We haven’t had a thread about books for a while - Yes E, [I]The Serpent’s Coil, [/I] read it a long time ago, don’t recall the details, maybe time to read it again. It might still be here in the house somewhere.
Sounds like you aren’t limiting this to maritime books. [U]Alexander von Humboldt The Invetion of Nature[/U] by Andrea Wulf. Excellent read. He was the first to start understanding the inter-relationship of our world. He influenced Charles Darwin, Henry David Thoreau and John Muir.
I always remember the Humboldt Current, but that was it. He was German, and his writings went out out of favor in England and the USA due to the two world wars.
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I am in EMT BLS training (will not be my full time job, but a volunteer job) so my nose has been buried in Care and Transportation of the Sick and Injured rev 11.
However, I am also in the beginning chapters of a book about the building of the Panama Canal.
The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough looks pretty good so far.
[QUOTE=catherder;191040]I am in EMT BLS training (will not be my full time job, but a volunteer job) so my nose has been buried in Care and Transportation of the Sick and Injured rev 11.
However, I am also in the beginning chapters of a book about the building of the Panama Canal.
The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough looks pretty good so far.
https://www.amazon.com/Path-Between-Seas-Creation-1870-1914/dp/0671244094[/QUOTE]
Let me know what you think. I just passed that one over at the library because I was on a mission, but I was tempted. Particularly interested to know if it goes much into the financing of the thing.
I just finished Grey Seas Under, by Farley Mowat, 1958
For the stanch little ships and the great-hearted men who struggle with the Western Ocean so that other ships and other men may live.
And Comparing Mythologies by Tomson Highway, 2002, which I can’t quote from, because it’s actually a bit of rhetorical work so closely woven as to be poetical. If I try to take out one sentence here or there, it doesn’t work anymore.
Now I am reading Nansen: The life story of the Arctic explorer and humanitarian by E. E. Reynolds, 1932
Walking home from the university day by day at dinner-time I would often meet on the castle hill a fine-looking fellow with a big black moustache and dark flashing eyes looking out beneath heavy black eyebrows. I began to wonder who he was, for he had the air of an adventurer; and when I heard that he was an Arctic Sea skipper my imagination got to work. Think of all that he had seen and gone through, of all the adventures and perils that had fallen to his lot! He had exactly the fearless and devil-may-care look one expected in a man who sailed the Arctic seas.
.
He do talk quite a lot, for a Norwegian.
[QUOTE=Emrobu;191045]Let me know what you think. I just passed that one over at the library because I was on a mission, but I was tempted. Particularly interested to know if it goes much into the financing of the thing.
I just finished Grey Seas Under, by Farley Mowat, 1958
And Comparing Mythologies by Tomson Highway, 2002, which I can’t quote from, because it’s actually a bit of rhetorical work so closely woven as to be poetical. If I try to take out one sentence here or there, it doesn’t work anymore.
Now I am reading Nansen: The life story of the Arctic explorer and humanitarian by E. E. Reynolds, 1932
.
He do talk quite a lot, for a Norwegian.[/QUOTE]
I read “Grey Seas Under” many years ago, while at sea, in the winter, on a hawser boat. . . I can’t imagine reading it any other way. . .
[QUOTE=cmakin;191062]I read “Grey Seas Under” many years ago, while at sea, in the winter, on a hawser boat. . . I can’t imagine reading it any other way. . .[/QUOTE]
On a tug, in the winter… The Cheif has to consider Grey Seas Under to be “technical literature” in that case, right? I searched this town high and low for that book. It was disgustingly hard to find. I went to all our famous used book piles (put up with the, frankly, terrible attitudes of our crotchety old book snoots), begged the (always helpful) downtown history librarian for help. The VPL system didn’t have a copy! The whole city! And the suburbs! Had to get it loaned from Lilooet. Lilooet? That’s embarrassing, right? I wrote a note to the library, expressing myself politely. If nothing is done, I might tip off the paper. Or get a seance with Andrew Carnegie.
Just about to finish the [I]Last Voyage of the SS Henry Bacon[I]. Liberty Ship that saved 19 Norwegian Refugees while on the Murmansk run. Terrifying. Great book that I think should’ve highlighted the Black Gang a bit more, what with all the problems they were having to deal with right out of the shipyard. Walked passed this book several times until one day I was hungry and saw the word Bacon. Do not regret the decision. If you’ve never heard about this ship at least check out the short wiki article; here.
Currently reading an old book I picked up at the thrift shop. “Our Everlasting Constitution”.
Breaks down the Constitution and Federalist Papers a bit at a time with thoughts from the founders throughout. Very well written, very educational.
Before that it was “The Airplane and It’s Engine” and “A Primer of Towing”. Both thrillers.
Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy by Ian W. Toll
Really enjoyed this book, lots of U.S. history from about from the 1790s to the war of 1812 but the story revolves around the first ships built for the U.S. Navy. Covers a lot of ground, good read.
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Earlier this year I read Viking Raid, by Matthes McCleery, author of The Shipping Man. It is a sequel and, again, a very interesting look at shipping from the financial side. I am also reading Dynasties of the Seas, a non fiction look at ship owners and their families.
Descartes’ Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict between Faith and Reason
Cadet gave me this book when he left, he told me I would like it and I did. I don’t think I would have picked it out on my own.
All the Men in the Sea.
I read it, when i first started working in the GOM, and surprising I was working with the company and the captain from the book.
To me, this book gives information for first timers working on tugboats, pick it up.
[QUOTE=bttero;191723]All the Men in the Sea.
I read it, when i first started working in the GOM, and surprising I was working with the company and the captain from the book.
To me, this book gives information for first timers working on tugboats, pick it up.[/QUOTE]
I have this book. . . it is so terribly written, though it is difficult for me to get through it. . . horrific story, though.
Currently reading Deadly Straits written by a former merchant mariner and advertised on Gcaptain. My impression so far is that at least in the early part, it is written more in the style of a screenplay than a novel.
Just finished “The Prize” great overview of the history of petroleum, won the pulitzer prize. Currently reading the “The Quest”, a sort of follow on work. I highly recommend them.
Just finished “Wellington” and now reading Churchill and his start with the Boer war.
The Mathews Men - Seven Brothers and the War Against Hitler’s U-Boats
[QUOTE=Lee Shore;191750]Currently reading Deadly Straits written by a former merchant mariner and advertised on Gcaptain. My impression so far is that at least in the early part, it is written more in the style of a screenplay than a novel.[/QUOTE]
Is that the one about the marine surveyor who saves the day?
[QUOTE=cmakin;191832]Is that the one about the marine surveyor who saves the day?[/QUOTE]
Yep. He’s not your mild mannered run of the mill marine surveyor. I’m still in the early part of the story where he’s trying to prevent a gang of Chechen Muslim fanatics from blowing up a tanker rigged with explosives. The odds are stacked against him but I’m guessing he’s going to succeed.
Disclaimer: to all you Muslim fanatics out there and to the current slew of apologists in Washington - please forgive me if I have upset any of you by mentioning that the Muslim fanatics are [U]Muslim[/U] fanatics.
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No trigger warning?!?! These micro-aggressions won’t stand bro! The forums are a safe space for all fanatics.
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