Captain Henry Gillespie (1857–1937), of Portland, Maine, went to sea as a young man of 17, serving as “able-bodied seaman” on a New Bedford whaler. Over the next 47 years he would advance to deck officer, then master of sailing and steam ships. He was commissioned as an officer in the US Navy during World War I, commanding vessels operating in the war zone. Following the war, he returned to merchant marine service until his retirement in 1921. Maritime historian Michael Jay Mjelde has chronicled the colorful life and career of this “down-east” man of the sea, mining available first-person accounts, interviews with family members, government records, and maritime archives on both coasts. The result is a narrative in clear, highly engaging prose that puts readers on the tilting decks and noisy wharfs frequented by Gillespie. Through Mjelde’s retelling of a remarkable life, the age of clipper ships, the Cape Horn trade, and oceangoing steamers comes into vivid relief, affording a richly embossed assessment of Captain Gillespie’s life and times. From Whaler to Clipper Ship adds a layer of full-bodied context to our understanding of this pivotal era in American maritime history. The wealth of detail will appeal to scholars, students, and maritime history enthusiasts.

Clearly written text, detailed illustrations, and full-size working plans provide novices and experienced model builders with all the information they need to create exact replicas of two 19th-century sailing ships—the Benjamin F. Packard, a classic American clipper, and the Alice Mandell, a famous whaler. The one-volume edition of two rare model-building manuals also devotes chapters to ship’s rigging (ancient and modern) and abundant information on clippers and old-time whaling ships. A treasury of essential information for hobbyists, model builders, and devotees of the great age of sail.

Over 120 handsome photographs and 28 drawings provide details of models for a Flemish Carrack, c. 1450; the Norske Löve, 1634; the 90-gun Albemarle, 1680; a Venetian trading Galeass, 1726; more.

Children are fascinated with sailing ships, lighthouses, whaling, shipwrecks, and mutinies, and these 50-plus activities will provide them with a boatful of fun. This activity guide shows kids what life was like for the greenhands, old salts, and captains on the high seas during the great age of sail in the 19th century: aboard square-riggers, clippers, whalers, schooners, and packet ships. Life aboard ship was an exciting subculture of American life with its own language, food, music, art, and social structure. Children will learn that many captains brought their wives and children aboard ship, and that kids who learned how to walk at sea often found it difficult to walk on dry land. The book begins with the China Tea trade in the late 18th century and ends with the last whaler leaving New Bedford in 1924. Kids will create scrimshaw using black ink and a bar of white soap; make a model lighthouse using a bike reflector, an oatmeal box, and a plastic soda bottle; and paint china with traditional designs using a blue paint pen and a basic white plate. Included are additional simple activities requiring common household objects that are sure to please busy parents and teachers alike.

The field of transnational American studies is going through a paradigm shift from the transatlantic to the transpacific. This volume demonstrates a critical method of engaging the Asian Pacific: the chapters present alternative narratives that negotiate American dominance and exceptionalism by analyzing the experiences of Asians and Pacific Islanders from the vast region, including those from the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Hawaii, Guam, and other archipelagos. Contributors make use of materials from “oceanic archives,” retrieving what has seemingly been lost, forgotten, or downplayed inside and outside state-bound archives, state legal preoccupations, and state prioritized projects. The result is the recovery of indigenous epistemologies, which enables scholars to go beyond US-based sources and legitimates third-world knowledge production and dissemination. Surprising findings and unexpected perspectives abound in this work. Minnan traders from southern China are identified as the agents who connected the Indian Ocean with the Pacific, making the Manila Galleon trade in the sixteenth century the first completely global commercial enterprise. The Chamorro poetry of Guam gives a view of America from beyond its national borders and articulates the cultural pride of the Chamorro against US colonialism and imperialism. The continuing distortion of indigenous claims to the sovereignty of Hawaii is analyzed through a reading of the most widely circulated English translation of the creation myth, Kumulipo. There is also a critique of the Korean involvement in the American War in Vietnam, which was informed and shaped by Korean economy and politics in a global context. By investigating the transpacific as moments of military, cultural, and geopolitical contentions, this timely collection charts the reach and possibilities of the latest developments in the most dynamic form of transnational American studies. “This collection offers a well-organized and intellectually coherent series of essays addressing issues of American imperialism in Oceania and the Pacific region. Covering history, politics, and literary culture in equal measure, the essays are theoretically well-informed, and their focus on Indigenous cultures speaks to the current scholarly interest in the ways in which Indigenous communities can be understood within a global context.” —Paul Giles, University of Sydney “This terrific volume offers the latest mapping of that complex terrain known as the ‘transpacific.’ Timely and capacious, the essays here from an all-star cast of international scholars offer the latest thinking on the ‘oceanic’ dimensions of global modernity. Essential reading for anyone interested in the current ‘Asian’ turn in American Studies, Asian American Studies, and Transpacific Studies.” —Steven Yao, Hamilton College