The Cruise Of The Kate

Excerpt from The Cruise of the Kate He wrote, I regard these verses with the greatest veneration and reverence, remarked, It is most singular that my life has gravitated towards the prayer of these verses without any knowledge on my part of the said verses, offered to sell photographs Of the original document at half a crown each, and announced that such photographs had already been sent to the leading Societies and other Authorities in England. He must have been a considerable nuisance and not one with which it was easy to deal. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

In 1869, Empson Edward Middleton, an English ex-soldier and man of means, built himself a 23-foot sailboat and set about becoming the first man to single-handedly circumnavigate England. He chose the most difficult route he could think of, one of poorly charted sea lanes and powerful tides, and recorded his remarkable feat in this book, which served as his log and diary. The Cruise of the Kate is an incredible tale from the days when all a navigator had to steer by was the compass and the stars, along with the occasional landmark and passing vessels. Middleton's lively, detailed account of his daring but successful voyage brings to life the condition of solo ocean sailing more than a century ago.

The 1950s ocean liner Queen Isabella is making her final voyage—a retro cruise from Long Beach to Hawaii and back—before heading to the scrapyard. For the guests on board, it’s a chance to experience a bygone era of decadent luxury, complete with fine dining, classic highballs, string quartets, and sophisticated jazz. Smoking is allowed but not cell phones—or children, for that matter. But this is the second decade of an uncertain new millennium, not the sunny, heedless mid-twentieth century, and certain disquieting signs of strife and malfunction above and below deck intrude on the festivities, throwing a trio of strangers together in an unexpected and startling test of character.