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TEN ROGUESBy Peter Grose, Softback, 0.35 kg, 155mm x 235mm, 229 pages. Published 2020
A band of convicts, a scoundrel by the name of Jimmy Porter, a stolen brig and a daring plan for escape.
From the grim docks of nineteenth-century London to the even grimmer shores of the brutal penal colony of Norfolk Island, this is a roller-coaster tale. It has everything: defiance of authority, treachery, piracy and mutiny, escape from the hangman's noose and even love.
Peopled with good men, buffoons, incompetents and larrikin convicts of the highest order, Ten Rogues is an unexpected and wickedly entertaining story.
Peter Grose brings to irresistible life the story of a small band of convicts who managed to escape the living hell of the Tasmanian penal colony of Sarah Island. Their getaway began by stealing the leaky and untested brig they had helped to build, and then sailing it across the Pacific from Tasmania to Chile with neither a map nor a chronometer.
Ten Rogues shines a light into some dark and previously well-hidden corners of colonial history...
$35.00 + Delivery
THE OUTLAW OCEAN
By Ian Urbina, Softback, 0.86 kg, 155mm x 235mm, 544 pages. Published 2019
A riveting, adrenalin-fuelled tour of a vast, lawless and rampantly criminal world that few have ever seen: the high seas.
There are few remaining frontiers on our planet. But perhaps the wildest, and least understood, are the world’s oceans: too big to police, and under no clear international authority, these immense regions of treacherous water play host to the unbridled extremes of human behaviour and activity.
Traffickers and smugglers, pirates and mercenaries, wreck thieves and repo men, vigilante conservationists and elusive poachers, seabound abortion-providers, clandestine oil-dumpers, shackled slaves and cast-adrift stowaways: drawing on five years of perilous and intrepid reporting, often hundreds of miles from shore, Urbina introduces us to the inhabitants of this hidden world and their risk-fraught lives. Through their stories of astonishing courage and brutality, survival and tragedy, he uncovers a globe-spanning network of crime and exploitation that emanates from the fishing, oil and shipping industries, and on which the world’s economies rely.
Both a gripping adventure story and a stunning exposé, this unique work of reportage brings fully into view for the first time the disturbing reality of a floating world that connects us all, a place where anyone can do anything because no one is watching.
$45.00 + Delivery
THE BOAT WHO WOULDN'T FLOAT
By Farley Mowat, Softback, 0.35 kg, 140mm x 215mm, 294 pages. New Edition 2018
It seemed like a good idea. Tired of everyday life ashore, Farley Mowat would find a sturdy boat in Newfoundland and roam the salt sea over, free as a bird. What he found was the worst boat in the world, and she nearly drove him mad. The Happy Adventure, despite all that Farley and his Newfoundland helpers could do, leaked like a sieve. Her engine only worked when she felt like it. Typically, on her maiden voyage, with the engine stuck in reverse, she backed out of the harbour under full sail. And she sank, regularly.
How Farley and a varied crew, including the intrepid lady who married him, coaxed the boat from Newfoundland to Lake Ontario is a marvellous story. The encounters with sharks, rum-runners, rum and a host of unforgettable characters on land and sea make this a very funny book for readers of all ages
$40.00 + Delivery
CATCHING THUNDER
The True Story of the World's Longest Sea Chase.
By Eskill Engdal & Kjetil Saeter, Paperback, 0.45 kg, 135mm x 210mm, 391 pages. Colour Photographs. Published 2018.
December, 2014: In the forbidding waters off Antarctica, Captain Hammarstedt of the Bob Barker embarks on a voyage unlike any seen before. Across ten thousand miles of hazardous seas, Hammarstedt’s crew will relentlessly pursue the Thunder—an infamous illegal fishing ship—for what will become the longest chase in maritime history.
Wanted by Interpol, the Thunder has for years evaded justice: accumulating millions in profits, hunting endangered species and ruthlessly destroying ocean habitats. The authors follow this incredible expedition from the beginning. But even as seasoned journalists, they cannot anticipate what the chase will uncover, as the wake of the Thunder leads them to trail of criminal kingpins, rampant corruption, modern slavery, and an international community content to turn a blind eye. Very soon, apprehending Thunder becomes more than a chase but a pursuit of the truth itself and a symbolic race to preserve the well-being of our planet.
A Scandinavian best-seller, Catching Thunder is a remarkable true story of courage and perseverance, and a wake-up call to act against the destruction of our environments.
$40.00 + Delivery
SHARK DRUNK
The Art of Catching a Large Shark from a Tiny Rubber Dinghy in a Big Ocean.
By Morten Stroksnes, Hardback, 0.39 kg, 145mm x 198mm, 307 pages. Published 2017.
The Lofoten islands in Norway are as isolated and forbidding as they are majestic. In this true story, two friends, the author and the eccentric artist Hugo Aasjord, set out onto the icy waters surrounding the islands. Their quest: to pursue the infamous Greenland shark—a massive creature that can grow to twenty-six feet in length and more than a ton in weight—from a tiny rubber boat. But the shark is not known for its size alone: its meat contains a toxin that, when consumed, has been known to make people drunk and hallucinatory. Together, the two men tackle existential questions, survive the world’s most powerful maelstrom, and, yes, get drunk, as they attempt to understand the ocean from every possible angle, drawing on poetry, science, history, ecology, mythology, and their own, sometimes intoxicated, observations.
Was $45.00 + Delivery
Now $25.00 + Delivery
THE LAST GREAT AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURER.
Ben Carlin's epic journey around the world by amphibious jeep.
By Gordon Bass, Paperback, 0.55 kg, 154mm x 233mm, 365 pages. Published 2017. Black & White and Full-colour photographs.
In 1948, Ben Carlin set out from New York City with an audacious, lunatic plan to circumnavigate the world in an army surplus amphibious jeep called Half-Safe.
Fuelled by cigarettes and adrenaline, the Australian army major pushed his fragile, claustrophobic vehicle through fierce Atlantic hurricanes, across uncharted North African desert, into dense South-East Asian jungle and over the icy dark swells of the North Pacific. It was a 50,000-mile roll of the dice that by all rights should have killed him. When Ben finally pulled into Times Square a decade later, he found himself alone and forgotten, his legacy little more than a wake of women and empty whiskey bottles. And the worst was yet to come.
Was it all a fool’s errand? Or a pure manifestation of spirit? Where does a dream end and an obsession begin? What’s an acceptable cost to pay, and to what lengths will a person go not to be left with the haunting question: what if? The last Great Australian Adventurer is the compelling account of Ben Carlin’s attempt to make an enduring mark on the world at the twilight of the Golden Age of Adventure
$40.00 + Delivery
CRUSOE'S ISLAND A Rich and curious history of pirates, castaways and madness.
By Andrew Lambert, Paperback, 0.26 kg, 130mm x 198mm, 306 pages. Paperback Published 2017.
Acclaimed historian Andrew Lambert uncovers the fascinating truth about a faraway place that still haunts our imagination and culture: the island of Robinson Crusoe in the South Pacific Ocean.
Daniel Defoe's enduring novel Robinson Crusoe famously followed the adventures of a shipwrecked sailor. Yet the complex reality is more surprising, more colourful and considerably darker.
Drawing on voyage accounts, journal entries, maps and illustrations, Lambert brings to life the voices of the visiting sailors, scientists, writers and artists. There are the early encounters of the 1500s, the perilous journeys of the eighteenth-century explorers, the naval conflicts of the First World War and the environmental concerns of more recent years.
Crusoe’s Island reveals that the British relationship whit this distant, tiny island extends far beyond a single book. This true history helps us to understand why the British, still a naval power but no longer a great maritime empire, are not yet ready to give up the ocean – or on tiny specks of land at the far ends of the earth.
$25.00 + Delivery
SMALL-BOAT SAILING
By Jack London, Hardback, 0.10 kg, 109mm x 172mm. Originally Published 1912. Reprinted 2014 .
Jack London listened to the lure of the sea and discovered the thrill of sailing a small boat on San Francisco Bay at age 12. He owned several sailboats throughout his life and claimed that he felt more at home on the sea than on land. Originally published in Yachting Monthly magazine in 1912, this essay describes his life spent at sea including the hard work and excitement of sailing a small boat in treacherous waters.
Here is a small excerpt taken from the book....
‘Barring captains and mates of big ships, the small-boat sailor is the real sailor. He knows—he must know—how to make the wind carry his craft from one given point to another given point. He must know about tides and rips and eddies, bar and channel markings, and day and night signals; he must be wise in weather-lore; and he must be sympathetically familiar with the peculiar qualities of his boat which differentiate it from every other boat that was ever built and rigged. He must know how to gentle her about, as one instance of a myriad, and to fill her on the other tack without deadening her way or allowing her to fall off too far.’
A beautifully bound little gift book.
$25.00 + Delivery
AMAZING SAILING STORIES
By Dick Durham. 264 pages, 0.40 kg, 153mm x 230mm. Published 2016 .
Discover some of the most exciting tales of adventure afloat.
This is a wonderful collection of sailing stories from across centuries and around the world. Journey around gale-whipped headlands, survive mountainous seas and discover the delights of cruising among the islands of a tropical paradise. From the majestic square rigger to the humble homemade yacht; every sort of vessel is showcased in this treasure trove of extraordinary true tales
The exploits of sailing’s greatest names are recounted, along with an eclectic mix of voyages that never made the headlines yet make compelling reading.
Dick Durham invites you to set sail on a thrilling journey comprising some of the most exciting tales of adventure afloat. He retells each one, adding a magic that makes this essential reading for anyone with a love of sailing and the sea.
$35.00 + Delivery
ONE WILD SONGBy Paul Heiney. 230 pages, 0.20 kg, 130mm x 200mm, Colour photos. Published 2016 .
When Countrywise presenter Paul Heiney's son Nicholas committed suicide aged 23, Paul and his wife, Times columnist Libby Purves, were rocked to the core. Nicholas had been a highly gifted promising young man, albeit he had struggled to keep his head above water at times as severe depression slowly dragged him down over many years.
Nicholas was a keen sailor, with several of his posthumously-published writings having a nautical theme. To try to reconnect with this happier memory of his son, Paul decides to set out – alone – on a voyage he would have liked them to have embarked upon together. Cape Horn is the sailor's Everest. One of the most remote and bleak parts of the world, it takes courage, physical strength and mental fortitude to face its tempestuous seas, violent winds and barren landscape.
Poignant, moving, funny, thought provoking and beautifully written, Paul's account of setting his own course through seemingly insurmountable grief makes for a powerful story. Injected with humour, perceptiveness and philosophy, recounting his highs, lows, frustrations and triumphs, the honesty and openness of Paul's story makes this very personal account a universal tale.
$24.00 + Delivery
DON'T TRUST DON'T FEAR DON'T BEGBy Ben Stewart. 376 pages, 0.43 kg, 135mm x 215mm, Colour photos. Published 2015.
In September 2013 the crew of the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise scaled a Russian oil platform. Their protest was met with brutal force as Putin’s commandos seized their ship. Towed to the mainland under armed guard the Arctic Thirty were charged with piracy and faced fifteen years in Russia’s vicious prison system. A movement of millions demanded their release.
This is their story.
The author, Ben Stewart led the first Greenpeace expedition to challenge Arctic oil drilling off the coast of Greenland. In 2013 he was a leading figure in the campaign to free the Arctic Thirty.
$35.00 + Delivery
MUTINY ON BOARD HMS BOUNTY..By William Bligh. Paperback, 0.18kg, 130mm x 200mm, 187 pages. This edition published 2014.
First published in 1790, this edition includes a new map of the route of the Bounty before and after the mutiny, as well as that of Bligh and his loyal crew after being abandoned.
In 1789 the crew of the HMS Bounty mutinied against their captain, William Bligh. Bligh and his loyal crewmen survived a 1,000-mile journey in a small boat, but when he returned to England and several mutineers went on trial, different versions of the events began to emerge. This brand new edition brings together Bligh's account of the mutiny, responses from the lawyer Edward Christian (the brother of lead mutineer Fletcher Christian) and contridictory testimonies from Bounty crewmembers.
World-class yachtsman and racing sailor Pete Goss writes in the foreword to this edition of his own experience of a collapse in captain-crew relations as he explores the grey areas surrounding the mutiny on the Bounty
NZ$25.00 + delivery.
HOW TO SAIL A BOAT.By Matt Vance. Paperback, 0.18kg, 130mm x 198mm, 116 pages, published 2013.
To sail a boat is a magical, and sometimes mystical experience. The sailor is free from the cares of life on land, entirely absorbed in the enterprise of moving a craft across the water. For the uninitiated, though, this is madness. Whatever reason can there be for willingly putting yourself at the mercy of nature's unpredictable forces, winds, waves and weather?
Here, Matt Vance takes you inside the mind of the sailor, from the first scary moment of handling a boat solo to the exhilaration of sailing across oceans and discovering new worlds. His stories and those of his fellow madmen will captivate sailors young and old - and if you're a landlubber you may just find yourself yearning for the blue horizon.
NZ$26.00 + delivery.
HEN FRIGATES.
By Joan Druett. Hardback, 162mm x 242mm, 274 pages, monochrome paintings.
Throughout the nineteenth century, many merchant ships plying the Atlantic, and farther afield to Europe and the Far East, carried not only the captain and his crew but the captain's wife and children. The amazing, largely untold story of these "hen frigates", as they were called, is more fascinating than any sailor's yarn.
Drawing on first-person accounts from journals and letters, Joan Druett re-creates the colourful and often dangerous lives of these enterprising and courageous women, describing an ocean-going world in which disease was pervalent, accidents were common, and gales, hurricanes, and typhoon - even collisions and fire at sea - were a constant threat. Some wives survived shipwreck, but many succumbed, as in the wreck of the Golden Star in 1861, when Captain Staples and his wife drowned, locked in each other's arms.
Yet despite the risks, thousands of women preferred to join their husbands at sea rather than remain safely alone on land. They endured childbirth; seasickness; terrifying skirmishes with pirates; rats that swam behind the ship, refusing to die, after being thrown overboard; and the hazards of bringing up children in the cramped shipboard conditions. In the process they acquired a resourcefulness that few women could match today.
The compensations were many: romantic moonlit nights on deck, visits to exotic foreign ports where they could shop and go sightseeing, and, above all, the companionship of the men they loved.
Told with all the immediacy of eyewitness accounts, Hen Frigates weaves a lyrical narrative of seafaring life, enabling us to share the emotional spectrum of fear and pain, anger, love and heartbreak, that these women experienced. Meticulously researched and lavishly illustrated with authentic seascapes and archive portraits of the wives and their husbands, this unique book is a rare tale of high adventure that transports us back to the golden age of sail.
NZ$40.00 + delivery.
SEA FEVER, The True Adventures that Inspired our greatest Maritime Authors.By Sam Jefferson. Paperback, 130mm x 198mm, 330 pages, Sepia and Colour Photographs. 2016
How did a big-game fishing trip rudely interrupted by sharks inspire one of the key scenes in Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea? How did Robert Louis Stevenson's cruise to the cannibal-infested South Sea islands prove instrumental in his writing of The Beach of Falesa and The Ebb Tide? How did Masefield survive Cape Horn and a near-nervous breakdown to write Sea Fever?
The waters of this world have swirled through storytelling ever since the Celts spun the tale of Beowulf and Homer narrated The Odyssey. This enthralling book takes us on a tour of the most dangerous, exciting and often eccentric escapades of literature's sailing stars, and how these true stories inspired and informed their best-loved works. Arthur Ransome, Erskine Childers, Jack London and many others are featured as we find out how extraordinary fact fed into unforgettable fiction. -
NZ$25.00 + delivery.
OCEAN NOTORIOUS, Journeys to lost and lonely places of the deep south..By Matt Vance. Softback, 150mm x 220mm, 185 pages, Published 2015. Black & White Images..
The Southern Ocean is Earth's most notorious body of water.The windiest, roughest most isolated and most important ocean on the planet. It circles Antarctica, acts as a violent mixer of wind and water, links all other oceans, is feared by sailors and explorers – and is mostly ignored by the rest of the world.
Human influence is minimal; the idea of settlement is absurd. There are only widely scattered outposts of people who have come ashore intentionally and temporarily – or have been shipwrecked or abandoned.
Few people visit this remote and mysterious region, but for some, the lure is irresisible. As an expedition guide, Matt Vance has accompanied intrepid tourists and birders, artists and writers.
In Ocean Notorious he gives a moving first-person account of the lonely places where lives have been changed and history made. - from the obsessive explorers of the heroic era to solo sailors in tiny yachts, marooned wartime coastwatchers and ruthless plunderers of wildlife to today's dreamers, drifters and passionate preservationists.
NZ$40.00 + delivery.
SAILING TO THE EDGE OF TIMEBy John Kretschmer. Paperback, 0.21kg, 130mm x 200mm, 277 pages. This Ediiton Published 2020. Colour Photographs.
With hundreds of thousands of nautical miles under his keel, John Kretschmer's adventures have taken him several times around the world, with challenging crossings of the Atlantic and the Pacific, a narrow escape from a coup in Yemen, an unlikely deliverance from a coral reef off Belize as well as more serene, introspective passages where trade winds are blowing and stories are flowing. His crew has included CEOs, actors, writers, teachers, kids – in essence, everyone.
In this book he shares his simple profundities that will inspire those who live to sail, and those seeking something more rewarding from life. Interwoven with practical tips and advice in seamanship, but also, and just as importantly, his hard-won insights about making the most of our lives.
NZ$25.00 + delivery.
SAILING A SERIOUS OCEAN.By John Kretschmer. Hardback, 0.49kg, 157mm x 235mm, 242 pages, black & white photographs and illustrations. Published 2013.
After sailing 300,000 miles and weathering dozens of storms in all the world's oceans, John Kretschmer has plenty of stories and advice to share. John's offshore training passages sell out a year in advance and his entertaining presentations are popular at boat shows and yacht clubs all over the English speaking world. John's talent for storytelling enchants his audience as it soaks up the lessons he learned during hs often-challenging voyages. Now you can take a seat next to John - at a lesser cost - and get the knowledge you need to fulfill your own dream of blue-water adventure.
In Sailing a Serious Ocean, John tells you what to expect when sailing the oceans and shows how to sail safely across them. His tales of storm encounters and other examples of extreme seamanship will help you prepare for your journey and give you confidence to handle any situation - even heavy weatherr. Through his personal stories, John will guide you through the whole process of choosing the right boat, outfitting with the right gear, planning your route, navigating the ocean, and understanding the nuances of life at sea.
Our oceans are beautiful yet unpredictable - water that is at one moment a natural mirror for the glowing sun can turn into a foamy, raging wall of fury. John knows our oceans, and he is one of the best teachers of taming and enjoying them. Before you set off across the big blue, turn to John for his inspirational stories and hard-learned advice and discover the serious sailor in you.
NZ$49.00 + delivery.
SAILING, YACHTS & YARNS.By Tom Cunliffe. Hardback, 0.53kg, 160mm x 235mm, 232 pages. Published 2011.
Tom Cunliffe, star of BBC TV's The Boats That Built Britain, is also Britain's leading sailing writer, Sailing, Yachts & Yarns is a selection of his most entertaining, outspoken and instructive writing from the pages of Yachting Monthly. Tom's regular column for his leading sailing magazine gives him free reign to explore a wide range of topics. He has a gift for capturing the magic of sail and finding pearls of practical wisdom in the most unlikely nautical adventures.
This book is a wonderful miscellany of wit, wisdom and wonder. It will make you laugh and make you think - and make you want to cast off to enjoy the delights of life afloat.
NZ$50.00 + delivery.
ICE BIRD. By David Lewis. Paperback, 153mm x 234mm, 223 pages, monochrome photos.
David Lewis and his 32-foot yacht, Ice Bird, set sail from Sydney, Australia in 1972 on a search for high adventure. The voyage, full of drama, emotion, and pain, took place in some of the most treacherous waters in the world.
No one had ever sailed a yacht single-handed to Antarctica until David Lewis. Along the way, he would not touch land for more than 14 weeks, facing mountainous seas, constant gales, snowstorms, and freezing temperatures. What started as high adventure became a fight for his life against the odds. Twice his small yacht was capsized and once it was dismasted 3,500 miles from help. his survival was a miracle of fortitude, skill, and some luck.
Ice Bird is one of the great true sea stories of the twentieth century. It is also a tale of human endurance; a testimony of one man's will to overcome almost anything and everything - physical and psychological - to stay alive.
NZ$45.00 + delivery.
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