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NAVIGATION THROUGH THE AGES.by Doanld Launer. Paperback, 149mm X 226mm, 192 pages, monochrome photographs and drawings.
Sailors have been navigating the seas for thousands of years, and navigational technology has progressed exponentially during that time. This concise yet comprehensive volume from popular author Donald Launer begins with the impressive developments in navigation undertaken by early seafarers and follows the art and science of navigation through the ages to their culmination in the huge advances made by our contemporaries. Launer explores the navigational tools invented by each civilization and includes generous illustrations to help readers envision the tools used.
The topics covered are ;
Written in an accessible style, with no unexplained jargon or terminology Navigation Through the Ages will appeal especially to sailors and to anyone with an interst in the history of science and the exploration of our world.
NZ$45.00 + Delivery.
HOBSONVILLE - PORTRAIT OF A SEAPLANE STATION.by Bee Dawson. Paperback, 240mm X 189mm, 192 pages, monochrome and colour photos.
Hobsonville Air Force Station holds a unique place in RNZAF history as the only station to have been built primarily for seaplanes. From the early days of aviation, it served the Air Force well in times of both war and peace.
Affectionately known to generations of Air Force personnel and their families as "Hobby", Hobsonville had a character all of its own. Its isolation on the upper reaches of the Waitemata Harbour meant that the community was very close-knit, and much of its entertainment was home-grown. This is a lively social history of the station and its people - from commanding officers and their wives to the gardeners and aircraftmen.
NZ$25.00 + Delivery.
PIRATES.by Ross Kemp. Paperback, 128mm X 198mm, 236 pages, colour photos.
Pirates have been around as long as people have sailed the oceans as trade routes, and their reign on the world's high seas has inspired many a novelist. But the type of pirate Ross Kemp is investigating is a world away from the cutlass and peg-leg corsair of Treasure Island or Pirates of the Caribbean. The pirates Ross searches for in the seas of Somalia, Indonesia and Nigeria are armed with AK-47 assault rifles, RPG-7 rocket launchers and semi-automatic pistols. They race towards their targets in speed boats and board and capture vessels in a flash. They are dangerous and ruthless - and will stop at nothing.
Piracy is becoming an increasing problem that is not going away. As the pirates he meets stretch their operations ever further into new hunting grounds, Kemp puts himself in harm's way to find out how much of a force they are to be reckoned with.
NZ$30.00 + Delivery.
NEW ZEALANDERS AND THE SEA.by Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, Hardback, 220mm X 277mm, 272 pages, monochrome and full colour photos and illustrations.
In an island nation, the sea dominates life. Most New Zealanders live or holiday near the ocean and it is a source of enduring fascination, a diversion from our workday lives. When summer comes around, New Zealanders flock to the sea to swim, surf, sail and dive.
The sea also plays a practical part in our lives - from migrations across vast oceans, to the establishment of ports and harbours vital to settlement and trade, through to the fishing industry and aquaculture, oil exploration, marine conservation, and much more. Today, we are exploring the oceans as never before - finding out how they work, how they affect our climate and how they can continue to provide for us in the future.
New Zealanders and the Sea is a captivating mix of essays covering a wide range of subjects, supported by more than 400 photographs and maps. It is a unique look at our history and society through our relationship with the waters that surround us.
NZ$70.00 + Delivery.
FIRST ENCOUNTERS.by Joseph Cummins, Paperback, 185mm X 228mm, 320 pages, full colour illustrations.
Some of the most powerful moments in history occur when two peoples, two cultures, previously unknown to each other, come together for the first time. When cultures collide, 'surprises crackle, like electric arcs'. Probably the only contemporary equivalent we would have to the wonder, awe and horror of these experiences would be watching a spaceship full of extraterrestrials glide down to Earth. When Montezuma first heard reports of the Spanish on the coast of Mexico, he thought that the dead had come back to life and were returning to haunt his empire. The nineteenth-century Scottish explorer Mungo Park confronted amazed African tribes on his way to the mouth of the Niger river - they had assumed themselves the centre of the universe, 'the first and only' people of the Earth. The battle-hardened Vikings, ashore for the first time in North America, were chilled by the skraelings (savages) who materialised from the thick woods. First Encounters is a fascinating look at first contact moments drawn from the records of human exploration, adventure and discovery.
NZ$50.00 + Delivery.
IAIN OUGHTRED - A LIFE IN WOODEN BOATS.by Nic Compton, Hardback, 230mm X 284mm, 159 pages, full colour photographs and monochrome drawings.
Britain's wooden boat revival was a long time coming, but when it arrived there was one name that stood out above all others: Iain Oughtred. A former dinghy racer turned boatbuilder and designer, Iain developed a cult following both for the beauty of his designs and the quality of the drawings. Challenging the view that building boats was the province of the wealthy, he created exceptionally appealing yet inexpensive wooden boats ideal for amateur construction, often basing the designs on traditional local craft. Still going strong, his designs now number more than 100 and are built around the world by amateurs and professionals alike.
This beautiful and comprehensive book traces the life of this most enigmatic of designers, from his roots in Australia to the wilds of Scotland. His most popular designs are brought to life with gorgeous photography, often set in the stunnig Scottish landscape where he is based, and supplemented with an extensive plan section. Including interviews with family, friends and fellow designers, the evocaive text provides both a moving personal biography and a comprehensive overview of one man's life work.
NZ$80.00 + Delivery.
EMPIRES OF THE SEA.The fial battle for the Mediterranean, 1521-1580.By Roger Crowley, Paperback, 128mm X 197mm, 341 pages, full colour photographs and black & white drawings.
When Suleiman the Magnificent's invasion fleet set sail for Rhodes in 1521, it was the start of a sixty-year epic struggle for control of the Mediterranean. This is a breathtaking story of military crusading, Barbary pirates, white slavery and the Ottoman Empire - as well as the contest between Islam and Christianity, East and West. In this sweeping narrative history, Roger Crowley takes us from Istanbul to the Gates of Gibraltar, introduces us to extraordinary warriors including the pirate Barbarossa and the Knights of St John, and brings vividly to life the bloody siege of Malta and the shattering final sea battle at Lepanto
NZ$35.00 + Delivery.
THE VOYAGES OF cAPTAIN cOOK.By Anthony Cornish, Hardback, 155mm X 217mm, 112 pages, monochrome paintings.
Captain James Cook is probably the most famous maritime explorer of all time, and with good reason. The three voyages of discovery he made between 1768 and his death in 1779 set new standards in navigation, surveying and shipboard health. Among his many achievements he dispelled the myth of a Great Southern Continent, established that New Zealand was two islands and discovered and charted the eastern coast of Australia to a high degree of accuracy. The retinues of gentleman scientists that sailed with him made advances in astronomy, botany and zoology, and artists such as Sydney Parkinson, Alexander Buchan and William Hodges provided Europeans with some of the first images of the exotic peoples, flora and fauna of the Pacific.
Much has been written about Cook, but in this format the author, Anthony Cornish, is able to structure the book as a Question & Answer session, to discuss the 101 most pertinent and interesting questions relating to Cook's career and character, the objectives and route of each of his voyages, and the key events. Beautifully enhanced with engravings from the published narratives of the voyages, artefacts and paintings now held in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, and photographs of the Endeavour replica, this is an essential companion for any Cook enthusiast.
NZ$30.00 + Delivery.
CAPTAIN JAMES COOK, THE GREATEST DISCOVERER: THE ROBERT and MARY ANNE PARKS COLLECTION
By Hordern House, Hardback, 220mm X 285mm, 174 pages, colour illustrations.
The Captain James Cook collection of Bob and Mary Anne Parks is a landmark of its kind, and represents the finest such collection offered. This comprehensive and extensively illustrated catalogue will undoubtedly become one of the standard reference works on the subject. The catalogue includes highlights such as: " An extraordinary original letter by Cook, entirely in his own hand, asking for the return of a press-ganged sailor " Joseph Banks's engraved map of Cook's first voyage, the first map of the east coast of Australia, and never before offered for sale " Magnificent engraved portraits of Cook, Banks, Omai and others " An original manuscript map from Cook's surveying of Newfoundland " Samples of genuine tapa cloth in the contemporary books of Alexander Shaw and Anders Sparrman " All of the major recorded engravings of the death of Captain Cook.
Quarto, 174 pages, bound in cloth with colour dustjacket. 133 items fully described and illustrated in colour throughout, with bibliography of principal references and an index.
NZ$70.00 + Delivery.
FROM SEA TO SEA.By L.T.C. Rolt, Paperback, 145mm X 223 mm, 228 pages, black and white photographs.
The Canal du Midi was built in just fifteen years, from 1666 to 1681, to provide an inland water route through Southern France between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
L.T.C. Rolt tells us how this extraordinary engineering achievement was inspired and led by Pierre Paul Riquet, a provincial tax collector, how he won the support of Louis XIV, and how he overcame formidable technical, economic and social problems which threatened to stop the works.
Rolt was a founder of the movement which successfully campaigned for preservation of Britian's waterways heritage, and his writings have a wide following. This historical guide, first published in 1973, bears the stamp of his unique combination of in-depth knowledge and almost poetic sensitivity.
David Edwards-May, writer of books and guides on European waterways, has brought the story up to date with a postscript, and has added maps, plans and drawings to make the book also the indispensible companion for tourists discovering the canal.
Was NZ$55.00 + Delivery
now NZ$30.00 + Delivery.
EXPLORERS, WHALERS & TATTOOED SAILORS.ByGordon & Sarah Ell. Hbk, 135mm x 204, 302 pages, monochrome illustrations.
This collection of first-hand accounts, drawn from early writings and out-of-print books, lets the first Europeans to visit this country tell their own stories of exploration, risk and adventure. Abel Tasman and Joseph Banks write of their first encounters with the people of this new land, followed by missionaries, traders, whalers and sealers, regency bucks, gentlemen scientists and entrepreneurs keen to explore its possibilities. Told in their own words, these stories bring to life a young country yet to come under British rule. This collection, first published in 1992 by The Bush Press, brings back into print many hard-to-find and otherwise unpublished stories, packaged in an attractive gift edition with a modern look.
NZ$35.00 + delivery.
MERCATOR, The Man Who Mapped the Planet.By Nicholas Crane. Pbk, 128mm x 198mm, 397 pages, full colour photographs.
This book is a vivid biography of the man who created the first modern map of the world.
Gerard Mercator solved the dimensional riddle that had vexed cosmographers for so long: How could the three dimensional globe be converted into a two-dimensional map while retaining true compass bearings? The Mercator Projection revolutionised navigation and has become the most common world view.
Mercator lived through an extraordinary period of intellectual and scientific revolution, during which cartographers were piecing together the complex fragments of evidence that would create a compete picture of the planet. He was a poor cobbler's son and ultimately attended one of Europe's top universities. As with other innovative men of science during this period, he was persecuted by the church and imprisoned by the Inquisition, yet overcame repression to produce the Mercator Projection, and to coin the word Atlas.
NZ$30.00 + delivery.
LONGITUDEBy Dava Sobel, Pbk, 110mm x 175mm, 184 pages.
Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest. The 'longitude problem' was the thorniest dilemma of the eighteenth century. Lacking the ability to measure longitude accurately, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea.
At the heart of Dava Sobel's fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation and horology stands the figure of John Harrison, self taught Yorkshire clockmaker, and his forty-year obsession with building the perfect timekeeper. Battling against the establishment, Harrison stood alone in pursuit of his solution and the GBP20,000 reward offered by Parliament.
NZ$25.00 + Delivery
LONGITUDE - HARDBACKBy Dava Sobel, Hbk, 144mm x209mm, 184 pages, full colour photographs and illustrations.
The text in this hardback edition is identical to the paperback described above. The differences are in the binding and this harback has 8 pages of colour photographs and illustrations. it is a beautifully presented book.
NZ$40.00 + Delivery
Also available in an illustrated larger format Paperback. See below.
THE ILLUSTRATED LONGITUDE.
By Dava Sobel, Pbk, 255mm x 230mm, 216 pages, full colour photographs and reproductions.
This book recounts in words and images the epic quest to solve the greatest scientific problem of the eighteenth and three prior centuries: determining how a captain could pinpoint his ship's location at sea. All too often throughout the ages of exploration, voyages ended in disaster when crew and cargo were either lost at sea or destroyed upon the rocks of an unexpected landfall. Thousands of lives and the fortunes of nations hung on a resolution to the longitude problem.
To encourage a solution, governments established prizes for anyone whose method or device proved successful. The largest reward of 20,000 pounds - truly a king's ransom - was offered by Britain's Parliament in 1714. The scientific establishment - from Galileo to Sir Isaac Newton - had been certain that a celestial answer would be found and invested untold effort in this pursuit. By contrast, John Harrison imagined and built the unimaginable: a clock that told perfect time at sea, known today as the chronometer. Harrison's trials and tribulations during his forty-year quest to win the prize are the culmination of this remarkable story.
The Illustrated Longitude brings a new and important dimension to Dava Sobel's celebrated story. It contains the entire original narrative of Longitude, redesigned to accompany 183 images chosen by William Andrews - from portraits of every important figure in the story to maps and diagrams, scientific instruments, and John Harrison's remarkable sea clocks themselves. Andrew's elegant captions and sidebars on scientific and histotical events tell their own story of longitude, paralleling and illuminating Sobel's memorable tale.
NZ$70.00 + Delivery
AND THE CREW WENT TOO.By Geoff Lunn. Paperback, 172mm x 248mm, 192 pages, monochrome photos.
The end of the Second World War heralded one of the largest mass migrations ever seen from Europe. Millions left their homelands for new horizons and Britain was no exception. Australia, like New Zealand and Canada, needed many thousands of new workers so that it could grow and prosper. British and Australian governments collaborated to offer 'assisted passages', effectively subsidising the fare so that emigrants would pay a maximum of 10 pounds.
Ships such as the Asturias, Canberra, Oriana and Britanis and a whole fleet of vessels were employed to take people to their new homes on the other side of the world. Companies such as Chandris and P&O made small fortunes on these voyages which peaked in the 1960s but continued into the 1970s. Australia benefited by taking skilled workers from the Old World and sometimes even the crew jumped ship to take advantage of opportunities in the New World.
Geoff Lunn tells the fascinating history of these mass emigrations, using interviews with emigrants to bring the story to life.
Was NZ$65.00 + delivery
Now NZ$45.00 + delivery.
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