On the High Seas

Sea of Gray
Tom Chaffin

Chaffin chronicles the remarkable story of the 'Shenandoah''s 58,000- mile voyage around the world during the Civil War. Along the way, it sunk 334 Union merchant and whaling ships heavily laden with cargo, including brandy, rum, and whiskey. After the vessel rounded Africa's Cape of Good Hope, it stopped in Australia and then navigated the ice floes of Siberia's Sea of Okhotsk, the Bering Sea, and the Arctic Ocean--much of it through gales, ice fields, subfreezing temperatures, fog, and rain. The ship's crew hoped to destroy the Yankees' western Arctic whaling fleet, but four months after the war ended, the Shenandoah's captain learned that he had been fighting a war 'without cause or state.' He had gone from being an enemy combatant to a pirate, an offense that could get him hanged. He camouflaged the vessel, circumnavigated the globe, and attempted to surrender in England. Chaffin drew on hundreds of original documents in researching this riveting narrative of one episode of the Civil War.
Booklist Review; December 2005.

Captain James Cook
Richard Hough

Is James Cook to be best understood as an explorer and scholar or an agent of European imperialism? This comprehensive biography by a noted writer of popular maritime history tells Cook's story without taking much of a stand. Even as a junior naval officer, his abilities secured him one key appointment after another on exploration and survey expeditions between 1763 and 1779. Hough emphasizes the importance for military, commercial and scientific purposes of the accurate charts and maps produced by Cook. Anthropological investigations were by-products of Cook's usual primary missions. A mixture of arrogance and innocence led him to ignore signs of increasing friction between British sailors and Pacific islanders. His death by stoning at the hands of Hawaiian warriors on Feb. 14, 1779, heralded the end of the Age of Reconnaissance in the Pacific and the beginning of an age of conquest.
Publishers Weekly Review; January 1995.

Barrow’s Boys
Fergus Fleming

With no enemy to fight after the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, the British Navy was drastically reduced. Ships were laid up and crews discharged; thousands of officers lingered on the beach on half pay with nothing to do. John Barrow, second secretary of the Royal Navy, was also an enthusiastic supporter of travel and exploration and a writer for the geographical press. He had the brilliant idea of using some of the idle ships and men to explore the world, which in the early 19th century had not been adequately mapped. What was at the North Pole? Was there a Northwest Passage? What lay at the heart of Africa? From 1816 to 1857, Barrow organized 30 expeditions; many were unsuccessful, but they did fill in some blank areas of the globe. In his extensively researched effort, Fleming follows each exploring party. The result will be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in true adventure; Fleming has saved John Barrow from undeserved neglect.
Library Journal Review; February 2000.

The Way of a Ship
Derek Lundy

Lundy (Godforsaken Sea), an experienced amateur sailor, offers a gale-force recreation of a late 19th-century square-rigger voyage. He begins by introducing his Irish-Canadian great-great-uncle, sailor Benjamin Lundy. Since little information about Benjamin was available, the author combines the few facts with what he learned about life on square-riggers from maritime museums to fabricate an imaginary voyage and a fictitious ship, the Beara Head. Benjamin sets off on the Beara Head in 1885 amid 'the smoky mist and watery sun of a Liverpool spring day.' While charting the ship's course (around Cape Horn to Valparaiso and on to San Francisco), the author shares details of ship construction, food, equipment and the routine tasks of those onboard. He depicts the romance and tranquil beauty of square-riggers, along with the intense physical challenges the exhausted, sleep-deprived seamen deal with. Under 'the black, boiling clouds of the storm,' they wrestle with the topsail: 'The fight to control the sail becomes nightmarish toil without end.' Musical sea chants pitch and roll with gusto throughout this adventure tale, along with Lundy's personal sailing experiences, plus literary references from Conrad, Melville and others. Convincing dialogue crests on rippling waves of fiction, yet readers will surface with a strong sense of seagoing history, a knowledge of the specialized skills involved in keeping square-riggers afloat and a respect not only for the fierce power of the elements but also for Lundy's considerable talent as a writer.
Publishers Weekly Review; February 2003.

Over the Edge of the World
Laurence Bergreen

Ferdinand Magellan's ship was the first to circumnavigate the globe. While the accomplishment is recognized as a historic milestone, less known are the details of that voyage around the world. Magellan spent years trying to win the favor of the king of Portugal, and failing that he swore loyalty to the Spanish crown. After finally receiving Spain's backing for a trip to the Spice Islands, the king imposed numerous stipulations that would affect Magellan's crew and his authority over them. Once his fleet finally embarked, he had to contend with violent storms, mutinous crewmembers, and hostile natives. Bergreen tells a well-rounded story of Magellan, not just that of the romanticized hero but also that of the explorer's darker side. He also puts the voyage into its historical context, going into detail about what was known of the world at the time (and what was still uncharted), the rivalry between Portugal and Spain, and the church's attempt to divide up the New World between them. Fascinating reading for history buffs, and a great story that rivals any seagoing adventure.
Booklist Review; September 2003.

In the Heart of the Sea
Nathaniel Philbrick

It's the story Melville drew on for Moby Dick: an enormous whale bent on the destruction of the whaling ship that is chasing it. But Philbrick delves much deeper into the actual history of the nineteenth-century ship, the Essex, and the 20 sailors aboard, many of whom died when the vessel was tragically sunk. The details about the whaling industry in Nantucket and how oil was extracted from the huge creatures are fascinating, as are the facts and speculation about the physical and psychological ramifications the disaster had on the crew. It's a riveting, tale of struggle, heroics, and cowardice, vividly told.
Booklist Review; April 2001.

Resolute
Martin Sandler

Though there are plenty of detailed works about specific Arctic expeditions, a general history suffices for some readers. Sandler surveys the famous quest for the Northwest Passage, which the British navy actively pursued from 1818 to the early 1850s, when Robert McClure and crew made the first complete passage. But his renown was then and has ever since been eclipsed by the man he and several other commanders were dispatched to find: Sir John Franklin, whose disastrous fate is relayed in 'Ice Blink,' by Scott Cookman (2000). Among the many stories Sandler tells, the strangest concerns a ship, the 'Resolute', which was abandoned by another of Franklin's would-be rescuers. Somehow, the 'Resolute' drifted back to civilization, was discovered by an American whaling ship, and was returned to an appreciative Britain obsessed with any trace of Franklin. Later, Queen Victoria had a desk hewn from the 'Resolute' and given to President Rutherford Hayes; it today occupies the Oval Office. Endowed with dozens of images, Sandler's enticement to a popular topic in exploration history is well suited to library requirements.
Booklist Review; October 2006.

Longitude
Dava Sobel

While sailors can readily gauge latitude by the height of the sun or guiding stars above the horizon, the measurement of longitude bedeviled navigators for centuries, resulting in untold shipwrecks. Galileo, Isaac Newton and Edmund Halley entreated the moon and stars for help, but their astronomical methods failed. In 1714, England's Parliament offered £20,000 (equivalent to millions of dollars today) to anyone who could solve the problem. Self-educated English clockmaker John Harrison (1693-1776) found the answer by inventing a chronometer a friction-free timepiece, impervious to pitch and roll, temperature and humidity that would carry the true time from the home port to any destination. But Britain's Board of Longitude, a panel of scientists, naval officers and government officials, favored the astronomers over humble 'mechanics' like Harrison, who received only a portion of the prize after decades of struggle. Yet his approach ultimately triumphed, enabling Britannia to rule the waves. In an enthralling gem of a book, former New York Times science reporter Sobel spins an amazing tale of political intrigue, foul play, scientific discovery and personal ambition.
Publishers Weekly Review; September 1995.