The Rise And Demise Of The Largest Sailing Ships

At the height of the “Golden Age of Sail” in the early 1900s, New England shipbuilders fiercely competed to design and construct the world’s largest sailing ships to carry massive amounts of coal and building materials as America expanded. Ten original six-masted schooners and the only seven-masted sailing ship, the giant Thomas W. Lawson, were built in New England between 1900-1909, all measuring over the length of a football field! This book brings to life the many challenges these magnificent vessels faced during their voyages in an era of social, economic, and political reforms. It provides the historical accounts that followed each ship, like competitions, accidents, battling devastating storms, acts of heroism, and their final voyages. These true stories are balanced with plenty of color and vintage images, famous paintings, and colorful maps, making this an excellent resource for anyone interested in New England maritime history.

Follow the unique personal stories, historical events, and challenges faced by the world's eleven largest sailing ships, built in New England in the early 1900s. These remarkable accounts are balanced with plenty of color and B&W images.

Lavishly illustrated with large-scale color artwork, this detailed narrative covers more than 500 years of the rise and fall of sailing ships. 91 color plates.

From modest beginnings, Britain rose throughout the nineteenth century to become the greatest shipbuilding nation in the world, yet by the end of the following century the British merchant fleet ranked just 38 in the world. The glory days of sail had given way to the introduction of the steam age. Traditional shipwrights had railed against new industrial methods resulting in the infamous demarcation disputes. Talented men, like Brunel and Armstrong, had always sought change and development, but too many shipbuilders were relying on old technologies. From building mighty battleships and extravagant ocean liners, the nation became complacent and its yards were eventually no longer as innovative as their foreign competitors. In the twenty-first century, British shipbuilding has shrunk to a mere fraction of its former size and has become almost totally dependent on government contracts. The popularity of and fascination with this subject has prompted a new edition of Anthony Burton's successful book. With fresh images and a new, final chapter, the story of the rise and cataclysmic fall of British shipbuilding has been brought right up to date.

Paraguay plays a very small role in the modern world, but for part of the nineteenth century it was a significant regional force. Between 1800 and 1865 it changed from an imperial backwater into a dynamic, dictator-led, financially sound nation. Then came the terrible War of the Triple Alliance, and by 1870 Paraguay had virtually been destroyed. John Hoyt Williams re-creates the era’s people, places, and events in rich detail and a vigorous style, but this is much more than a mere narrative. His archival research in Paraguay and several other countries enables him to offer new facts and interpretations, correct a number of misapprehensions, and explode a few myths. He also provides the clearest, most objective portraits available of the three extraordinary men who ruled Paraguay during this time: Dr. José Gaspar de Francia, “El Supremo”; Carlos Antonio López, “the Corpulent Despot”; and López’s flamboyant son Francisco Solano López. Discussions of social, economic, and cultural conditions round out a masterly account of a remarkable historical period.

Harland and Wolff, once acknowledged as the greatest and best-known shipbuilding company in the world, for many years enjoyed a mighty eminence before a gradual descent into near obscurity. This illustrated book, told from the unique perspective of someone who was there at the time, chronicles the history of the organisation from its creation to the present day, from its halcyon days to its present incarnation. Today, the company is no longer involved in shipbuilding, maintaining only a small ship repair and engineering facility and occupying a fraction of its previously vast complex. At its peak Harland and Wolff directly employed over 45,000 people, with even more in its subsidiary companies. Well-known Harland and Wolff former employee Tom McCluskie, who was a technical consultant to James Cameron on the movie Titanic, sheds light on many little-known facts about the business, delves into the human interest stories, and recounts both the mighty zenith and ignominious demise of this great enterprise.

This is my fourth literary work. The fi rst novel, Aryan, the Last Prussian examined man, war and society; the second novel, Over the Rainbow was concerned with man and tyranny; and the third novel, Heroic Hearts focused on doctors in World War II. This historical work examines the rise and fall of nations, the fundamental values upon which each nation was erected, and the reasons for each nations collapse. The Greek historian Polybius proposed that each nation experienced an evolutionary cycle: democracy, oligarchy, dictatorship, tyranny and collapse. For the United States that evolutionary cycle is: individualism, democracy, oligarchy, tyranny and collapse. The United States is experiencing its fi nal phase: tyranny. Its survival depends upon the strength of the fundamental values upon which the nation was erected: individualism, self-reliance and self-interest. This work will demonstrate that the fall of the U.S. is inevitable, and I have selected from history those ideas and events that will lead to its fi nal collapse.