United States when disaster struck. As the old coal carrier sank, chief mate Bob Cusick watched his crew - his friends and colleagues - succumb to the frigid forty-foot waves and subzero winds of the Atlantic. Of the thirty-four men aboard, Cusick was one of only three to survive. And he soon found himself facing the most critical decision of his life: whether to stand by the Merchant Marine officers' unspoken code of silence, or to tell the truth about why his crew and hundreds of other lives had been unnecessarily sacrificed at sea.

The Voyage of the Catalpa Peter F. Stevens Carroll & Graf © Feb. 2003 $15.00 paperback		Launched from New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1876, the American whaling ship Catalpa set out on a mission of mercy. This suspenseful book tells the real-life rescue of six Irish rebels from Britain's infamous prison colony in Fremantle, Australia. Despite the title, the book covers far more than just the rescue ship's voyage, bringing to life the web of political interests and conflicts among Ireland, England and the U.S. toward the end of the 19th century. In a fast-moving narrative that reads like fiction, journalist Stevens describes the ordeal of the Irishmen in prison, as well as the plotting of the clandestine rescue mission.

Demon of the Waters: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Whaleship Globe Gregory Gibson Little, Brown & Co. © May 2003 $14.95 paperback		In 1985 Greg Gibson was sent a handwritten journal which turned out to be a young officer's account of the 1825 naval expedition dispatched to the Pacific with orders to apprehend the perpetrators of the Globe mutiny. This journal was the first eyewitness account of the fate of those mutineers and it became a unique research tool for Gibson as he wrote Demon of the Waters. The Globe mutiny and its aftermath were notorious as the goriest crime in American maritime history; involving hatchet murders, stabbings, shootings and a shipboard lynching. Dovetailing Gibson's riveting account of the mutiny is the history of the sperm oil industry, its Nantucket Quaker powerbrokers, the growth of American naval influence and how their combined agendas played out in the remote reaches of the Pacific.
Readers may also try, Mutiny on the Globe Thomas Farel Heffernan Penguin USA © May 2003 $14.00 paperback		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, he organized a mutiny and murdered the officers of the Globe. It was a premeditated act: in his sea chest Comstock carried the seeds and tools with which he would found his own island kingdom. The Globe's story is one of terror, adventure, endurance, and luck. It is also the story of one of the most bizarre and frightening minds that ever went to sea.

Hornblower's Ships: Their History and Their Models Martin Saville Brassey's © Apr. 2002 $19.95 paperback		Huge, yacht-sized model warships duking it out on the water with real gunpowder - the stuff of childhood fantasies. Yet, for the makers of the "Horatio Hornblower" television series, the fantasy became reality. A wealth of photos and illustrations guide the reader along a seemingly improbable path as a team of Ukrainian boat builders crafts a small fleet of enormous models to be used by special-effects crews in England. Historical information on the types of vessels built is found throughout, as wells as set aside in a special reference section, making this book interest and value to both nautical history buffs and model builders.

The Sea Shall Embrace Them: The Tragic Story of the Steamship Arctic David W. Shaw Touchstone Books © May 2003 $14.00 paperback		The 1854 collision at sea between the Arctic and the Vesta, a much smaller French steamship, set in motion one of the most harrowing event in maritime history, with enormous and tragic consequences. David W. Shaw, who brings decades of experience as a seaman to his writing, has based this riveting tale on the firsthand testimony of the few who survived the wreck, including its heroic captain, James C. Luce. The Sea Shall Embrace Them is a stirring narrative that puts the reader on the deck as a shipful of men, women, and children do battle both with a mighty ocean and with their own baser instincts to survive.

Keeper of Lime Rock Lenore Skomal Running Press © May 2002 $12.95 paperback		Ida Zoradia Lewis (1842-1911) was seeking neither fame nor fortune when she grabbed the oars and took to the choppy waters off the coast of Newport, Rhode Island. Her goal was to rescue two drowning soldiers. Though her father, Captain Hosea Lewis, was the lighthouse keeper of record, he had become too infirm to conduct his daily duties let alone perform a dangerous rescue in a snowstorm. When published reports and newspapers ran stories of the rescue, her life changed. That summer alone, 9,000 visitors came to meet the heroine, including President Ulysses S. Grant, Susan B. Anthony and other luminaries. Lenore Skomal has meticulously researched and uncovered original source material, and recounts the stories of other courageous women who tended the precious Fresnel lens and saved countless lives through their steadfast work.

The Race: The First Nonstop, Round-the-World, No-Holds-Barred Sailing Competition Tim Zimmermann Houghton Mifflin Co. © Jun. 2002 $25.00 hardcover		Why saw the handle off your toothbrush? Why Tackle the world's stormiest waters in a fragile craft that has never weathered such seas before? The answer to both questions is the same: to sail faster than anyone has before. In engrossing, suspenseful detail, The Race relates how and why participants in the first running of The Race risked millions of dollars and their lives to dash around the world in record time. No race has ever left so little margin for error.

White Hurricane: The Great Lakes Storm of 1913 David G. Brown McGraw-Hill © Jun. 2002 $24.95 hardcover		Autumn gales have pursued mariners across the Great Lakes for centuries. On Friday, November 7, 1913, those gales captured their prey. After four days of winds up to 90 miles an hour, freezing temperatures, whiteout blizzard conditions, and mountainous seas, 19 ships had been lost, two dozen had been thrown ashore, 238 sailors were dead, and the city of Cleveland was confronting the worst natural disaster in its history. In White Hurricane, writer and mariner David G. Brown combines narrative intensity with factual depth to re-create the events of the "perfect storm" that struck America's heartland.

The Lost Fleet: The Discovery of a Sunken Armada from the Golden Age of Piracy Barry Clifford William Morrow & Co. © Jul. 2002 $27.95 hardcover		On January 2, 1678, a fleet of French ships sank in the Caribbean Sea, one hundred miles off the Venezuelan coast, on the killer reef of Las Aves Island. These wrecks, whic claimed more than 1,200 lives, proved disastrous for French naval power in the region and sparked the rise of a golden age of piracy, an era that was forever to alter the shape of the Americas. In The Lost Fleet, writer, explorer, and deep-sea diver Barry Clifford interweaves the dramatic tale of this maritime catastrophe - and the dangerous upsurge of piracy in the world's seas - with the contemporary account of his own expedition to document and explore the wrecks.