In April 1988, after years of failed negotiations over the status of the Northwest Passage, Brian Mulroney gave Ronald Reagan a globe, pointed to the Arctic, and said "Ron that's ours. We own it lock, stock, and icebergs." A simple statement, it summed up Ottawa's official policy: Canada owns the icy waters that wind their way through the Arctic Archipelago. Behind the scenes, however, successive governments have spent over a century trying to figure out how to enforce this claim. Drawing on recently declassified material, Lajeunesse guides readers through the evolution of Canada's Arctic...

In 1514, Henry VIII granted the Corporation of Trinity House a royal charter establishing it as an authority in maritime matters within his kingdom. Later its remit was expanded to include responsibility for the provision and maintenance of aids to navigation. 500 years later the organisation is still responsible for the operation of lighthouses around England, Wales and the Channel Islands. Though automated now, these lighthouses are maintained in all their unique and idiosyncratic splendour, proving popular architectural landmarks with locals and visitors alike.

To celebrate...

The topsail schooner 'Lady of St Kilda' was built in 1834 for the wealthy Devon landowner Sir Thomas Dyke Acland. She was to become a key part in the development of the City of Melbourne at a time when untold prosperity was accelerating the growth of the City.

Designed as a 'fruit schooner' she served as a private yacht until she was sold to Pope & Co of Plymouth when she sailed out to Port Phillip Bay, Australia in1841. There she undertook several trading voyages for the merchants and shipping agents J B Were Brothers.

In 1842 she was prepared for a...

A monumental retelling of world history through the lens of the sea revealing in breathtaking depth how people first came into contact with one another by ocean and river, lake and stream, and how goods, languages, religions, and entire cultures spread across and along the world s waterways, bringing together civilizations and defining what makes us most human.The Sea and Civilization is a mesmerizing, rhapsodic narrative of maritime enterprise, from the origins of long-distance migration to the great seafaring cultures of antiquity; from Song Dynasty human-powered paddle-boats to...