Sailing with the Arabs in their Dhows, in the Red Sea, Round the Coasts of Arabia, and to Zanzibar and Tanganyika; Pearling in the Persian Gulf; and the Life of the Shipmasters and the Mariners of Kuwait

Reprint of Alan Villiers’ classic account, first published in 1940, of his voyage as a crew-member in a Kuwaiti dhow from Aden to Zanzibar and Rufiji, and then back to the Gulf and Kuwait with the monsoon winds. Villiers also spent some weeks with the Kuwaiti pearling fleet in the Gulf. Vivid and highly readable, Sons of Sindbad is not only a classic of maritime writing but also one of the finest books of Arabian travel.

SS Terra Nova (1884-1943)

From the Arctic to the Antarctic - Whaler, Sealer and Polar Exploration Ship

This is the story of one of Britain's most famous expedition ships put together from accounts recorded by men who sailed in her. It covers a sixty year history of the ship built at Dundee by a famous Scottish shipbuilding company for the late 19th century days of whaling and sealing before coal, gas and electricity took over from animal oils in domestic and commercial use. The Terra Nova operated from her home port of Dundee and afterwards St. John's, Newfoundland, when a sea-going career in the sealfishery during those times brought a hard way of life with many human losses and tragedies.

Steam Lion - A Biography of Samuel Cunard

The summer of 1840, and Boston Harbor is thrumming with politicians, business people, civic leaders, members of the judiciary, and the public. The city is ready for a celebration, and its citizens are waiting impatiently for the arrival of a new age. The elegant Britannia finally enters the harbour loaded with mail from England ushering in the Age of Steam to the Atlantic. This event crystallises Samuel Cunard's vision and the world will never be the same. This is the story of a man born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia, whose father and mother fled colonial New York after the American Revolution, and became one the most powerful forces of international trade in the nineteenth century. His innovative steamship Britannia was the first reliable, timely link between the Old World and the New, and the transatlantic transportation of mail, goods, and passengers was revolutionised. The continued success of the Cunard Line is a testament to Samuel Cunard's brilliance as both a mariner and a businessman. The first full-length biography of one of the most fascinating figures in mercantile history, "Steam Lion" is an important and engaging record of a man, his business, and his times.

Sunken Ships World War II

"Sunken Ships of World War II" is truly one of the greatest compendiums of naval history that has ever been put together. Not only does it give an exhaustive chronology of events and actions of the United States Navy, it also contains listings of the Allies (American and English) and of the Axis (Japanese, German and Italian) naval losses wherever they took place.

Each of the pages of this book is packed with minute information on each sunken vessel. Entries also include the most available information on the commanders, crews, size, displacement and location in degrees of each vessel, the battles, the forces, and just about any other particular information of interest on each vessel. By any measurement, "Sunken Ships of World War II" stands alone for its depth and breath of the information revealed in its detailed pages.

Windjammmers - The Final Story

This is a unique book in that Robert Carter had the rare opportunity to acquire first-hand information about the last of the wind driven ships from the final generation of sailing ship sailors. His friendship with Captain Eben Anderson led on to other contacts in the world of square rig and to world-wide connections through the Finnish grain ships. The book is an interesting blend of interviews, diary extracts and stories, all illustrated with forty of Robert Carter's beautiful and detailed paintings. These paintings are not just illustrations of ships but each, with its own description reveals yet another story or happening from the days of sail. We are also given a good insight into the various reasons why commercial sail lost the battle against powered vessels, how it was able to exist until half way through the 20th century and also some very colourful accounts of the harsh life in the last of the windjammers.

Foreword; Introduction; The Last Days of Sail; Life in a Sailer; The Limejuicers: British and Australasian Sail; The French Bounty Ships; German Sail and the 'P' Liners; North American Sail; The Grain Ships and the Erikson Era; Wartime and Post-war Windjammers; Glossary; Index.

Women and Children Last

The Burning of the Emigrant Ship Cospatrick

A sea voyage in the nineteenth century was not for the faint-hearted. The hazards were many and accidents commonplace. Of the ways a ship might meet its end, destruction by fire was perhaps the most feared. Wooden sailing vessels were particularly vulnerable and without breathing apparatus it was next to impossible to fight a fire below decks. The period saw a number of catastrophic shipboard fires, but that involving the New Zealand-bound emigrant ship Cospatrick was certainly the most destructive. When she burned and sank off the coast of Southern Africa in 1874, nearly 500 people lost their lives. There was a desperate battle to quench the fire, a huge death toll as the vessel was being abandoned, and acts of cannibalism in the one lifeboat that remained afloat. This book is based on research carried out in Britain, New Zealand and Australia. While it relates the story of the Cospatrick and the nightmare survival of only three people, it also looks at the larger picture of safety at sea.

Fire at Sea; The Complete Cospatrick; Ships' Boats and the Victorian Seascape; A Fatal Voyage; Henry McDonald's Lifeboat; Cospatrick's Second Mate; Aftermath. Appendices. Bibliography.