'My living was made on the sea, my greatest pleasures have been sailing on the sea, my inspiration has come from the sea, the very reason to live has been the sea...' By the age of seven, Ian Tew had learnt to sail and by his eighth birthday he became the owner of "Titwillow", a yellow sailing dinghy. It marked the beginning of what was to be a life at sea. After attending the Pangbourne Nautical College, which was an ominous experience, Ian left his seafaring family to join British India Steam Navigation as a cadet. He was assigned to a ship on the East African run and then, in 1962, he flew to Bombay on his first flight as an officer in training to join the infamous deck passenger ship the 'Dara'. The tragedy that followed was the biggest peacetime disaster to strike a British ship since the Titanic. Following survival leave, Captain Tew was sent to Calcutta, where he spent two months in hospital drifting in and out of a coma from fever. An East African voyage was next and it would be two years before a return to England was on the horizon. As a young officer in the British Merchant Navy, Ian progressed in his career and went on to become a prominent Salvage Master - joining Selco Salvage of Singapore in 1974. He navigated the busy waters of the Middle and Far East, salved vessels from the shores of the UK to the Japanese Coast, was arrested in Massawa Ethiopia during the war with Eritrea, culminating with the Iran Iraq War. Ian Tew's story, recounted while stranded in Tahiti, provides a fascinating insight into a life of voyage and discovery, of expert seamanship, salvage and courage. Life may often be dangerous at sea, but it is seldom dull. Captain Ian Tew lives in Milford on Sea. He is the author of the novel 'The Dare', a collection of stories 'Reflections On The Sea' as well as the memoirs 'Sailing in My Grandfather's Wake' and 'Salvage: A Personal Odyssey'. Praise for Captain Ian Tew: "True stories of the sea, told by those whose stories they are: Here is action and adventure, passion and drama, storms and calms; it all makes for stirring reading." Wilbur Smith "Authentic and gripping. A fine collection of stories." Richard Foreman

"A treasure of a book."—David McCullough The harrowing story of a pathbreaking naval expedition that set out to map the entire Pacific Ocean, dwarfing Lewis and Clark with its discoveries, from the New York Times bestselling author of Valiant Ambition and In the Hurricane's Eye. A New York Times Notable Book America's first frontier was not the West; it was the sea, and no one writes more eloquently about that watery wilderness than Nathaniel Philbrick. In his bestselling In the Heart of the Sea Philbrick probed the nightmarish dangers of the vast Pacific. Now, in an epic sea adventure, he writes about one of the most ambitious voyages of discovery the Western world has ever seen—the U.S. Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842. On a scale that dwarfed the journey of Lewis and Clark, six magnificent sailing vessels and a crew of hundreds set out to map the entire Pacific Ocean and ended up naming the newly discovered continent of Antarctica, collecting what would become the basis of the Smithsonian Institution. Combining spellbinding human drama and meticulous research, Philbrick reconstructs the dark saga of the voyage to show why, instead of being celebrated and revered as that of Lewis and Clark, it has—until now—been relegated to a footnote in the national memory. Winner of the Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Naval History Prize

When gays had to be closeted, ships were the only places where homosexual men could not only be out but also camp. And on some liners to the sun and the New World, queens and butches had a ball. They sashayed and minced their way across the world's oceans. Never before has the story been told of the masses. These are the thousands of queer seafarers, mainly stewards, who sometimes even outnumbered the straight men in the catering departments of ships that were household names and the pride of the British fleet. Hello Sailor! uniquely shows what it was like to be queer at sea at a time when land meant straightness.

Part of a series of naval and sea-life memoirs, this title offers an alternative to the usual top-down history, and has much to say on the topic of press gangs. It includes an eyewitness account of Hawke's great victory in Quiberon Bay in 1759.

New love. Exotic destinations. A once-in-a-lifetime adventure. What could go wrong? City girl Torre DeRoche isn't looking for love, but a chance encounter in a San Francisco bar sparks an instant connection with a soulful Argentinean man who unexpectedly sweeps her off her feet. The problem? He's just about to cast the dock lines and voyage around the world on his small sailboat, and Torre is terrified of deep water. However, lovesick Torre determines that to keep the man of her dreams, she must embark on the voyage of her nightmares, so she waves good-bye to dry land and braces for a life-changing journey that's as exhilarating as it is terrifying. Somewhere mid-Pacific, she finds herself battling to keep the old boat, the new relationship, and her floundering sanity afloat. . . . This sometimes hilarious, often harrowing, and always poignant memoir is set against a backdrop of the world's most beautiful and remote destinations. Equal parts love story and travel memoir, Love with a Chance of Drowning is witty, charming, and proof positive that there are some risks worth taking.

Charles Tyng's quarter century under sail took him around the world half a dozen times at the begining of the nineteenth century. Fortunately, he proved to be as natural a storyteller as he was a sailor. Before the Wind has been hailed as a superb contribution to seafaring literature, alongside such books as Two Years Before the Mast and the novels of Patrick O'Brian. Both Tyng's life and the way he recounts his years at sea are full of wonder: He survives shipwrecks, squalls, and pirates. He makes and loses fortunes in tea, sugar, and cotton. He meets Lord Byron as well as the British princess (later queen) Victoria. Sailors, armchair travelers, history buffs, and lovers of pulse-quickening maritime stories will find this book as seductive as the siren song of the sea.

Admiral S.M. Nanda started his career with the Royal Indian Navy. The post-Independence days posed a challenge for the nation and its defence forces and, as a young officer, he witnessed the fledgling navy grow from strength to strength. The crowning glory of his career, which spanned thirty-two years, came when he was appointed Chief of Naval Staff at a time when tensions with Pakistan were at their peak and the government was looking for a rm hand at the helm. He achieved distinction and honour for the remarkable role he played in the 1971 war for the liberation of Bangladesh, devising tactics to neutralize the Pakistan navy. The main target was the Karachi port, where the bulk of the Pakistan fleet was stationed. In his memoir, Admiral S.M. Nanda focuses on this signi cant event, providing a detailed account of how the Indian Navy carried out the operation. The Man Who Bombed Karachi is the inspiring story of how a childhood fascination for the sea led an outstanding officer to rise to the pinnacle of India's armed forces. It gives a glimpse into life in the Royal Indian Navy, with a dramatic rebellion by Indian sailors against their British superiors, and traces its evolution into an organization that is today a force to reckon with globally. Most of all, it is an insider's authentic account of the inventive naval strategies that led to one of India's biggest victories in war to date.