Sign-In
Cart
Lifeboat
Hardcover
ISBN13: 9780813922218
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Published: Sep 29 2003
Pages: 336
Weight: 1.82
Height: 1.28 Width: 7.18 Depth: 9.84
Language: English
The fire extinguisher; the airline safety card; the lifeboat. Until September 11, 2001, most Americans paid homage to these appurtenances of disaster with a sidelong glance, if at all. But John Stilgoe has been thinking about lifeboats ever since he listened with his father as the kitchen radio announced that the liner Lakonia had caught fire and sunk in the Atlantic. It was Christmas 1963, and airline travel and Cold War paranoia had made the images of an ocean liner's distress--the air force dropping supplies in the dark, a freighter collecting survivors from lifeboats--seem like echoes of a bygone era.
But Stilgoe, already a passionate reader and an aficionado of small-boat navigation, began to delve into accounts of other disasters at sea. What he found was a trunkful of hair-raising stories--of shipwreck, salvation, seamanship brilliant and inept, noble sacrifice, insanity, cannibalism, courage and cravenness, even scandal. In nonfiction accounts and in the works of Conrad, Melville, and Tomlinson, fear and survival animate and degrade human nature, in the microcosm of an open boat as in society at large.
How lifeboats are made, rigged, and captained, Stilgoe discovered, and how accounts of their use or misuse are put down, says much about the culture and circumstances from which they are launched. In the hands of a skillful historian such as Stilgoe, the lifeboat becomes a symbol of human optimism, of engineering ingenuity, of bureaucratic regulation, of fear and frailty. Woven through Lifeboat are good old-fashioned yarns, thrilling tales of adventure that will quicken the pulse of readers who have enjoyed the novels of Patrick O'Brian, Crabwalk by Günter Grass, or works of nonfiction such as The Perfect Storm and In the Heart of the Sea. But Stilgoe, whose other works have plumbed suburban culture, locomotives, and the shore, is ultimately after bigger fish. Through the humble, much-ignored lifeboat, its design and navigation and the stories of its ultimate purpose, he has found a peculiar lens on roughly the past two centuries of human history, particularly the war-tossed, technology-driven history of man and the sea.
Also in
Boating
Titanic: The Ship Magnificent - Volume Two: Interior Design and Fitting Out
Hall, Steve
Beveridge, Bruce
Braunschweiger, Art
Hardcover
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (National Book Award Winner)
Philbrick, Nathaniel
Paperback
Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
Sobel, Dava
Paperback
The Great Halifax Explosion: A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism
Bacon, John U.
Paperback
In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette
Sides, Hampton
Paperback
Island of the Lost: An Extraordinary Story of Survival at the Edge of the World
Druett, Joan
Paperback
Ashley Book of Knots: Every Practical Knot--What It Looks Like, Who Uses It, Where It Comes From, and How to Tie It
Ashley, Clifford
Hardcover
The Band That Played on: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic
Turner, Steve
Paperback
Modern Marine Weather: From Time-honored Traditional Knowledge to the Latest Technology
Burch, David
Paperback
Long Term Almanac 2000-2050: For the Sun and Selected Stars With Concise Sight Reduction Tables, 2nd Edition
Kolbe, Geoffrey
Paperback
On a Sea of Glass: The Life & Loss of the RMS Titanic
Layton, Kent
Fitch, Tad
Wormstedt, Bill
Paperback
Ghost Ship: The Mysterious True Story of the Mary Celeste and Her Missing Crew
Hicks, Brian
Paperback
Shipwrecks and Lost Treasures: Great Lakes: Legends And Lore, Pirates And More!
Varhola, Michael
Paperback
The Lost Boys of Montauk: The True Story of the Wind Blown, Four Men Who Vanished at Sea, and the Survivors They Left Behind
Fairbanks, Amanda M.
Paperback
Into the Raging Sea: Thirty-Three Mariners, One Megastorm, and the Sinking of El Faro
Slade, Rachel
Paperback
Deadliest Sea: The Untold Story Behind the Greatest Rescue in Coast Guard History
Thompson, Kalee
Paperback
Navigation Rules and Regulations Handbook
Department of Homeland Security
United States Coast Guard
Hardcover
The Captain, The Missionary, and the Bell: The Wreck of the Steamship Atlantic
Larsson, Eric
Paperback
The Loss of the Ship Essex, Sunk by a Whale: First-Person Accounts
Nickerson, Thomas
Chase, Owen
Paperback
American Small Sailing Craft: Their Design, Development and Construction
Chapelle, Howard I.
Hardcover
Shipwrecks of the Pacific Northwest: Tragedies and Legacies of a Perilous Coast
Maritime Archaeological Society
Hardcover
Secrets of the Viking Navigators: How the Vikings Used Their Amazing Sunstones and Other Techniques to Cross the Open Ocean
Karlsen, Leif K.
Paperback
We, the Navigators: The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific (Second Edition)
Lewis, David
Paperback
Fifty Ships That Changed the Course of History: A Nautical History of the World
Graham, Ian
Paperback
Inland and Coastal Navigation: For Power-driven and Sailing Vessels, 2nd Edition
Burch, David
Paperback
Navigation Rules And Regulations Handbook (Color Print): Containing International & Inland Rules
Department of Homeland Security
United States Coast Guard
Paperback
The Great Lakes Ships of Frank E. Kirby: America's Greatest Naval Architect
Gebhart, Richard
Paperback
Fatal Treasure: Greed and Death, Emeralds and Gold, and the Obsessive Search for the Legendary Ghost Galleon Atocha
Smith, Jedwin
Paperback
The Death Ship: Recovering the Bodies of Titanic's Dead
Victoria Brown, Victoria
Brown, Victoria
Hardcover
The Complete Yachtmaster 11th Edition: Sailing, Seamanship and Navigation for the Modern Yacht Skipper
Cunliffe, Tom
Hardcover
Navigation Workbook 1210 Tr: For Power-Driven and Sailing Vessels
Burch, David
Brandt, Larry
Paperback
Boatbuilding: A Complete Handbook of Wooden Boat Construction (Revised)
Chapelle, Howard I.
Hardcover
The Star Finder Book: A Complete Guide to the Many Uses of the 2102-D Star Finder
Burch, David
Paperback
Too Much Sea for Their Decks: Shipwrecks of Minnesota's North Shore and Isle Royale
Schumacher, Michael
Paperback
Submarine Aircraft Carriers: From World War I to the Age of Drones
Polmar, Norman
Gunnarson, Jacob
Hardcover
Long Term Almanac 2000-2050: For the Sun and Selected Stars With Concise Sight Reduction Tables, 2nd Edition (Hardcover)
Kolbe, Geoffrey
Hardcover
Fatal Forecast: An Incredible True Tale of Disaster and Survival at Sea
Tougias, Michael J.
Paperback
Starpath Celestial Navigation Work Forms: For All Sights and Tables, with Complete Instructions and Examples
Burch, David
Paperback
Sailing a Serious Ocean: Sailboats, Storms, Stories and Lessons Learned from 30 Years at Sea
Kretschmer, John
Hardcover
Guardians of the North: Canadian Warships and Maritime Aircraft, 1910-2025
Gagnon, Karl
Gimblett, Richard H.
Hardcover
Shipwreck Rescues of the Outer Banks: Sensational Wrecks and Heroic Rescues by the United States Life-Saving Service
Charlet, James D.
Hardcover
The Nazi Titanic: The Incredible Untold Story of a Doomed Ship in World War II
Watson, Robert P.
Paperback
101 Things You Thought You Knew about the Titanic . . . but Didn't!
Maltin, Tim
Aston, Eloise
Paperback
Nagato-Class Battleships 1920-46: The Imperial Japanese Navy's Super-Dreadnoughts
Draminski, Stefan
Paperback
The Wreck of the Portland: A Doomed Ship, a Violent Storm, and New England's Worst Maritime Disaster
Conway, J. North
Paperback
The Troller Yacht Book: How to Cross Oceans Without Getting Wet or Going Broke - 2nd Edition
Buehler, George
Hardcover
From Novembers to Sierras: Soviet Nuclear-Powered Attack Submarines
Vilches Alarcón, Alejandro A.
Paperback
Advanced Marine Electrics and Electronics Troubleshooting: A Manual for Boatowners and Marine Technicians
Sherman, Ed
Hardcover
Ten Hours Until Dawn: The True Story of Heroism and Tragedy Aboard the Can Do
Tougias, Michael J.
Paperback
Modern Marine Weather: From Time-honored Traditional Knowledge to the Latest Technology
Burch, David
Hardcover
Navigation Workbook 18465 Tr: For Power-Driven and Sailing Vessels
Brandt, Larry
Burch, David
Paperback
Instant Boatbuilding with Dynamite Payson: 15 Instant Boats for Power, Sail, Oar, and Paddle
Payson, Harold H.
Paperback
Hawaii by Sextant: An In-Depth Exercise in Celestial Navigation Using Real Sextant Sights and Logbook Entries
Burch, David
Miller, Stephen
Paperback
Blackbeard's Sunken Prize: The 300-Year Voyage of Queen Anne's Revenge
Wilde-Ramsing, Mark U.
Carnes-McNaughton, Linda F.
Paperback
Inland and Coastal Navigation: For Power-driven and Sailing Vessels, 2nd Edition
Burch, David
Hardcover
Titanic Survivor: The Newly Discovered Memoirs of Violet Jessop Who Survived Both the Titanic and Britannic Disasters
Jessop, Violet
Paperback
From the Center of America: Steamboats and Shipyards Along the Lower Ohio River
Swenson, Robert H.
Paperback
Boat Crew Seamanship Manual (COMDTINST M16114.5C)
United States Coast Guard
U. S. Department of Homeland Security
Paperback
The Shipwright and the Schooner: Building a Windjammer in the New England Tradition
Burnham, Harold
Paperback
Wreck of the Carl D.: A True Story of Loss, Survival, and Rescue at Sea
Schumacher, Michael
Paperback
Barons of the Sea: And Their Race to Build the World's Fastest Clipper Ship
Ujifusa, Steven
Paperback
SS United States: An Operational Guide to America's Flagship
Daywalt, Stanton R.
Bauer, F. Samuel
Rindfleisch, James K.
Hardcover