Helen Plum Library

It started on a summer afternoon in 1795 when a young man named Daniel McGinnis found what appeared to be an old site on an island off the Acadian coast, a coastline fabled for the skullduggery of pirates. The notorious Captain Kidd was rumored to have left part of his treasure somewhere along here, and as McGinnis and two friends started to dig, they found what turned out to be an elaborately engineered shaft constructed of oak logs, nonindigenous...

The naval warfare of the last few decades appears dominated by operations of fast missile craft and a wide diversity of other minor vessels in so-called 'littoral warfare'. On the contrary, skills and knowledge about antisubmarine warfare on the high seas – a discipline that dominated much of the World War II, and once used to be the reason for existence of large fleets of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and of the Warsaw Pact –...

Stirring tales of heroism at sea have been ingrained in the annals of maritime history since time immemorial. Christopher Columbuss discovery of the New World, Queen Elizabeth Is defeat of the Spanish Armada, and Horatio Nelsons victory at Trafalgar are just some of Britains most memorable naval triumphs. But what about the lesser-known tales from our seafaring past? The Victorian who invented a swimming machine in order to cross the English Channel;...

The Struggle for Sea Power is the fourth book in M. B. Synge's engaging Story of the Worlds series. This edition focuses on the age of European Empires and world colonization in America, Australia, South Africa, and India. Synge also covers the American and French Revolutions, as well as the campaigns of Napoleon. This volume makes history come alive for your child.

First published in 1968 and 1976, the two volumes of this work still constitute the only authoritative study of the broad geo-political, economic and strategic factors behind the inter-war development of the Royal Navy and, to a great extent, that of its principal rival, the United States Navy. Roskill conceived the work as a peacetime equivalent of the official naval histories, filling the gap between the First World War volumes and his own study...

The emigrant ship William and Mary departed from Liverpool with 208 British, Irish, and Dutch emigrants in early 1853. Captained by young American Timothy Stinson, the vessel was sailing for New Orleans when the ship wrecked in the Bahamas in mysterious circumstances. Instead of grounding the ship on a nearby shore or building rafts for the passengers, Stinson and the majority of his crew sneaked away in lifeboats murdering at least two of the emigrants...

What was it like to live and work at a lighthouse during the heyday of shipping and fishing? How did lighthouse keepers and their families stationed on remote islands while away the long, cold, lonely hours between trips to the mainland for food and supplies? Here you'll find a record of the charming memories and stories of America's lighthouse keepers, including descriptions of daily life at a lighthouse.

The Atlantic Ocean has been and remains an often deadly challenge to mankind. This delightful and informative book chronicles the history of attempt to cross its hostile surface from the early days of sail to the most recent record breaking attempts in small ultra-fast craft. In between there have been fascinating sagas connected to pioneering discovery, the slave trade, mass emigration, the glamour and luxury of the famous shipping lines and war....

What is the purpose of navies in the modern world, and what types of warship does this require? This book tackles these questions by looking at naval developments, both technological and operational, in the quarter century since the end of the Cold War. It provides the overall political and economic context, assesses significant naval operations from the first Gulf War to Russias annexation of Crimea, reviews changes in the objectives and composition...

The book looks at London's maritime history from the establishment of Roman Londinium to the present day. It discusses many different aspects of life on the Thames and its connecting waterways and canals. There was a time when the River Thames was the main highway for the city, when watermen plied their trade carrying passengers and goods in a wide variety of craft, ranging from rowing boats to sailing barges. The Thames was also, for many centuries,...