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Oceanography
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Recommendations
*** = Highest recommendation.
** = Book with strong merit.
* = Book of merit.
Some book covers may be seen by using search at: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/
Click on covers for extended reviews
Oceanography: Focus
Browne, J.
Charles Darwin, Voyaging. Princeton University Press, 1996.
An examination of the life of this important scientist, his journeys across the South Pacific and then his struggle to understand, accept and present the ideas he had formulated from his data.
Desmond, A. and J. Moore.
Darwin, The Life of a
Tormented Evolutionist
WW
Norton, 1994. ***
Biography of Darwin that sheds light on the personal life a man with a new scientific concept and the strain he faced because of his findings in Victorian England
Ellis, R.
Deep
Atlantic, Life, Death, and Exploration in the Abyss.
Lyons Press, 1998. +
Explorations of the ocean depths and the diversity we’ve discovered in the ocean and abyss. Beautiful illustrations.
Kurlansky, M., Salt. A World History. Walker. 2002
Lencek, L. and G. Bosker. The Beach. The History of Paradise on Earth. Penguin USA, 1999. *
Presentation of the spiritual, exotic, healing, sensual, physical, restorative aspects of the beach and how societies across the world have related to their beaches.
Lewis, D.
We The Navigators. The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific.
University of Hawaii, 1994. *+
The peoples that populated remote islands in the Pacific had a unique talent and skills for navigating the vast oceans. Their strategies and techniques such as star maps are amazing and well presented in this selection.
O’Brian, P.
Joseph Banks: A Life. University of Chicago Press, 1997.
A man whose life and accomplishments influenced navigation, cartography, and settlement of British society across the globe. Banks remained a force in the world and English society until his death.
Sobel, D. Longitude. The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved The
Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time.
Penguin USA,
1996. ***
Being able to accurately fix longitude was an incredible problem until John Harrison developed his chronometer. However, that was only half of his struggle, as he had to fight snobbery and prejudice to warn the honors he deserved.
Winchester, S.,: Krakatoa. The Day The World Exploded August 27, 1888. Harper Collins. 2003
Ocean: Applied
Gordon, J. S.
Thread Across The Ocean. The Heroic Story of the Transatlantic Cable.
Perrenial, 2003. *
A case of ingenuity and genius as the first transatlantic cable gets laid across an ocean floor no man had ever seen. The laying of almost 3,000 miles of cable blindly while at sea is the enchanting and inspirational.
Kinder, G.
Ship of Gold in the
Deep Blue Sea.
Vintage Books, 1999. +
One hundred and twenty years after a ship carrying 1.6 million dollars in gold sank off the coast of South Carolina, a crew led by Tommy Thompson uses historical details and his ROV Nemo to search for the treasure.
Mostert, N.
Supership. Random House, 1974. *
A history of the oil industry and the use of the massive superships that haul the crude across all the oceans of the world. The risks to the environment is not ignored and neither is the lure of huge profits to be made by the industry who uses these ships.
Ocean: Fishing
Dillon, P., Lost at Sea: An American Tragedy. Simon & Schuster. 1998. *
Greenlaw, L.
The Hungry
Ocean
Hyperion, 2000. **
An honest and engaging portrayal of the fishing crew and the Hanna Boden under captain Linda Greenlaw. The highs, lows, and dangers faced by swordfishermen in the Atlantic ocean give a glimpse into a life that many of us could not otherwise experience.
Greenlaw, L. The Lobster Chronicles. Hyperion, 2001 *
Kurlansky, M. COD
– A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World. Penguin USA, 2003.
**
Cod has influenced civilizations through out history. From the ancient receipes, cultural histories, wars, the slave trade, up to the collapse of the fishery, this is an appealing biography and like no other.
Warner, W. W.
Distant Water: Fate of the
North Atlantic Fisherman.
Peguin, 1984.
How technology helped to endanger the vary source of the fishing industries livelihood. A look at lives aboard US and Russian vessels provide a glimpse of how the fishermen themselves live and feel about the situation.
Walker, S.
Working on the Edge. Surviving In The World’s Most Dangerous Profession:
King Crab Fishing On Alaska’s High Seas. St. Martins Press,
2003. **
These are the experiences and stories of Spike Walker learning how to crab in the waters off Alaska’s coast. The often successful trips, deadly accounts of vessels sinking, occasional stunning survival tales, the relentless storms and ice plagued the ocean off Alaska, and stories of the men and women who are devoted to this region and way of life.
Warmer, W. W., Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs, and Chesapeake Bay,. Little and Brown. 1994***
Ocean: Military/Submarines
Bekker, C., Hitler’s Naval War. Kensington, 1974.
Buchheim, L., The Boat. Lothar-Gűnther Bucheim, 1976. **
Clancy, T., The Hunt For Red October. Berkley, 1984. **
Huchthausen, P.,
I. Kurdin, and R. A. White. Hostile Waters. St. Martins
Press, 1998.
The account of the Soviet submarine K-219 as the crew struggle to save the eastern US coastline and themselves from a nuclear incident during Wordl War II.
Maas, P.
The Terrible Hours. The Man Behind the Greatest Submarine Rescue in History.
HarperTorch, 2001. *
True story of the US sub the Squalus as 33 crewmen wait to be ‘discovered’ missing and then rescued by naval officer Charles Momsen.
Prange, G. W., At Dawn We Slept. The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor. Penguin. 1981 **
Prange, G. W., Miracle At Midway. Penguin. 1982**
Massie, R. K., Dreadnought. Britain, German, and The Coming of The Great War. Ballantine Books, 1991. **
Monsarrat, N. The Cruel Sea.
Burford Books, 2000.
Despair, loneliness, and frightening sea battles during World War II are the essence of this book. Disasters and near disaster lurk on the surface as well as under the waves in this candid tale of recent English Naval history.
Sontag, S., C.
Drew and A. Lawrence. Blind Man’s Bluff. The Untold Story of American
Submarine Espionage. Perrenial, 1999. +
From the 1950s through the 1990s, men who were there recount the cat and mouse games of submarine warfare, espionage, and accidents. Life and death face the men in the silent service daily and the technological advances and strategies will amaze and make you aware of their unique spot in US history.
Zumwalt, E. R., On Watch. Quadrangle, 1976 +
Ocean: Polar
Alexander, C.
The Endurance: Shackelton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition.
Knopf, 1998.
Trapped in the ice off Antarctica, Ernest Schakleton’s ship is being crushed and the decision to abandon ship for the safety of the ice floe; the men dream of finding their own way out of this situation and be rescued. An amazing, gripping story of these men and their leader, Ernest Schakleton-who gives a new depth to the meaning of being a leader.
Beattle, O. and
J. Geiger. Frozen In Time: Unlocking the Secret of the
Franklin Expedition.
New American Liberty Trade,
1990.
Gruesome and gripping adventure to discover the fate of Sir John Franklin and his well provisioned crew looking for the North West Passage, after they fail to emerge from the expedition.
Byrd, R. E., Alone, Putnam, 1938.
Huntford , R. The
Last Place on Earth.
Modern
Library, 1999. ***
The race to the South Pole between the Norwegian Amundson and Englishman Scott is a tale of courage and folly that endures and seizes us to this day.
Huntford, R.
Nansen, The Explorer as Hero. Abacus, 2002. *
Nansen was an accomplished Norwegian explorer, diplomat, and scientist. He pioneered knowledge about oceans, polar regions, currents, an innovator and winner of A Nobel Prize. This charming and successful man is the source of this intriguing and amazing book.
Kobalenko, J.
The Horizontal Everest Extreme Journeys on
Ellesmere Island.
Soho Press, Inc., 2003.
Journey across the melting ice, discover cairns left by explores hundreds of years ago, and experience the remoteness and harshness of the Arctic through the insights and photographs of Jerry Kobalenko.
Niven, J., The Ice Master. The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk. Hyperion, 2000.
Preston, D., A First Rate Tragedy. Robert Falcon Scott and the RaceTo the South Pole. Houghton Miffin, 1998.
Shackletion, E., South. The Story of Shackleton’s Last Expedition 1914-17. Trafalger Square, 1991.
Worsley, F., :
Shackelton’s Boat Journey, Norton, 1977. **
Ocean: Survival, Adventure
Aebi, T., and B.
Brennen. Maiden Voyage. Ballantine Books, 1996.
An 18-year old woman leaves New York harbor in a 26 foot sail boat, on her solo voyage. She is seeking the record for circumnavigating the globe and this is her story of adventures, loss and boredom as she sails around the world to fulfill her quest.
Callahan, S.
Adrift. Seventy-Six Days Lost At Sea.
Mariner Books, 2002. *
Steven Callahan is six days into a race when his sloop capsizes. How he survives seventy-six days at sea in a five-and-a- half-foot inflatable is a testament to invention, his fortitude, and personal skill is what you will discover in his traumatic personal account.
Dana, R. H. Two Years Before The Mast Modern Library, 2001.
***
Tales of hardship and adventure from Henry Dana’s voyage on a merchant vessel in the 1803s traveling from Boston to California and back to Boston. The drudgery and harshness of these voyages inspired Dana to make contributions for improving maritime law and the treatment of sailors.
Heyerdahl, T. The Ra Expeditions. New American Library, 1972.
Thor Heyderdahl fashions a boat of papyrus to sail from Morocco to the coast of the America to test his theory that ancient Egyptians could have sailed across the Atlantic. Adventure, mishap, incredible discoveries, and unfailing belief in the possibility keep this expedition alive in Heyderdahl’s heart.
London, J, The Sea Wolf. Airmont. 1965.
Lord, W.
A Night to Remember. Bantam Books, 1997.
The indelible events that occurred April 14, 1912 to the cruise liner Titanic come to life in this book. Well written from personal accounts, the story includes heroics and cowardice from the 2,000-plus passengers and crew on that cold and deadly night
Moorehead, A. Darwin
and the Beagle.
Adventure Library, 2000. **
How a man’s search for proof of Noah’s Flood takes him on a journey that would change science and foster an appreciation for the art of observation for generations.
Nordoff, C., and
J. N. Hall, The Bounty Trilogy. Little Brown & Co., 1985. *
The triple set of the adventures of Captain Bligh and Fletcher Christian. This is their incredible struggle against one another as well as the struggle for the allegiance of the men who served with them in 1787 aboard the HMS Bounty.
Philbrick, N., In the Heart of the Sea. The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex., Viking, 2000.
Robertson, D.
Survive The
Savage Sea.
Sheridan
House, 1994. *
A family strives to survive for more than a month in a dinghy in the Pacific Ocean after rouge Orcas attack and sink their schooner.
Slocum, J., Sailing Alone Around The World, 1956, +
Worsley, F.
Shackleton’s Boat Journey. W.W. Norton & Co., 1998. **
Stranded for months on a ship caught in ice, this is the tale of Ernest Shackleton and his men as they band together and strike out to save themselves from the predicament they are in. Survival is never more challenging than it is in the Antarctic and Shackleton rises to the occasion as few men could or did.
Ocean: Weather
Junger, S.
The Perfect Storm. A True Story of Men Against The Sea. HarperTorch,
2000. **
The men of the Andrea Gail fail to return home from a fishing trip to the Flemish Cap region of the Atlantic. Well researched and laid out, the Perfect Storm is exciting, frightening and a compelling look at the fishing industry.
Larsen, E.
Isaac’s Storm. A Man, a Time and the Deadliest Hurricane in History.
Vintage Books, 2000. *
Galveston Texas is the convergence zone for the new weather service, a new station for Isaac Cline and a hurricane approaching from the gulf. Ignorance, arrogance, and politics all combine to form a disaster of immense consequence.
Lovell, M. S.
The Sound of Wings – The Life of
Amelia Earhart
St. Martin’s Press, 1991.
**
An honest, level headed approach about the life of Amelia Earhart and the reasons her last flight ended in disaster as she continued her quest for fame and aviation records.