Maritime


AMUNDSEN, ROALD.

Author: Bomann-Larsen, Tor
Country: England
Language: English
Year Published: 2011
No. of pages: 384
Illustrations: 0 Color Illustrations. 79 B&W Illustrations.
Binding: Softbound
Size: 9”x 6”
Weight: 2.00
ISBN: 9780750943444
Biblio/Bio: Index.
Code: 6962

Price: $16.50

On December 14, 1911, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his team became the first human beings to reach the South Pole, just five weeks before Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova expedition arrived. Amundsen had already led the first expedition to traverse the Northwest Passage, and would go on to lead the first successful attempt to cross the Arctic by air (perhaps even becoming the first to truly reach the North Pole, according to some expert interpretations). Yet his personal life was complex to say the least, with a string of mistresses (including Eskimo women he brought back to Norway) and a poisonous relationship with his brother. He disappeared in 1928 while taking part in an airborne rescue mission in the Arctic; his body was never found. With a foreword by polar explorer Pen Hadow, and vivid firsthand accounts from Amundsen and his crew, this biography looks beyond the familiar image of the hero, following the remarkable rediscovery of some 15,000 letters and papers in a barn outside Oslo.

BERING. The Russian Discovery of America

Author: Frost, Orcutt
Country: England
Language: English
Year Published: 2003
No. of pages: 330
Illustrations: 20 B&W Illustrations.
Binding: Hardbound with Jacket
Size: 9 1/2”x 6 1/2”
Weight: 2.00
ISBN: 300100590
Biblio/Bio: Bibl. Index.
Code: 5946

Price: $14.50

Vitus Jonassen Bering (1681-1741) is a towering figure in the history of exploration. In the course of two expeditions that consumed most of his adult life - and eventually led to his death - he journeyed from St. Petersburg to Siberia and ultimately to the norhtwest coast of North America. Along with the members of his expedition, Bering greatly expanded the Russian empire, pioneered the geography of the North Pacific Ocean, and laid the groundwork for Russian trade and settlement in the American West. In the first biography of Bering written in more than a century, Frost chronicles the life of this extraordinary explorer. Drawing on a wide range of new evidence - including personal letters and archaeological evidence derived from the recent discovery of Bering’s grave site - the author reconstructs Bering’s personality, his perilous voyages, and his uneasy relationship with the naturalist Georg Steller, unobtrusively guided the stranded expedition as Bering lay dying. A riveting narrative of adventure and disaster on the high seas, this biography is also a major contribution to the history of maritime exploration.

BRITISH TRAWLERS AND ICELAND 1919-1976.

Author: Thor, Jon Th.
Country: Denmark
Language: English
Year Published: 1995
No. of pages: 269
Illustrations: 30 B&W Illustrations.
Binding: Softbound
Size: 9”x 6”
Weight: 1.00
ISBN: 8787453827
Biblio/Bio: Bibl.
Code: 5724

Price: $49.50

Recommended reading for anyone interested in the history of fisheries, international politics or enviromental issues. The problem of scarce resources was highlighted in the Cod Wars between Iceland and the United Kingdom through the 1950s to 1976. British frigates and Icelandic coast guard vessels confronted each other on one of the world’s most important trawling grounds. NATO and the UN were involved, when the concept of an economic zone was first established. This is the first fully-documented study of the history of protectionist measures in the North Atlantic, and it deals comprehensively with the biological, economic and political parameters of the conflict. Controversially, the author reveals the political rather than biological considerations dictated the first decades of the struggle for economic protectionism, whereas the decline in British trawling industry predated the extension of the economic zone.

DANISH NORTH SEA LIGHTSHIPS.

Author: Morten Hahn-Pedersen
Country: Denmark
Language: English/ French
Year Published: 1991
No. of pages: 64
Illustrations: 51 B&W Illustrations.
Binding: Softbound
Size: 8 1/2”x 9 1/2”
Weight: 1.00
ISBN: 8787453541
Biblio/Bio: Bibl.
Code: 1895

Price: $19.50

Lightships are uniquely Danish--floating lights placed at sea where fixed lights cannot penetrate. Since the 2nd World War, technological developments have rendered them obsolete, but they have a fascinating history. This book is the most comprehensive on the subject, with information about the ships’ construction, life on board, the seamen who sailed them, and the potential tragedies the lightships have prevented.

FARTHEST NORTH. The Epic Adventure of a Visionary Explorer

Author: Nansen, Fridtjof
Country: New York
Language: English
Year Published: 2008
No. of pages: 678
Illustrations: 0 Color Illustrations. 194 B&W Illustrations.
Binding: Softbound
Size: 9”x 6”
Weight: 3.00
ISBN: 9781602392373
Biblio/Bio:
Code: 6675

Price: $17.95

In September of 1893, Norwegian zoologist Fridtjof Nansen and crew manned the schooner Fram, intending to drift, frozen in the Arctic pack-ice, to the North Pole. When it became clear that they would miss the pole, Nansen and companion Hjalmar Johansen struck off by themselves. Racing the shrinking pack-ice, they attempted, by dog-sled, to go "farthest north." They survived a winter in a moss hut eating walruses and polar bears, and the public assumed they were dead. In the spring of 1896, after three years of trekking, and having made it to within four degrees of the pole, they returned to safety. Nansen's narrative stands with the best writing on polar exploration.