Best Ships

But the Lusitania was one of the era’s great transatlantic “Greyhounds”—the fastest liner then in service—and her captain, William Thomas Turner, placed tremendous faith in the gentlemanly strictures of warfare that for a century had kept civilian ships safe from attack. Full of glamour and suspense, Dead Wake brings to life a cast of evocative characters, from famed Boston bookseller Charles Lauriat to pioneering female architect Theodate Pope to President Woodrow Wilson, a man lost to grief, dreading the widening war but also captivated by the prospect of new love. Finalist for the Washington State Book Award. — History/General Non-fiction. A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2015. A St. Louis Post-Dispatch Best Book of 2015. A Miami Herald Favorite Book of 2015. BookTrib's Best Narrative Nonfiction Book of 2015. #1 History & Biography Book in the 2015 Goodreads Choice Awards. A LibraryReads Top Ten Book of 2015. A Library Journal Top Ten Book of 2015. A Kirkus Best Book of 2015. An Indigo Best Book of 2015 "Larson is one of the modern masters of popular narrative nonfiction...a resourceful reporter and a subtle stylist who understands the tricky art of Edward Scissorhands-ing narrative strands into a pleasing story...An entertaining book about a great subject, and it will do much to make this seismic event resonate for new generations of readers." — The New York Times Book Review "Larson is an old hand at treating nonfiction like high drama...He knows how to pick details that have maximum soapy potential and then churn them down until they foam [and] has an eye for haunting, unexploited detail." — The New York Times "In his gripping new examination of the last days of what was then the fastest cruise ship in the world, Larson brings the past stingingly alive...He draws upon telegrams, war logs, love letters, and survivor depositions to provide the intriguing details, things I didn't know I wanted to know...Thrilling, dramatic and powerful." "This enthralling and richly detailed account demonstrates that there was far more going on beneath the surface than is generally known...Larson's account [of the Lusitania 's sinking] is the most lucid and suspenseful yet written, and he finds genuine emotional power in the unlucky confluences of forces, 'large and achingly small,' that set the stage for the ship's agonizing final moments." "Larson has a gift for transforming historical re-creations into popular recreations, and Dead Wake is no exception...[He] provides first-rate suspense, a remarkable achievement given that we already know how this is going to turn out...The tension, in the reader's easy chair, is unbearable..." — The Boston Globe. Larson is an exceptionally skilled storyteller, and his tick-tock narrative, which cuts between the Lusitania , U-20 and the political powers behind them, is pitch-perfect." "Larson so brilliantly elucidates [the Lusitania 's fate] in Dead Wake , his detailed forensic and utterly engrossing account of the Lusitania 's last voyage...Yes, we know how the story of the Lusitania ends, but there's still plenty of white-knuckle tension. "Larson's nimble, exquisitely researched tale puts you dead center...Larson deftly pulls off the near-magical feat of taking a foregone conclusion and conjuring a tale that's suspenseful, moving and altogether riveting." "With each revelation from Britain and America, with each tense, claustrophobic scene aboard U-20, the German sub that torpedoed the ship, with each vignette from the Lusitania , Larson's well-paced narrative ratchets the suspense. "[Larson] has a gift for finding the small, personal details that bring history to life...His depiction of the sinking of the ship, and the horrific 18 minutes between the time it was hit and the time it disappeared, is masterly, moving between strange, touching details." Not so with Erik Larson...Larson wrestles these disparate narratives into a unified, coherent story and so creates a riveting account of the Lusitania 's ending and the beginnings of the U.S.'s involvement in the war." —Pittsburgh Post Gazette "In your mind, the sinking of the luxury liner Lusitania may be filed in a cubbyhole...After reading Erik Larson's impressive reconstruction of the Lusitania 's demise, you're going to need a much bigger cubbyhole...Larson's book is a work of carefully sourced nonfiction, not a novelization, but it has a narrative sweep and miniseries pacing that make it highly entertaining as well as informative." "Larson breathes life into narrative history like few writers working today." "Now the tragic footnote to a global conflagration, the history of the [ Lusitania 's] final voyage... is worthy of the pathos and narrative artistry Erik Larson brings to Dead Wake ...Reader's of Larson's previous nonfiction page turners...will not be disappointed. "The story of the Lusitania 's sinking by a German U-boat has been told before, but Larson's version features new details and the gripping immediacy he's famous for." The fact that this is coming through a page-turner history book, where all the figures and details reveal an impeccable eye and thorough research, is just one of the odd pleasures of Larson's writing." He draws upon a wealth of sources for his subject – telegrams, wireless messages, survivor depositions, secret intelligence ledgers, a submarine captain’s war log, love letters, admiralty and university archives, even morgue photos of Lusitania victims… Filled with revealing political, military and social information, Larson’s engrossing Dead Wake is, at its heart, a benediction for the 1,198 souls lost at sea.” — Tampa Bay Times. "In a well-paced narrative, Larson reveals the forces large and small, natural and man-made, coincidental and intentional, that propelled the Lusitania to its fatal rendezvous...Larson's description of the moments and hours that followed the torpedo's explosive impact is riveting... Dead Wake stands on its own as a gripping recounting of an episode that still has the power to haunt a reader 100 years later." — Booklist , starred review "[Larson] has always shown a brilliant ability to unearth the telling details of a story and has the narrative chops to bring a historical moment vividly alive. But in his new book, Larson simply outdoes himself...What is most compelling about Dead Wake is that, through astonishing research, Larson gives us a strong sense of the individuals—passengers and crew—aboard the Lusitania , heightening our sense of anxiety as we realize that some of the people we have come to know will go down with the ship. "Critically acclaimed 'master of narrative nonfiction' Erik Larson has produced a thrilling account of the principals and the times surrounding this tumultuous event in world history...After an intimate look at the passengers, and soon-to-be victims, who board in New York despite the warning of 'unrestricted warfare' from the German embassy, Larson turns up the pace with shorter and shorter chapters alternating between the hunted and the hunter until the actual shot.

Their survival, and the survival of the men they left behind, depended on their small lifeboat successfully finding the island of South Georgia-a tiny dot of land in a vast and hostile ocean. 'A superb account of the greatest survival story of our time' - Chris Bonington The story of Ernest Shackleton's epic journey to cross the Antarctic overland has now been turned into four hours of gripping television with Kenneth Branagh playing Shackleton. Shackleton's mission failed, but the resulting adventure became one of the most celebrated accounts of man's survival against unbelievable odds.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The riveting, tick-tock account of the largest manmade explosion in history prior to the atomic bomb, and the equally astonishing tales of survival and heroism that emerged from the ashes. , from acclaimed New York Times bestselling author John U. Bacon. This is the unforgettable story told in John U. Bacon's The Great Halifax Explosion : a ticktock account of fateful decisions that led to doom, the human faces of the blast's 11,000 casualties, and the equally moving individual stories of those who lived and selflessly threw themselves into urgent rescue work that saved thousands. With deep research and evocative writing, John U. Bacon has brought back to life this devastating wartime event and illuminated its lasting meaning.” (DAVID MARANISS, Pulitzer Prize winner, and author of Once in a Great City ). “The most destructive moment of World War I occurred far from the Western Front, in Canada, where an explosion blew a city apart but propelled two nations together. John U. Bacon, a superbly talented historian and story teller, has rescued from obscurity an astonishing episode of horror and heroism.” (GEORGE F. WILL). “John U. Bacon’s The Great Halifax Explosion is the seminal account of one of the bloodiest man-made disasters in world history, which killed some 2,000 people. Ultimately, it is a book about the power of the human spirit and how ordinary people overcome unimaginable horror to rebuild their lives and help others.

This revised edition of Building a Strip Canoe includes full-sized plans for 8 well-proven canoe designs, most of which are the author's own adaptations.

Containing almost 6,000 entries, Way’s Packet Directory includes a majority of combination passenger and freight steamers, but includes in a broader sense all types of passenger carriers propelled by steam that plied the waters of the Mississippi System. Even so, the marvelous introduction, the lengthy captions in the photo collection, and the various letters and special notes in the boat bios are captivating and enlightening.” Seaways‘ Ships in Scale magazine.

Now updated with information on fuel injection systems, electronic engine controls, and other new diesel technologies, Nigel Calder's bestseller has everything you need to keep your diesel engine running cleanly and efficiently. Now updated with information on fuel injection systems, electronic engine controls, and other new diesel technologies, Nigel Calder's bestseller has everything you need to keep your diesel engine running cleanly and efficiently. Cure overheating Fix your transmission Retrofit a new diesel engine Flush your cooling system Change your oil Clean your electrical system Replace fuel filters and bleed air from the fuel system Troubleshoot virtually any problem.

An incredible true tale of espionage and engineering set at the height of the Cold War—a mix between The. Hunt for Red October and Argo— about how the CIA, the U.S. Navy, and. America’s most eccentric mogul. spent six years and nearly a billion dollars to steal the nuclear-armed Soviet submarine K-129 after it had sunk to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean; all while the Russians were watching. The Taking of K-129 is a riveting, almost unbelievable true-life tale of military history, engineering genius, and high-stakes spy-craft set during the height of the Cold War, when nuclear annihilation was a constant fear, and the opportunity to gain even the slightest advantage over your enemy was worth massive risk. “One of the most astonishing covert operations in U.S. history is detailed by author Josh Dean in his new book The Taking of K-129 ... a spy story on steroids.”. — New York Daily News. A terrific read.” —David E. Hoffman, New York Times bestselling author of The Billion Dollar Spy “An engrossing account of shadowy intrigue, precision engineering and ultra-deception, The Taking of K-129 is a high-stakes espionage drama of operational boldness married with technical brilliance.” —Robert Wallace, author of Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs from Communism to al-Qaeda “A riveting account of the American intelligence community. Told in fascinating detail , The Taking of K-129 is nonfiction at its best because with every page I had to remind myself this actually happened.”. — Kevin Maurer, co-author of the #1 New York Times bestseller No Easy Day “As a former submariner and navy diver, I give Josh Dean an A+ for The Taking of K-129 . This non-fiction account of one of the most dangerous and daring missions of the Cold War is well-researched and reads like a Tom Clancy thriller.” — W. Craig Reed, New York Times bestselling author of Red November "If you’ve been hungry for a submarine tale in the league of The Hunt For Red October , but subscribe to the belief that the truth is stranger than fiction, you’ll devour The Taking of K-129 , an epic befitting the top shelf of espionage and military reads.

In 1983 the Marine Electric, a "reconditioned" World War II vessel, was on a routine voyage thirty miles off the East Coast of the United States when disaster struck: The old coal carrier sank in the frigid forty-foot waves and subzero winds of the Atlantic, and of the thirty-four men aboard, only three survived. Beneath the surface of Frump's overblown, melodramatic writing style lies the intriguing story of Robert Cusick, one of only three crew members to survive the sinking of the Marine Electric, a coal ship that ran aground in the waters off Norfolk, Va., in 1983. The book chronicles not only its foundering, but also Cusick's fight to expose the system that fostered such an avoidable tragedy, as Frump revisits the story for which he won two national reporting awards when he broke it for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

An incredible true tale of espionage and engineering set at the height of the Cold War—a mix between The. Hunt for Red October and Argo— about how the CIA, the U.S. Navy, and. America’s most eccentric mogul. spent six years and nearly a billion dollars to steal the nuclear-armed Soviet submarine K-129 after it had sunk to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean; all while the Russians were watching. The Taking of K-129 is a riveting, almost unbelievable true-life tale of military history, engineering genius, and high-stakes spy-craft set during the height of the Cold War, when nuclear annihilation was a constant fear, and the opportunity to gain even the slightest advantage over your enemy was worth massive risk. “One of the most astonishing covert operations in U.S. history is detailed by author Josh Dean in his new book The Taking of K-129 ... a spy story on steroids.”. — New York Daily News. A terrific read.” —David E. Hoffman, New York Times bestselling author of The Billion Dollar Spy “An engrossing account of shadowy intrigue, precision engineering and ultra-deception, The Taking of K-129 is a high-stakes espionage drama of operational boldness married with technical brilliance.” —Robert Wallace, author of Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs from Communism to al-Qaeda “A riveting account of the American intelligence community. Told in fascinating detail , The Taking of K-129 is nonfiction at its best because with every page I had to remind myself this actually happened.”. — Kevin Maurer, co-author of the #1 New York Times bestseller No Easy Day “As a former submariner and navy diver, I give Josh Dean an A+ for The Taking of K-129 . This non-fiction account of one of the most dangerous and daring missions of the Cold War is well-researched and reads like a Tom Clancy thriller.” — W. Craig Reed, New York Times bestselling author of Red November "If you’ve been hungry for a submarine tale in the league of The Hunt For Red October , but subscribe to the belief that the truth is stranger than fiction, you’ll devour The Taking of K-129 , an epic befitting the top shelf of espionage and military reads.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The riveting, tick-tock account of the largest manmade explosion in history prior to the atomic bomb, and the equally astonishing tales of survival and heroism that emerged from the ashes. , from acclaimed New York Times bestselling author John U. Bacon. This is the unforgettable story told in John U. Bacon's The Great Halifax Explosion : a ticktock account of fateful decisions that led to doom, the human faces of the blast's 11,000 casualties, and the equally moving individual stories of those who lived and selflessly threw themselves into urgent rescue work that saved thousands. With deep research and evocative writing, John U. Bacon has brought back to life this devastating wartime event and illuminated its lasting meaning.” (DAVID MARANISS, Pulitzer Prize winner, and author of Once in a Great City ). “The most destructive moment of World War I occurred far from the Western Front, in Canada, where an explosion blew a city apart but propelled two nations together. John U. Bacon, a superbly talented historian and story teller, has rescued from obscurity an astonishing episode of horror and heroism.” (GEORGE F. WILL). “John U. Bacon’s The Great Halifax Explosion is the seminal account of one of the bloodiest man-made disasters in world history, which killed some 2,000 people. Ultimately, it is a book about the power of the human spirit and how ordinary people overcome unimaginable horror to rebuild their lives and help others.

A definitive account of World War II by America's preeminent military historian World War II was the most lethal conflict in human history. " The Second World Wars by Victor Davis Hanson is breathtakingly magisterial: How can Mr. Hanson make so much we thought we knew so fresh and original?" Mr. Hanson provides more than enough interesting and original points to make this book essential reading. "[ The Second World Wars ] is a brilliant and very original and readable work by a great military historian and contemporary commentator. "Dr. Hanson has written another well-researched and fascinating book.... [He] does an excellent job of placing World War II in the historical context of global conflict.