In this acclaimed novel, the Pulitzer Prize–finalist explores the perils, passions, and adventures of a young Nicaraguan immigrant trapped in Brooklyn. Named a Best Book of the Year by Newsday, the Los Angeles Times Book Review, the Chicago Tribune, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Publishers Weekly In the late 1980s, teenage Sandinista soldier and avowed communist Esteban Gaitán leaves Nicaragua to begin a new life in America. He soon arrives on a desolate Brooklyn pier with fourteen other men to form the crew of the ship Urus. Elias and Mark, the owners of the Urus, hold the men captive, forcing them to work in a vain attempt to make the rotting vessel seaworthy. Without the means to return home, Esteban remains a virtual prisoner, haunted by the loss of the woman he loved during the war. Eventually learning how to sneak off the ship, he makes nocturnal forays into Brooklyn, where he meets a Mexican immigrant named Joaquina, and begins to plot his permanent escape. Centering his novel around Esteban, but also telling the stories of his fellow landlocked sailors, Francisco Goldman proves once again that he is “a major talent of great style and soul” (The Miami Herald). “Often very funny . . . Here, a corner of Brooklyn becomes the exotic and foreign experience, and through Esteban’s eyes it is as mysterious and alluring as Tangiers.” —The Dallas Morning News

William Robinson, whose pseudonym may well have been his lower-deck nickname, volunteered for naval service in May 1805. This was in itself unusual by this time, but, rather more true to form, he eventually deserted in 1811. However, in his six years as an ordinary seaman he saw much action, including fighting at Trafalgar in the 74-gun Revenge - and less gloriously at the controversial Basque Roads attack, and the disastrous invasion of Walcheren in 1809. His experiences were probably typical of a Channel Fleet sailor of those years, and Robinson's descriptions are particularly valuable because, while he was an intelligent observer, he never became embittered by the harsh conditions, so his account is balanced and credible.

As the main artery of international commerce, merchant shipping was the world's first globalized industry, often serving as a vanguard for issues touching on labor recruiting, the employment relationship, and regulatory enforcement that crossed national borders. In Sweatshops at Sea, historian Leon Fink examines the evolution of laws and labor relations governing ordinary seamen over the past two centuries. The merchant marine offers an ideal setting for examining the changing regulatory regimes applied to workers by the United States, Great Britain, and, ultimately, an organized world community. Fink explores both how political and economic ends are reflected in maritime labor regulations and how agents of reform--including governments, trade unions, and global standard-setting authorities--grappled with the problems of applying land-based, national principles and regulations of labor discipline and management to the sea-going labor force. With the rise of powerful nation-states in a global marketplace in the nineteenth century, recruitment and regulation of a mercantile labor force emerged as a high priority and as a vexing problem for Western powers. The history of exploitation, reform, and the evolving international governance of sea labor offers a compelling precedent in an age of more universal globalization of production and services.

The Royal Navy is going to the dogs..... based on a true story, Just Nuisance is a hilarious, happily-ever-after misadventure of the only dog ever enlisted in the British Royal Navy. A gigantic Great Dane, appropriately named Just Nuisance, bumbled his way into the hearts of countless sailors and civilians as he championed his beloved mates, saved lives, and kept his little corner of the Empire safe from the Axis of Evil. It was 1939 and the world was on the brink of war. The Royal Navy decided victory lay in the hidden recesses of the British Empire. Recesses like Simon's Town South Africa, where an unexpected secret would put an end to Hitler and his dreams of world domination. A dog...but not just any dog...a gigantic Great Dane who amassed a fortune in fame on two continents and went on to become a legend. This is his story. And, the story of the sailors who befriended him, ultimately saved him, and the madcap mayhem they created together. Just Nuisance befriended every sailor in Simon's Town and everyone loved him, except the stuffed shirts at the South Africa Railways. Free to run amok up and down the Cape, Just Nuisance created good-natured chaos, ruffled feathers and made history as the only canine ever enlisted in the Royal Navy...all the while running from the arrogant South African Railways, who put a bounty on his free spirited head. With a supporting cast of equally lovable, zany, and distinctive characters...from Just Nuisance's sidekick, Ajax, the loyal Bulldog to the crazy but dedicated sailors you have an irresistible combination of fun and adventure. Just Nuisance was a fun loving pup...but he was much more than that to the hundreds of lives he touched during his service to King and Country. To this day Just Nuisance is a legend in many parts of the world.