Around the shores of the Pacific Ocean, along the western coastline of California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and Alaska, lie the remains of legions of vessels of every description and every flag. Some lie buried in the depths, never to be found. Others lie as twisted remains along the beaches or entombed down in the sands. Still others have been completely eradicated by the forces of nature. A few carried treasure; some have been recovered but most never will be. Though the greatest treasure has been discovered along the Caribbean and eastern seaboards, most of it was originally lost there while much of the Pacific lay undiscovered. The Pacific rim may yet yield finds of fabulous value. These ideas and many others are explored in Jim Gibbs' most recent book, Peril at Sea. This is a fascinating work on peril at sea and the continuing battle of man against the elements. Each chapter is an accurate chronicle by location of the ships and their sailors who met fateful ends along the Pacific Coastline.
It is the summer of 1588 and a pair of unlikely shipmates is traveling on the Vixen, a privateer that will soon be drafted to join a flotilla of English ships bound for a fiery clash with the Spanish Armada. Seventeen-year-old Sherwin is aboard to repay a debt he owes the ship's roguish captain, Brandon Fletcher. Sixteen-year-old Katharine is sailing with them in a desperate bid to save her noble family's fortune. The fight will be harrowing and bloody, and the unfolding tumult will challenge the character of both Sherwin and Katharine, who are about to discover the deeper meaning of strife and of honor. This fascinating tale affords an unusual view of one of the most important naval encounters in history, as a kindling romance between two young people takes place amidst a reluctant race to battle.
Primarily set in the northern Bahamas, this book weaves its story of post-apocalyptic survival into the local sub-tropical seascape and the sailing culture that can be found there. With its evocative use of real locations haunted by zombie-like infected and atmospheric depictions of the trials of life at sea drawn from the author's own experiences, For Those In Peril On The Sea provides a new and unusual take on the traditional post-apocalyptic genre. From the back of the book: After a six week voyage across the Atlantic, they couldn't wait to get to shore. When they got there, they found the land would never be safe again... There was nothing to suggest it would be anything more than a routine delivery. Four people thrown together by chance, sailing a newly-built catamaran from South Africa to Miami. But while they were away, something happened, something none of them could ever have imagined. When they get back to civilisation, they find it no longer exists. The land is no longer safe. Their only option is to stay on the boat and try to survive. Join Bill, Rob, Jon and CJ as they travel around their frightening new world. One where they must struggle against the infected that now rule the land, the elements and each other.
In Peril on the Sea is the story of missionary widow Ethel Bell and her children--Mary, 14, and Robert, 11--uprooted by the war from their West African station, find themselves on a small freighter bound for America. It is 1942. Sights and sounds of war envelop the world. And in the arena of the South Atlantic the infamous German submarine U-66 prowls the gray waters. Suddenly, on a peaceful August afternoon, a shrieking alarm pierces the stillness. Torpedoes explode. Fire engulfs the ship and within two minutes it disappears beneath the oil-slimed, shark infested waters. What follows is an almost unbelievable saga of death and despair as mother, daughter and son find themselves on an eight-by-ten foot raft along with two orphaned missionary children and fourteen male crew members. For twenty days aboard the bobbing vessel, Ethel Bell becomes pastor, peacekeeper, teacher, mediator and caregiver. But the story does not end with the surprising rescue. Years later, in a poignant moment, Robert Bell meets his "enemies" face to face. The war is over. God's love and forgiveness have triumphed.
“HEAVEN HELP THE SAILOR ON A NIGHT LIKE THIS.” –old folk prayer In late December 1951, laden with passengers and nearly forty metric tons of cargo, the freighter S.S. Flying Enterprise steamed westward from Europe toward America. A few days into the voyage, she hit the eye of a ferocious storm. Force 12 winds tossed men about like playthings and turned drops of freezing Atlantic foam into icy missiles. When, in the space of twenty-eight hours, the ship was slammed by two rogue waves–solid walls of water more than sixty feet high–the impacts cracked the decks and hull almost down to the waterline, threw the vessel over on her side, and thrust all on board into terror. Flying Enterprise’s captain, Kurt Carlsen, a seaman of rare ability and valor, mustered all hands to patch the cracks and then try to right the ship. When these efforts came to naught, he helped transfer, across waves forty feet high, the passengers and the entire crew to lifeboats sent from nearby ships. Then, for reasons both professional and intensely personal, and to the amazement of the world, Carlsen defied all requests and entreaties to abandon ship. Instead, for the next two weeks, he fought to bring Flying Enterprise and her cargo to port. His heroic endeavor became the world’s biggest news. In a narrative as dramatic as the ocean’s fury, acclaimed bestselling author Frank Delaney tells, for the first time, the full story of this unmatched bravery and endurance at sea. We meet the devoted family whose well-being and safety impelled Carlsen to stay with his ship. And we read of Flying Enterprise’s buccaneering owner, the fearless and unorthodox Hans Isbrandtsen, who played a crucial role in Kurt Carlsen’s fate. Drawing on historical documents and contemporary accounts and on exclusive interviews with Carlsen’s family, Delaney opens a window into the world of the merchant marine. With deep affection–and respect–for the weather and all that goes with it, he places us in the heart of the storm, a “biblical tempest” of unimaginable power. He illuminates the bravery and ingenuity of Carlsen and the extraordinary courage that the thirty-seven-year-old captain inspired in his stalwart crew. This is a gripping, absorbing narrative that highlights one man’s outstanding fortitude and heroic sense of duty. “One of the great sea stories of the twentieth century… [a] surefire nautical crowd-pleaser.” --Booklist é (starred review) “Frank Delaney has written a completely absorbing, thrilling and inspirational account of a disaster at sea that occasioned heroism of the first order. In the hands of a gifted storyteller, the ‘simple courage’ of the ship’s captain and the young radio man who risked their lives to bring a mortally wounded ship to port reveals the essence and power of all true courage– a stubborn devotion to the things we love.” –Senator John McCain
THE FIRST IN THE GRIPPING ACTION-PACKED HECTOR CROSS SERIES, FROM WILBUR SMITH. PERFECT FOR FANS OF BOURNE AND LEE CHILD'S JACK REACHER SERIES. Some debts can only be paid in blood . . . When Hazel Bannock, billionaire oil tycoon, discovers her daughter has been kidnapped by Al Qaeda pirates just off the coast of Somalia, she uses all the power at her disposal to rescue her daughter - but politics and diplomacy fail her at every turn. Her only hope is Hector Cross, an expert in surveillance, infiltration and combat. For all Hazel's connections and wealth, Cross is the one man who is offering to find her daughter. Hazel and Cross must work together to bring Cayla home, but neither of them realises that the kidnappers are not merely interested in ransom - what they have planned is far, far worse . . . The first Hector Cross thriller. Book 2 in the series, Vicious Circle, is out now in paperback and ebook. REVIEWS 'Those in Peril has much to recommend it . . . if you like your action plain, graphic and simple yet never entirely predictable, Smith will satisfy' - Sunday Express
When Skip Strong, the thirty-two-year-old Captain of the 688-foot oil tanker Cherry Valley received the call, all he knew was that an ocean going tug with five men aboard was in distress off Florida's east coast. Caught in an unusually powerful storm, the tug's engines failed, and as the winds gusted to more than sixty miles per hour and the sea whipped into a frenzy, the tug--and the barge it was towing-- were in danger of being swept ashore. Captain Strong also knew that he would follow the age-old tradition of sea rescue. Coming to the aid of the crew, the tug, and its cargo, he would have to maneuver his ship--laden with 10 million gallons of oil-- in extremely hazardous conditions. One mistake and Strong would be responsible for an ecological disaster on Florida's beaches equal to that of the Exxon Valdez. What Captain Strong didn't know was that the tug was carrying a 150-foot aluminum fuel cell worth upwards of $50 million. And that in the instant he decided to rescue the tug and its crew, he was opening the door on a dramatic and tense legal struggle that would pit him against the United States Government for salvage rights.
Ocean Country is an adventure story, a call to action, and a poetic meditation on the state of the seas. But most importantly it is the story of finding true hope in the midst of one of the greatest crises to face humankind, the rapidly degrading state of our environment. After a near-drowning accident in which she was temporarily paralyzed, Liz Cunningham crisscrosses the globe in an effort to understand the threats to our dazzling but endangered oceans. This intimate account charts her thrilling journey through unexpected encounters with conservationists, fishermen, sea nomads, and scientists in the Mediterranean, Sulawesi, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Papua, New Guinea.
