Has anyone read, “Devils on the Deep Blue Sea: The Dreams, Schemes and Showdowns That Built America’s Cruise-Ship Empires”.<br><br>What are you reading this summer?
I was inspired by your blog post <a target="_blank" href="http://gcaptain.com/maritime/blog/the-box-how-the-shipping-container-made-the-world-smaller-and-the-world-economy-bigger/]The Box: How the shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger so I went out and picked it up. great read! <br><br>I am always on the hunt for good books and would love to see this thread rolling. <br><br>Thanks gCaptain for the tip on The Box
Mark Twain’s “Life on the Mississippi”. Said to be the best book on piloting ever written. I just finished it and I must agree.
For the Mass Maritime guys out there be sure to check out Logs of the Dead Pirate Society by Randy Peffer. Good Stuff.
Big tanker rescues tug towing barge carrying space shuttle external fuel tank. Great read. I found the book on amazon, this is a description from their site:<br><br>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt]<strong><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial]In Peril: A Daring Decision, a Captain’s Resolve, and the Salvage that Made History, by Skip Strong</span></strong><strong><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana]<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /><o:p></o:p></span></strong></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt]<strong><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana]From Publishers Weekly</span></strong><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana]<br>Strong and Braden’s tale of an imperfect storm, three ships and a daring rescue comes to vivid life in this gem of a book. Strong, captain of an oil tanker carrying 10 million gallons of crude, was trying to outrun tropical storm Gordon when he picked up a distress call off the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” /><st1:State w:st="on]<st1:place w:st="on]Florida</st1:place></st1:State> coast in the early hours of November 15, 1994. An oceangoing tug with a cargo barge tethered behind it had lost engine power and was foundering. Strong decided to attempt a rescue, although doing so put his own crew and cargo, not to mention hundreds of miles of <st1:State w:st="on]<st1:place w:st="on]Florida</st1:place></st1:State> coast, at risk of a catastrophic oil spill. Strong also didn’t know that the barge’s cargo, a brand-new external fuel tank for a space shuttle, was worth nearly $50 million. The successful rescue of all life and property later resulted in a landmark judgment in court when the company that owned Strong’s ship claimed, via long-standing maritime laws, the right to a percentage of the value of the rescued goods. Strong’s first-person narration of the immediate story is gripping, while still allowing for discursions into topics such as shipping, admiralty law and meteorology. Strong and co-writer Braden don’t rush into the high-seas drama, but the complex details involved in the rescue itself are sharp and clear. The court case is anticlimactic, but the authors don’t linger on it unnecessarily. This is a great story, well told. Photos.</span></P>