Presenting a tangy mixture of life on a Pacific beach, haiku poetry, and essays on life and living, Reflections of a Beachcomber bares author Dr. Larry W. Gassers soul to illustrate his errors of thought and emotion that prolonged his many crises. In this personal collection, he recalls how he successfully coped with job losses, divorce, and three disabling conditions. Reflections of a Beachcomber explores ways of thinking and feeling that lead to coping successfully with disability generally and blindness in particular, linking those coping skills with relationship issues. Gasser combines twenty-five years of teaching college writing and literature and masters level studies in counseling and guidance with a modern existential philosophy to guide you through many of the major crises life can bring. Through a multifaceted approach Gasser offers ways of working out solutions to personal challenges, explores a practical philosophy of life, and discusses important and valuable experiences in his relationships. He shares his story in Reflections of a Beachcomber to show how you can learn from your experiences rather than being dominated by them.

Written by a senior scholar and master mariner, Sailors and Traders is the first comprehensive account of the maritime peoples of the Pacific. It focuses on the sailors who led the exploration and settlement of the islands and New Zealand and their seagoing descendants, providing along the way new material and unique observations on traditional and commercial seagoing against the background of major periods in Pacific history. The book begins by detailing the traditions of sailors, a group whose way of life sets them apart. Like all others who live and work at sea, Pacific mariners face the challenges of an often harsh environment, endure separation from their families for months at a time, revere their vessels, and share a singular attitude to risk and death. The period of prehistoric seafaring is discussed using archaeological data, interpretations from interisland exchanges, experimental voyaging, and recent DNA analysis. Sections on the arrival of foreign exploring ships centuries later concentrate on relations between visiting sailors and maritime communities. The more intrusive influx of commercial trading and whaling ships brought new technology, weapons, and differences in the ethics of trade. The successes and failures of Polynesian chiefs who entered trading with European-type ships are recounted as neglected aspects of Pacific history. As foreign-owned commercial ships expanded in the region so did colonialism, which was accompanied by an increase in the number of sailors from metropolitan countries and a decrease in the employment of Pacific islanders on foreign ships. Eventually small-scale island entrepreneurs expanded interisland shipping, and in 1978 the regional Pacific Forum Line was created by newly independent states. This was welcomed as a symbolic return to indigenous Pacific ocean linkages. The book’s final sections detail the life of the modern Pacific seafarer. Most Pacific sailors in the global maritime labor market return home after many months at sea, bringing money, goods, a wider perspective of the world, and sometimes new diseases. Each of these impacts is analyzed, particularly in the case of Kiribati, a major supplier of labor to foreign ships.

NO MAN COULD RESIST HER. BUT COULD ANY MAN EVER HAVE HER? After years at sea, Swede Nelson just wanted to find a nice girl and settle down. But what he found instead was Corliss Mason: beautiful, sensual, irresistible – and nothing but trouble. It begins with a bar fight that lands Swede in jail. Soon he’s helping Corliss cover up a killing. But how long can they get away with murder? And why can’t Swede shake the terrible suspicion that he’s being set up?

This collection proposes Florida as a nexus of various contested moments, ideas, concepts, and relations. In the age of networks, it is not enough to only think of computerized, economic, or labor-intensive systems as networks. Florida is both a site of exploration—what does Florida mean – and a model for spatial work in general—how do we trace out the networked connections of a given space? Florida taps into an existing conversation regarding space, and it contributes a new approach by offering up the state as a network of both objective and personal meanings.

Commodore David Dixon Porter made history when he took the USS Essex into the Pacific and crippled the British whaling industry during the War of 1812. While the first to suggest that the U.S. Navy force open Japan, he was also court-martialed for his unauthorized invasion of Spanish Puerto Rico. He later sought to reverse his fortunes in the Mexican Navy, and consistently suffered chaos in his personal and financial affairs. Nothing Too Daring offers an objective, thoroughly researched biography of one of America’s most colorful naval officers.

The Pacific Northwest coast is home to one of the most diverse displays of intertidal marine life in the world. Featuring sponges, clams, snails, crabs, sea stars, sea anemones, jellies, fishes, seaweeds and more, The New Beachcomber’s Guide to the Pacific Northwest is a portable and easy-to-use reference for searching out and identifying any of the hundreds of species of seashore life found on the beaches of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and Alaska. Covering the Pacific Northwest’s most common shoreline-dwelling flora and fauna, the guide gives in each entry a detailed description of appearance and habitat accompanied by colour photos for easy identification of any creature you might encounter as you explore your local beach. This guide also provides simple but essential information on tides and the various habitats within the intertidal zones, to assist beachcombers in exploring safely with minimal ecological impact. Thoroughly updated and packed with handy and accessible information, this guide belongs in the beach bag or backpack of any avid naturalist, amateur beachcomber or adventurous family.

Informal history of waterfront districts and the way of life of the sailor in seaports the world over, illustrated with drawings by the author.