To sail the oceans needed skill as well as courage & experience, & the sea chart with, where appropriate, the coastal view, was the tool by which ships of trade, transport or conquest navigated their course. This book looks at the history & development of the chart & the related nautical map, in both scientific & aesthetic terms, as a means of safe & accurate seaborne navigation. The Italian merchant-venturers of the early thirteenth century developed the earliest `portulan` pilot charts of the Mediterranean. The subsequent speed of exploration by European seafarers, encompassing the New World, the extraordinary voyages around the Cape of Good Hope & the opening up of the trade to the East, India & the Spice Islands were both a result of the development of the sea chart & in addition as an aid to that development. By the eighteenth century the discovery & charting of the coasts & oceans of the globe had become a strategic naval & commercial requirement. Such involvements led to Cook`s voyages in the Pacific, the search for the Northwest Passage & races to the Arctic & Antarctic. The volume is arranged along chronological & then geographical lines. Each of the ten chapters is split into two distinct halves examining the history of the charting of a particular region & the context under which such charting took place following which specific navigational charts & views together with other relevant illustrations are presented. Key figures or milestones in the history of charting are then presented in st&-alone story box features. This new edition features around 40 new charts & accompanying text. ...

Part of the Penguin Classics campaign celebrating 100 years of Albert Camus, `A Sea Close By` reveals the writer as a sensual witness of landscapes, the sea & sailing. It is a light, summery day-dream. Accompanying ` The Sea Close By` is the essay ` Summer in Algiers`, a lovesong to his Mediterranean childhood. ...

In 1916, a three-masted windjammer bearing Norwegian colours sailed out of a quiet anchorage in Germany, loaded with cargo & apparently bound for Australia. Her true mission was quite different. The ship was, in fact, the SMS Seeadler, commanded by swashbuckling German aristocrat Felix von Luckner. Over an epic voyage, he used cunning & deception to destroy fourteen merchant ships, all the while evading the utterly foxed & infuriated British Admiralty in a daring game of cat & mouse. This rip-roaring World War I story depicts a life of espionage, counterespionage & piracy of the most gentlemanly kind. ...

A startling new book, his most personal to date, from Philip Hoare, winner of the 2009 Samuel Johnson Prize for ' Leviathan'. The sea surrounds us. It gives us life, provides us with the air we breathe & the food we eat. It is ceaseless change & constant presence. It covers two-thirds of our planet. Yet caught up in our everyday lives, we barely notice it. In ' The Sea Inside', Philip Hoare sets out to rediscover the sea, its islands, birds & beasts. He begins on the south coast where he grew up, a place of almost monastic escape. From there he travels to the other side of the world
- the Azores, Sri Lanka, New Zealand
- in search of encounters with animals & people. Navigating between human & natural history, he asks what these stories mean for us now. Along the way we meet an amazing cast; from scientists to tattooed warriors; from ravens to whales & bizarre creatures that may, or may not, be extinct. Part memoir, part fantastical travelogue, ' The Sea Inside' takes us on an astounding journey of discovery.

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A startling book, his most personal to date, from Philip Hoare, co-curator of the Moby-Dick Big Read & winner of the 2009 Samuel Johnson Prize for ` Leviathan`. The sea surrounds us. It gives us life, provides us with the air we breathe & the food we eat. It is ceaseless change & constant presence. It covers two-thirds of our planet. Yet caught up in our everyday lives, we barely notice it. In ` The Sea Inside`, Philip Hoare sets out to rediscover the sea, its islands, birds & beasts. He begins on the south coast where he grew up, a place of almost monastic escape. From there he travels to the other side of the world
- the Azores, Sri Lanka, New Zealand
- in search of encounters with animals & people. Navigating between human & natural history, he asks what these stories mean for us now. Along the way we meet an amazing cast; from scientists to tattooed warriors; from ravens to whales & bizarre creatures that may, or may not, be extinct. Part memoir, part fantastical travelogue, ` The Sea Inside` takes us on an astounding journey of discovery.

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A mysterious trip to the desolate Northern Isles soon turns into a terrifying adventure when Bill is kidnapped! Marooned far from the mainland on a deserted coast, Philip, Dinah, Lucy-Ann, Jack & Kiki the parrot find themselves playing a dangerous game with an unknown enemy. Will they escape with Bill & their lives? ...

Goa, south India. A beautiful holiday hideaway where hippies & backpackers while away the hours. But beneath the clear blue skies lies a dirty secret… Simran Singh is desperate for a break & some time away from her busy job as a social worker-come-crime investigator. & so the unspoilt idyll of Goa seems just the place
- white beaches, blue seas & no crime. But when a disturbing video appears on her phone, featuring a young girl being attacked by a group of men, she realises that a darkness festers at the heart of this supposed paradise. & when she discovers out that the girl is Liza Kay, a British teenager who has gone missing, she knows she must act in order to save her. But first Simran must break through the web of lies & dark connections that flourish on these beaches. Everyone, it seems, knows what has happened to the girl but no one is prepared to say. & when more videos appear, & Simran herself is targeted in order to keep her quiet, the paradise soon becomes a living nightmare.
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Kim lived a wild & rootless youth, entirely devoid of meaning, until he discovered his passion: deep-sea diving. In his exploration of the stunning, untouched paradise beneath the surface of the water he found freedom, solace & a means of escape from the terrors of his past. But those were the old days. Now, he has just about settled into family life in London, until his best friend, the virtuoso waterman Garland Rain, offers him a chance to make some money on the side as a private diving instructor on a three-week excursion to the spectacular reefs in the Southern Red Sea; it's an opportunity he can't refuse. Then the two men find out that the dive is being run by a notorious gangster who lives a life of drugs & violence, & while Garland tries to contain the worst excesses & ensure that the guests are diving safely, Kim finds himself increasingly drawn to the dark side of the boat's temptations. As everything escalates increasingly out of control, tragedy befalls the dive & Kim discovers that the decisions you make in the moment come back to haunt you & sometimes even follow you home.. . ...

The Sea Survival Manual is the definitive book on the subject for anyone aboard a yacht of any size. It is aimed at the yachtsman or seafarer who is likely to proceed to sea out of the sight of l&, whether for pleasure or professional reasons. Fully compliant with the IMO (International Maritime Organisation) resolutions & MCA (Maritime Coastguard Agency) regulations it embodies Sea Safety checks issued by the MCA & RNLI & is completely international in its appeal.

Includes:: chapters on safety & survival equipment, Global Maritime Distress & Safety Systems (GMDSS), liferafts, grab bags, medical equipment & advice, first aid & emergency treatment, abandoning ship, survival in a liferaft & rescues at sea. This is the first modern book to tackle the subject from the small craft point of view.

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This is a classic real-life story of derring do on the high seas, complete with extreme risk, last-minute ingenuity & many near-misses. Beginning in the 1960s, this book tells of the real life adventures of the author as a boy
- a time of boarding schools, long holidays & an unbelievable (to today`s parents) amount of freedom & danger. Encouraged by his parents (who lived abroad) to become more independent & self-sufficient, Peter decided to see how far he could get in his family`s small open dinghy Calypso. Aged 16, he spent a winter restoring her, before pootling straight out into a force 7 gale & very nearly capsizing, after which he headed back to land to plan even more extreme adventures. Calypso was a Wayfarer, a small (16ft) & very popular class of open dinghy; a boat designed for pottering around coastlines & estuaries during the day. But along with the occasional brave crewmate, Peter managed to sail her across the Channel, through the Bay of Biscay, down the French canals & into the Mediterranean, then up into the North Sea & the Baltic to Oslo, living aboard for three months at a time. These were some of the longest voyages that anyone had ever achieved in an open boat, where (as Peter says) you `have to be like a tightrope walker, concentrating on balance day & night, fully aware of the consequence of relaxing your vigilance`. He survived huge waves, nine rudder breakages in heavy seas, dismasting, capsizes, & hallucinations caused by sleep deprivation. He also managed it on a tiny budget, working as a farm labourer, hitchhiking everywhere, & at times living on one meal of cereal a day, to save the maximum amount for his boat. Charming, quite British in style, beautifully written & a lovely insight into a seemingly golden time, this is primarily a great read, but will be of huge practical use to anyone wanting to go that bit further in their dinghy. It also

Includes:: a lovely Foreword by world-famous yachtsman Brian Thompson.


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