On Facebook this morning, Maritime Great Britain linked to a post on THE DEAR SURPRISE blog, discussing a post by Marion Elizabeth Diamond on the Historians are Past Caring blog, which raised the question, “Was this the real Stephen Maturin?” Ms. Diamond answers … Continue reading
Category Archives: Seastories
Last month we posted about Kick’em Jenny, an active underwater volcano off Grenada in the Caribbean, which was last active in 2001. Now the eruption of an active underwater volcano off El Hierro Island, in the Canary Islands off the … Continue reading
I can’t decide whether I love or hate John Masefield‘s poem Sea Fever. I lean strongly towards love, though the poem has been repeated so many times and in so many places, that it is hard not to groan every time it … Continue reading
The Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway, located on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, must be a pretty amazing place. In July of 2010, we reviewed Schooner – Building a Wooden Boat on Martha’s Vineyard, which was about building a schooner … Continue reading
Over the next several weeks, we will be reviewing a series of books about what life was like in Nelson’s navy. The first is Jack Tar: Life in Nelson’s Navy by Roy & Leslie Adkins, subtitled “the extraordinary lives of ordinary seamen … Continue reading
For the sake of full disclosure, I am not a huge fans of thrillers, particularly thrillers involving ships. The plots often strike me as implausible and the descriptions of the ships and ship operations often border on the laughable. (Too … Continue reading
Today, we have three posts about dolphins and humans interacting. I went to high school on the Gulf Coast of Florida, which has some of the largest bottlenose dolphin populations in the world. When I am in Florida visiting family, I … Continue reading
I have really enjoyed Linda Collison‘s two books in her Patricia MacPherson nautical adventure series. (See our reviews of Star-Crossed and Surgeon’s Mate.) She is also an excellent interviewer. Here she interviews another favorite nautical writer and frequent contributor to this blog, Alaric Bond. (See also Linda’s … Continue reading
There aren’t many publishers with a special interest in nautical fiction. Tom Grundner, the owner of Fireship Press, who died suddenly on September 11th, was one. I never had the chance to meet him in person, but I genuinely liked the man I knew only through … Continue reading
A new trailer for William C. Hammond’s Cutler family Chronicles. The Cutler Family Chronicals Trailer [iframe: width=”560″ height=”345″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/VTI-o64MWsg” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen] The Cutler Family Chronicles is a projected seven-book series profiling the best of American duty, honor and courage during … Continue reading
What more can be written about the Titanic? In a book recently released in Great Britain and coming out this October in the US, Francis Wilson looks at the sinking and the impact on one of the more famous survivors – J. Bruce … Continue reading
Having recently visited the USCG Cutter Barque Eagle, I can wholeheartedly agree with the title of Tido Holtkamp’s book, A Perfect Lady: A Pictorial History of the Coast Guard Barque Eagle, which has recently gone into its second printing. The ship is indeed a … Continue reading
On Sept 23-24, 1846, the planet Neptune was discovered by by Johann Gottfried Galle. In celestial terms, that was 165 years ago. In terms of Neptune’s path around the Sun it was only about one year ago. (To be precise, … Continue reading
The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is an annual tongue-in-cheek contest, sponsored by the English Department of San Jose State University in San Jose, California. Entrants are invited “to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels.” Edward Bulwer-Lytton … Continue reading
I am a big fan of both Margaret Muir and Linda Collison. Both are marvelous writers – skilled story tellers whose writing about the Age of Sail has both an immediacy and an understated authenticity that draws the reader into … Continue reading