Need one more book to get free shipping. Any suggestions? Any topic, maritime related or not.
“Until the Sea Shall Free Them” by Robert Frump (about the sinking/investigation of the Marine Electric.
Orrrr…“Blue Highways” by William Least Heat Moon. General travel/middle-life crisis.
2 Likes
One of Ian Toll’s naval history books.
1 Like
good recommendation, I’ve read a couple. I posted here somewhere about “Six Frigates”
One book I really enjoyed was "Fishing with John" by Edith Iglauer I see that it’s been made into a movie: "Navigating the Heart"
I did get free shipping on my order, added a book of poems by Robert Frost. Feels almost like an obligation here in New England.
1 Like
By all accounts, Henry Seine should have packed it in long ago, certainly before he started scanning marine distress channels for fun. But sixteen-hour days spent hauling heavy cargo aboard tugs and icebreakers along the frozen arctic offshore (not to mention smoking copious amounts of Cannabis indica) can warp a man’s sense of reality. Desperate for real human contact, he tunes the sideband radio to 2182 kHz (twenty-one eighty-two kilohertz), the international distress channel, in the vague hope of finding someone he can save.
Soon, though, even the paycheck that fattens his wallet each season isn’t enough to fix his interest. Seine journeys south, but weathers a capsizing that leaves his fellow crewmen dead. Unable to break from his old habits, and haunted by the ghosts of dead shipmates, he flies north for another season. One day, idly monitoring 2182, Seine catches a fading distress call from somewhere out in the circumpolar twilight. A scientist named Louis Moneymaker is trapped alone on an ice floe that threatens to melt beneath his feet.
I got a million suggestions but this one is s page turner snd has just the right balance of maritime, fiction and non-fiction, history and the future
Published in 1999 its astonishing how much it predicted:
He has a trilogy about the pacific theater of WWII. I’m waiting for books 2 & 3 to come in the mail.
Six Frigates was great, and if you were a fan of Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series you can see how faithful he (and Toll) were to incorporating the actual after action reports of the battles.
Guy taught himself to code at age 51 and then entered the world of the people that control so much of the stuff that controls us. Lots of good insights.
Cheers,
Earl
2 Likes
A great book about (long story short) a guy who is told about a portal to the past and decides to stop the JFK assassination. A good miniseries is on hulu too but I’d read the book first.
1 Like
There’s a good maritime book review section on gcaptain
I just read The End Of The World Is Just Beginning by peter zeihan which @john recommended. I liked how it talks about the importance of inland rivers and things like tugboats
Another book I like about american rivers is Uncommon Carriers by John McPhee
I have that book within arm’s reach now. It’s a good book, two chapters about driving trucks and one about a coal train.
The chapter “A Tight-Assed River” is about pushing barges on the Illinois River and “The Ship’s of Port Revel” is about the French maritime pilotage training on the lake with scale model ships.
Very good book.
1 Like
Aren’t the model ships something like 50 feet long with maybe 15 HP? Tiny engines compared to an actual 50 foot boat???
I’m halfway through this book. Great read, especially if you liked Farley Mowat’s Grey Seas Under, and The Serpents Coil.
3 Likes
3 Likes
A very good read. If you have insurance with the firm mentioned ditch them.
Just reread this…… still an excellent quick read. Pretty amazing feat!
In the Land of White Death -An Epic Story of Survival in the Siberian Arctic
Valerian Albanov
Thanks I’m reading it now, enjoying it, plus it’s funny. It reinforces my personal opinion that no one should be allowed to code until they have a broad education so they understand how their Frankenstein may affect the world. Also the need for some sort of regulations before this stuff is released into the wild. It’s not legal to develop nuclear weapons in your basement for good reason.
I’ll suggest Burn Book by Swisher to go along with Devil in the Stacks.