When three French sailors were rescued after 13 days adrift in the Pacific, they attributed their survival and rescue to a manual required aboard all French lifeboats. That manual has now been translated into English and is here available to the American public. Survivors and professionals alike wholeheartedly recommend this priceless guide for everyone venturing to sea. 150 drawings. 2 ocean-current charts. Plotting tool.
The fire extinguisher; the airline safety card; the lifeboat. Until September 11, 2001, most Americans paid homage to these appurtenances of disaster with a sidelong glance, if at all. But John Stilgoe has been thinking about lifeboats ever since he listened with his father as the kitchen radio announced that the liner Lakonia had caught fire and sunk in the Atlantic. It was Christmas 1963, and airline travel and Cold War paranoia had made the images of an ocean liner's distress--the air force dropping supplies in the dark, a freighter collecting survivors from lifeboats--seem like echoes of a bygone era. But Stilgoe, already a passionate reader and an aficionado of small-boat navigation, began to delve into accounts of other disasters at sea. What he found was a trunkful of hair-raising stories--of shipwreck, salvation, seamanship brilliant and inept, noble sacrifice, insanity, cannibalism, courage and cravenness, even scandal. In nonfiction accounts and in the works of Conrad, Melville, and Tomlinson, fear and survival animate and degrade human nature, in the microcosm of an open boat as in society at large. How lifeboats are made, rigged, and captained, Stilgoe discovered, and how accounts of their use or misuse are put down, says much about the culture and circumstances from which they are launched. In the hands of a skillful historian such as Stilgoe, the lifeboat becomes a symbol of human optimism, of engineering ingenuity, of bureaucratic regulation, of fear and frailty. Woven through Lifeboat are good old-fashioned yarns, thrilling tales of adventure that will quicken the pulse of readers who have enjoyed the novels of Patrick O'Brian, Crabwalk by G nter Grass, or works of nonfiction such as The Perfect Storm and In the Heart of the Sea. But Stilgoe, whose other works have plumbed suburban culture, locomotives, and the shore, is ultimately after bigger fish. Through the humble, much-ignored lifeboat, its design and navigation and the stories of its ultimate purpose, he has found a peculiar lens on roughly the past two centuries of human history, particularly the war-tossed, technology-driven history of man and the sea.
A physician, NASA consultant, and expert on the extreme conditions that confront the human body journeys into six inhospitable environments to examine the reaction of the body to heat, cold, pressure, starvation, and exhaustion and its own innate survival strategies.
The range of environments in which people can survive is extensive, yet most of the natural world cannot support human life. The Biology of Human Survival identifies the key determinants of life or death in extreme environments from a physiologist's perspective, integrating modern concepts of stress, tolerance, and adaptation into explanations of life under Nature's most austere conditions. The book examines how individuals survive when faced with extremes of immersion, heat, cold or altitude, emphasizing the body's recognition of stress and the brain's role in optimizing physiological function in order to provide time to escape or to adapt. In illustrating how human biology adapts to extremes, the book also explains how we learn to cope by blending behavior and biology, first by trial and error, then by rigorous scientific observation, and finally by technological innovation. The book describes life-support technology and how it enables humans to enter once unendurable realm, from the depths of the ocean to the upper reaches of the atmosphere and beyond. Finally, it explores the role that advanced technology might play in special environments of the future, such as long journeys into space.
Today's hardworking professionals are navigating sudden waves of financial stress, management shakeups, and downsizing. Using the experiences of Titanic survivors as a powerful metaphor, executive coach Maggie Craddock offers lessons for a transformative approach to our professional lives, one that recognizes that "every man for himself" doesn't work long-term. Lifeboat is organized as a series of key questions we all need to ask ourselves when facing unexpected career disruption or difficult changes at our existing jobs. These questions help readers clarify their authentic priorities, assess the group energy that guides a particular workplace, and identify the type of job that will help them reach their true potential.
Essentials of Sea Survival contains original scientific research and investigations from two internationally recognized experts on cold-water survival. In addition to having practical personal experience with cold water immersion, Frank Golden and Michael Tipton regularly lecture at various international conferences about water survival, and they are frequently called on for expert commentary on television and radio. The majority of books on this subject are personal survival accounts; few relate to scientific studies. This book is different: Using reader-friendly language, two leading environmental physiologists present the facts and dispel the myths of surviving a sea accident. The book, thanks to the real-life stories and easy-to-read format, will appeal primarily to the layperson who works or plays on or near the water. The text will also be of interest to an academic audience, who will appreciate the original research and up-to-date physiological and medical information Essentials of Sea Survival is a compelling, informative, and comprehensive guide to open-water survival. Drawing from classic maritime disasters and personal accounts of near-miraculous survival, as well as carefully controlled laboratory experiments, it offers practical advice for avoiding as well as surviving a cold-water accident. It’s an important reference for anyone associated with open-air aquatic activities, such as members of the Coast Guard, Navy, and Marines; offshore oil rig employees; fishermen; divers; amateur and professional sailors; water safety instructors and life guards; water rescue personnel; boaters; water skiers; outdoor survival course instructors; and other recreational water sports enthusiasts.
