Seafaring Lore & Legend: A Miscellany of Maritime Myth, Superstition, Fable, and Fact

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Item # MH-86569  ISBN: 9780071486569




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Seafaring Lore and Legend is a storehouse of wonders for those who love the sea. From Noah's Ark to Thor Heyerdahl's raft, from Atlantis to the Northwest Passage, author Peter Jeans scours the ages and the seven seas for fanciful, inspiring, and bizarre tales of sea monsters, ghost ships, lost continents, castaways, pirates, explorers, superstitions, and customs.

Discover the surprising truths behind:

• The origins of naval salutes and the Beaufort Scale
• Flogging a dead horse and other oddities of nautical custom
• Sea chanties, scurvy, and the hardships of life at sea
• Infamous and noteworthy sea captains and their ships
• Famous wrecks and mutinies
• Mermaids, sirens, and sea nymphs
• Nautical superstitions such as the albatross and Fiddler's Green
• and much more

This is a book you can open anywhere to savor for a few minutes or an afternoon. But be careful: it's easy to lose track of time at sea.

Table of contents

Acknowledgments | Note to the Reader | Introduction

1. IN THE BEGINNING
Great Floods | Moses and the Red Sea | The Rainbow | Maui, Creator of New Zealand | Oceanus | King Neptune | Poseidon | Amphitrite | Aphrodite | Portunus | Castor and Pollux | Nereus | Hero and Leander | Scylla and Charybdis | Manannan, Celtic Sea God

2. FABLED LANDS
Pillars of Hercules | Colossus of Rhodes | Ultima Thule | The Hesperides | Tarshish | Taprobane | Distant Ophir | Magnetic Islands | Hy Brasil | Island of Ogygia | Island of Delos | Lemuria, Lost Continent | Lost Land of Lyonesse

3. LEGENDARY VOYAGES
Sindbad the Sailor | Gulliver's Travels | Hanno the Navigator | Prince Madoc of Wales | Voyages of Saint Brendan | Voyages of Gil Eannes | Polynesian Seafarers | The Kon-Tiki Expedition

4. SEA QUESTS OF OLD
The Argosy | The Argonauts | The Odyssey | Vinland USA | The Northwest Passage | The Great South Land | Moby Dick

5. MARITIME HISTORY
The British Royal Navy | Naval Salutes | Plimsoll Line | Lloyd's of London | P&O Shipping Line | Beaufort Wind Scale

6. NAUTICAL CUSTOM
The Bucentaur | Crossing the Line | To Flog a Dead Horse | The Getting of Grog | Traveling POSH

7. LIFE AT SEA
Ocean Waves | Trade Winds | The Sargasso Sea | The Seven Seas | Cape Horn | The Cape Horners | On the Spanish Main | Prize Money | First Rate | Of Knots and Logs | Scurvy | Deep-Sea Diving | Sea Chanties

8. THE CAPTAIN AND HIS SHIP
Ship Types | The Age of Sail | The Clipper Ships | The Windjammers | Christopher Columbus | Lord Anson | Captain James Cook | John Paul Jones | Lord Nelson

9. A MURMURING OF MEN
The Batavia Wreck and Mutiny | HMS Bounty Mutiny | HMS Hermione Mutiny | Spithead and the Nore Mutiny | The Press Gang

10. BIG SHIPS AND BATTLES
RMS Titanic | HMS Ark Royal | RMS Queen Mary | HMS Dreadnought | The Spanish Armada | The Battle of Copenhagen | The Battle of Jutland | The Sinking of HMAS Sydney

11. DEATH AND DISASTER
USS Scorpion | HMS Royal George | The Gilt Dragon | HMS Birkenhead | RMS Lusitania | SS Waratah | The Whaler Essex | The William Brown | Wrecker's Coast

12. NAVIGABLE WATERS
The Amazon River | The Panama Canal | The Suez Canal

13. CASTAWAYS AND SURVIVORS
Robinson Crusoe | Icebound by North | Poon Lim | Herbert Kabat | John Caldwell | Tropic Island Hell

14. AT ODDS WITH THE LAW
Pirates | Buccaneers | Earrings for Cutthroats | Henry Every | William Kidd | Edward Teach ("Blackbeard") | Anne Bonny | Mary Read

15. SEA FANCIES
Mermaids | Sirens | The Lorelei | Selkies | Halcyon Days | King Canute

16. MYTH AND MYSTERY
Fabled Atlantis | The Bermuda Triangle | The Flannan Isles | The Flying Dutchman | The Mary Celeste | The Schooner Jenny | USS Cyclops

17. SEA MONSTERS
Monster Caddie | Captain M'Quhae"s Monster | Haiphong Monster | Monster Kraken | Loch Ness Monster | Rattray Head Monster | Cape Cod Monster | Cape São Roque Monster | Halifax Monster | Whaler Daphne's Monster | Nahant Beach Monster | Jonah and the Whale | Orcs, Whales, and Leviathan | The Bunyip of the Billabongs

18. WRAITHS OF THE SEA
Capes of Virginia Phantom | Gulf of Saint Lawrence Ghost Ship | Long Island Sound Ghost Ship | New Haven Ghost Ship | Ghosts of Dead Men | The Vikings of Solway Firth | Phantom Pilots

19. SUPERSTITION AND BELIEF
Launching a Ship | Coin Under the Mast | Ships' Names | Ships' Figureheads | Departures | The Eyes of Her | Guiding Star | The Lodestone | Unlucky Ships | Women Aboard Ship | Whistling Aboard Ship | Ringing Glass Aboard Ship | Sharks Astern | Ship's Cat | Coffins Aboard Ship | Flowers Aboard Ship | Flags, Bags, Bells, and Rags | Umbrellas Aboard Ship | The Albatross | Our Flat Earth | Saint Elmo's Fire | Priests Aboard Ship | Ebb Tide | Wren's Feather | Death by Drowning | Davy Jones's Locker | Fiddler's Green

Sources and Notes | Select Bibliography | Index

About the Author

Peter D. Jeans began his love affair with seafairing lore more than forty years ago. He has been an adventurer, English teacher, and columnist, and is an avid sailor and writer.

Seafaring Lore & Legend: A Miscellany of Maritime Myth, Superstition, Fable, and Fact