A Man and His Ship
Title | A Man and His Ship PDF eBook |
Author | Steven Ujifusa |
Publisher | Simon and Schuster |
Total Pages | 432 |
Release | 2013-06-04 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN | 1451645090 |
“A fascinating historical account…A snapshot of the American Dream culminating with this country’s mid-century greatness” (The Wall Street Journal) as a man endeavors to build the finest, fastest, most beautiful ocean liner in history. The story of a great American Builder at the peak of his power, in the 1940s and 1950s, William Francis Gibbs was considered America’s best naval architect. His quest to build the finest, fastest, most beautiful ocean liner of his time, the SS United States, was a topic of national fascination. When completed in 1952, the ship was hailed as a technological masterpiece at a time when “made in America” meant the best. Gibbs was an American original, on par with John Roebling of the Brooklyn Bridge and Frank Lloyd Wright of Fallingwater. Forced to drop out of Harvard following his family’s sudden financial ruin, he overcame debilitating shyness and lack of formal training to become the visionary creator of some of the finest ships in history. He spent forty years dreaming of the ship that became the SS United States. William Francis Gibbs was driven, relentless, and committed to excellence. He loved his ship, the idea of it, and the realization of it, and he devoted himself to making it the epitome of luxury travel during the triumphant post-World War II era. Biographer Steven Ujifusa brilliantly describes the way Gibbs worked and how his vision transformed an industry. A Man and His Ship is a tale of ingenuity and enterprise, a truly remarkable journey on land and sea.
A Man and His Ship
Title | A Man and His Ship PDF eBook |
Author | Steven Ujifusa |
Publisher | Simon and Schuster |
Total Pages | 448 |
Release | 2012-07-10 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1451645082 |
THE STORY OF A GREAT AMERICAN BUILDER At the peak of his power, in the 1940s and 1950s, William Francis Gibbs was considered America’s best naval architect. His quest to build the finest, fastest, most beautiful ocean liner of his time, the S.S. United States, was a topic of national fascination. When completed in 1952, the ship was hailed as a technological masterpiece at a time when “made in America” meant the best. Gibbs was an American original, on par with John Roebling of the Brooklyn Bridge and Frank Lloyd Wright of Fallingwater. Forced to drop out of Harvard following his family’s sudden financial ruin, he overcame debilitating shyness and lack of formal training to become the visionary creator of some of the finest ships in history. He spent forty years dreaming of the ship that became the S.S. United States. William Francis Gibbs was driven, relentless, and committed to excellence. He loved his ship, the idea of it, and the realization of it, and he devoted himself to making it the epitome of luxury travel during the triumphant post–World War II era. Biographer Steven Ujifusa brilliantly describes the way Gibbs worked and how his vision transformed an industry. A Man and His Ship is a tale of ingenuity and enterprise, a truly remarkable journey on land and sea.
A Man and His Ship
Title | A Man and His Ship PDF eBook |
Author | Clinton Alfred Weslager |
Publisher | |
Total Pages | 260 |
Release | 1989 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN |
Many vessels braved the Atlantic bringing explorers, traders, & settlers to the New World - Columbus's NINA, PINTA, & SANTA MARIA - Henry Hudson's HALF MOON - Lord Baltimore's ARK & DOVE - William Penn's WELCOME - & numerous others. None played a more significant role in the history of the Middle Atlantic States than the KALMAR NYCKEL, although the name may be unfamiliar to many Americans. Meaning "the key of Kalmar" (Kalmar was a Swedish city in the Baltic), the KALMAR NYCKEL, commanded by Peter Minuit, made the first permanent European settlement in the Delaware River valley at present Wilmington in 1638. Dr. Weslager reveals that the KALMAR NYCKEL continued to bring colonists on three subsequent voyages, blazing a route to the Delaware estuary on the trade winds. New Sweden became a home not only for Swedes & Finns, but for immigrants from Germany, the Netherlands, the British Isles, Belgium, Poland - even Danes & Schleswig-Holsteiners. The author maintains that the KALMAR NYCKEL has not received its just due. He argues that the ship did more than transporting a handful of Scandinavians. It brought more people, & of differing cultural backgrounds, than the venerable MAYFLOWER, & it planted the seeds for three of the original thirteen colonies - Delaware, Pennsylvania, & New Jersey. Finally, the KALMAR NYCKEL heroically ended its career as a spy ship in the Swedish-Danish War. "Dr. Weslager is universally recognized as America's foremost historian on New Sweden...he cites information found in contemporary letters, journals, notorial records, & other primary sources many of which have been translated into English for the first time."--Peter S. Craig, SWEDISH COLONIAL NEWS.
The Man Who Thought like a Ship
Title | The Man Who Thought like a Ship PDF eBook |
Author | Loren C. Steffy |
Publisher | Texas A&M University Press |
Total Pages | 251 |
Release | 2012-04-30 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN | 1603440585 |
J. Richard “Dick” Steffy stood inside the limestone hall of the Crusader castle in Cyprus and looked at the wood fragments arrayed before him. They were old beyond belief. For more than two millennia they had remained on the sea floor, eaten by worms and soaking up seawater until they had the consistency of wet cardboard. There were some 6,000 pieces in all, and Steffy’s job was to put them all back together in their original shape like some massive, ancient jigsaw puzzle. He had volunteered for the job even though he had no qualifications for it. For twenty-five years he’d been an electrician in a small, land-locked town in Pennsylvania. He held no advanced degrees—his understanding of ships was entirely self-taught. Yet he would find himself half a world away from his home town, planning to reassemble a ship that last sailed during the reign of Alexander the Great, and he planned to do it using mathematical formulas and modeling techniques that he’d developed in his basement as a hobby. The first person ever to reconstruct an ancient ship from its sunken fragments, Steffy said ships spoke to him. Steffy joined a team, including friend and fellow scholar George Bass, that laid a foundation for the field of nautical archaeology. Eventually moving to Texas A&M University, his lack of the usual academic credentials caused him to be initially viewed with skepticism by the university’s administration. However, his impressive record of publications and his skilled teaching eventually led to his being named a full professor. During the next thirty years of study, reconstruction, and modeling of submerged wrecks, Steffy would win a prestigious MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant and would train most of the preeminent scholars in the emerging field of nautical archaeology. Richard Steffy’s son Loren, an accomplished journalist, has mined family memories, archives at Texas A&M and elsewhere, his father’s papers, and interviews with former colleagues to craft not only a professional biography and adventure story of the highest caliber, but also the first history of a field that continues to harvest important new discoveries from the depths of the world’s oceans.
Ship of Magic
Title | Ship of Magic PDF eBook |
Author | Robin Hobb |
Publisher | Spectra |
Total Pages | 834 |
Release | 2003-12-30 |
Genre | Fiction |
ISBN | 0553900250 |
The first book in a seafaring fantasy trilogy that George R. R. Martin has described as “even better than the Farseer Trilogy—I didn’t think that was possible.” Bingtown is a hub of exotic trade and home to a merchant nobility famed for its liveships—rare vessels carved from wizardwood, which ripens magically into sentient awareness. Now the fortunes of one of Bingtown’s oldest families rest on the newly awakened liveship Vivacia. For Althea Vestrit, the ship is her rightful legacy. For Althea’s young nephew, wrenched from his religious studies and forced to serve aboard the Vivacia, the ship is a life sentence. But the fate of the ship—and the Vestrits—may ultimately lie in the hands of an outsider: the ruthless buccaneer captain Kennit, who plans to seize power over the Pirate Isles by capturing a liveship and bending it to his will. Don’t miss the magic of the Liveship Traders Trilogy: SHIP OF MAGIC • MAD SHIP • SHIP OF DESTINY
Mad Ship
Title | Mad Ship PDF eBook |
Author | Robin Hobb |
Publisher | Spectra |
Total Pages | 864 |
Release | 2003-12-30 |
Genre | Fiction |
ISBN | 0553900269 |
The second book in a seafaring fantasy trilogy that George R. R. Martin has described as “even better than the Farseer Trilogy—I didn’t think that was possible.” As the ancient tradition of Bingtown’s Old Traders slowly erodes under the cold new order of a corrupt ruler, the Vestrits anxiously await the return of their liveship—a rare magic ship carved from sentient wizardwood, which bonds the ships mystically with those who sail them. And Althea Vestrit waits even more avidly, living only to reclaim the ship as her lost inheritance and captain her on the high seas. But the Vivacia has been seized by the ruthless pirate captain Kennit, who holds Althea’s nephew and his father hostage. Althea and her onetime sea mate Brashen resolve to liberate the liveship—but their plan may prove more dangerous than leaving the Vivacia in Kennit’s ambitious grasp. Don’t miss the magic of the Liveship Traders Trilogy: SHIP OF MAGIC • MAD SHIP • SHIP OF DESTINY
Brave Ship, Brave Men
Title | Brave Ship, Brave Men PDF eBook |
Author | Arnold Lott |
Publisher | Naval Institute Press |
Total Pages | 221 |
Release | 1994-05-05 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1612512852 |
A masterpiece of World War II heroism, this book catches the spirit and tone of an incredible fighting ship, the USS Aaron Ward, a destroyer-turned-minelayer on the radar picket lines in the Pacific.