As ships left port on Friday, November 7, 1913, a deadly atmospheric disturbance was already churning Lake Superior and spreading east. By Sunday night, Lake Huron was battered by winds up to 90 miles an hour, whiteout blizzard conditions, and mountainous 35-foot waves. The White Hurricane became the worst Great Lakes storm on record: twelve ships sank, and thirty-one more were stranded on rocks and beaches. At least 248 sailors lost their lives, and the city of Cleveland faced the worst natural disaster in its...

In the midst of the Blizzard of 1978, the tanker Global Hope floundered on the shoals in Salem Sound off the Massachusetts coast. The Coast Guard heard the Mayday calls and immediately dispatched a patrol boat. Within an hour, the Coast Guard boat was in as much trouble as the tanker, having lost its radar, depth finder, and engine power in horrendous seas. Pilot boat Captain Frank Quirk was monitoring the Coast Guard's efforts by radio, and when he heard that the patrol boat was in jeopardy, he decided to act. Gathering his crew of four, he readied his forty-nine-foot steel boat,...

Of all the ships human beings have constructed to navigate the waters of the world -- from a hollowed-out log sharpened at both ends to modern ocean liners weighing thousands of tons -- those powered by the wind are among the most interesting and beautiful.
In this classic review, noted maritime artist Gordon Grant has created 80 magnificent line illustrations of some of history's most important sailing ships, beginning with a graceful Egyptian galley (c. 1600 B.C.) and ending with a splendid five-masted clipper ship of 1921. Also depicted are a Roman trireme, a Viking longship, a...

First published in 1808, The Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor became a standard guide throughout the 19th century in both England and the United States. Author Darcy Lever compiled the text for "a young gentleman whose inclinations at that time led him to the choice of a sea-faring life," and he later expanded its contents for the general use of young officers in the Royal Navy and East India Company.
Starting with a precise explanation of the principles of rigging, the text proceeds to a well-defined account of a ship's operation through the effect of the wind on its sails....

Big, fast, and powerful, the Queen Mary lived a long life that included 1,001 successful Atlantic crossings. Launched in Southampton, England in 1934, the ship at one time held the record for the fastest-ever North Atlantic crossing, and for a number of years carried the rich and famous across the ocean in luxury. Her running mate, the Queen Elizabeth, christened four years later, saw service in World War II and afterward provided deluxe transatlantic travel. These two ships, among the most famous and most successful ocean liners of the twentieth century, are given royal...