RMMM Reading List

The following books cover the strategic importance of the real world merchant marine are recommended to RMMM members as a way to understand the reason that the merchant marine, even though not shown much in the novels, is so important for the Honorverse. There is overlap with the general reading list for the merchant marine. This list also covers books that focus on maritime history rather than ones that focus on naval history.

Unless noted, the blurbs come from the book’s or author's Amazon page.

MERCHANT MARINE IN FICTION

This is for fiction where it’s less about characters that are mariners, in space or on the water, but instead the industry or how trade is important. This section is organized by author as most have multiple books.

Brian Callison

Brian Callison is the author of 22 best-sellers published by HarperCollins, Severn House, Futura, and Ostara. His novels have been translated into over a dozen languages including Japanese, Polish, Icelandic and Finnish. They have been printed in Braille, released as audio books, issued in large print editions and are used as creative writing references by several international learning institutions.

A former Merchant Navy officer sailing in cargo liners to Australia and the Far East, Callison subsequently worked in commerce before becoming a full-time author. Following service with the 51st Highland Division Provost Company (TA), Royal Military Police, he returned to his seafaring roots to maintain an active 35-year connection with ships as a Naval Control of Shipping Officer in the Royal Naval Auxiliary Service.

More recently he completed a three-year tenure at the University of Dundee as a Fellow of The Royal Literary Fund. His latest title to be reissued in print is 'A Flock Of Ships' (Ostara Publishers 2011: also available on Amazon Kindle). On the first publication of that now-classic work, Alistair McLean wrote, "The best war story I have ever read. No qualifications, no reservations, no exceptions as to type and time: it's the best. Makes 'All Quiet On The Western Front' look like one of the lesser works of Enid Blyton".

He continues to help new writers become published writers (contact him at www.writermentoring.co.uk). 'Hopefully putting something back into a trade that has been good to me.' Writing: guiding aspiring novelists: teasing out the very essence of professionally-competent authorship is what he excels at, and he submits a portfolio comprising some two million published words as evidence.

Most of his 22 titles are already available as Amazon Kindle eBooks, with the rest to follow shortly. Author’s Page: https://smile.amazon.com/Brian-Callison/e/B001HOVZ2A?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2&qid=1601256787&sr=1-2 Titles (partial):

A Flock of Ships
Trapp’s War (The Captain Trapp series #1)
Trapp’s Peace (The Captain Trapp series #2)
Trapp and World War Three (The Captain Trapp series #3)
The Judas Ship
A Ship Is Dying
A Plague of Sailors (The Brevet Cable #1) [also recommended for Special Intelligence Service]

Louis L’Amour

Before Louis L’Amour wrote westerns, he worked as a merchant seaman. He wrote a number of short stories set in the world of the merchant seaman adventurer.

A better description can be found here: http://www.louislamourgreatadventure.com/LouisStories01.htm

Some of the stories have been collected in books as the Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures

Off the Mangrove Coast
West From Singapore
No Traveller Returns

MERCHANT MARINE SCIENCE FICTION

The following stories are recommended to RMMM members as a way to understand the mindset and duties expected of merchant spacers.

Golden Age of the Solar Clipper series by Nathan Lowell

Ishmael Wang became a spacer by accident. But he has a knack for the trade. With talent, hard work, and some help from his friends Ish works his way up from a quarter-share apprentice to a fully rated spacer. Eventually he becomes an officer and captains a ship of his own. Books in series:

Quarter Share
Half Share
Full Share
Double Share
Captain’s Share
Owner’s Share
In Ashes Born
To Fire Called
A Light In the Dark
By Darkness Forged
Milk Run
Suicide Run
Home Run

These books can be bought via Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074C72691?ref_=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_tkin&binding=kindle_edition

Author’s Website: http://nathanlowell.com/

Liaden Series by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

There are many books in this series, and side stories galore. The most merchant focused of them is Balance of Trade. Apprentice trader Jethri Gobelyn swings a deal to serve on a ship of the aristocratic, etiquette-bound Liadens. He has to learn fast to stay alive and make a profit. Fledgling follows Theo Waitley through school as she prepares for her destiny as a merchant pilot. If you want to explore the rest of the series, start with the official reading order. The first book, Agent of Change, is more a spy adventure than a merchant one. These books can be bought via Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XM3TVJR?binding=kindle_edition&ref_=dbs_s_ks_series_rwt_tkin&qid=1621294990&sr=1-3 Author’s Website for the series: https://korval.com/

Technic Civilization Saga by Poul Anderson

David Falkayn: Star Trader. Falkayn visits strange planets and meets bizarre aliens in the search for a profit. His crew of trouble twisters always manage to come out ahead, even if they have to survive a war to do it. Or you can read about David’s less ethical mentor and boss, Van Rijn. Books in Series:

The Van Rijn Method
David Falkayn: Star Trader
Rise of the Terran Empire

These books can be bought via Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078MW1KK7?binding=kindle_edition&ref_=dbs_s_ks_series_rwt_tkin&qid=1621295137&sr=1-2

Karres Series by James H Schmitz, Eric Flint, Dave Freer, Mercedes Lackey

Sometimes it can be hard to keep track of making a profit when you’ve gotten yourself into enough other trouble. Captain Pausert was making a successful series of deals until he decided to rescue the Witches of Karres. After that his life was . . . complicated.

Profitable, but complicated.

Books in Series:

The Witches of Karres
The Wizard of Karres
The Sorceress of Karres
The Shaman of Karres

These books can be bought via Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074CCTDKK?binding=kindle_edition&ref_=dbs_s_ks_series_rwt_tkin&qid=1621295219&sr=1-1

John Grimes Rim World Series by A. Bertram Chandler

After moving on from the Federation Survey Service, Grimes tries his hand at leading a private life, and finds he likes being his own man. The only problem is, his solid gold ship The Far Traveller has a (very stubborn and very feminine) mind of its own — and a penchant for getting Grimes into the worse sort of interplanetary pickles!

Books in series:

The Road to the Rim
Into the Alternate Universe
The Dark Dimensions
Alternate Orbits
The Last Amazon
Catch the Star Winds
To Prime the Pump
Star Courier
The Big Black Mark
The Rim Gods
The Far Traveller
Star Loot
Spartan Planet
The Hardway Up
The Way Back
The Wild Ones
The Anarch Lords
The Gateway to Never
To Keep the Ship
Matilda's Stepchildren

These books can be bought via Amazon: First book in series https://www.amazon.com/dp/B019NFEL6G?ref_=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_FC716CBQFQ0Z4FNRS84Y&bestFormat=true

Solar Queen Series by Andre Norton

Free traders exploring new worlds.

“Worlds for Sale!” Was the startling cry that electrified Dane Thorson of the space trader Solar Queen. But who’d be crazy enough to buy the newly discovered planet? The data is sealed: the planet could be a treasure trove or a radioactive desert – and only a crew as desperate as that on the Solar Queen would risk such a gamble. Somewhere out there, far beyond the Milky Way, was the world they had bought sight unseen, with the ominous name Limbo…. Books in series:

Sargasso of Space
Plague Ship
Voodoo Planet
Postmarked the Stars
Redline the Stars
Derelict for Trade
A Mind for Trade

These books can be bought via Amazon: First book in series: https://a.co/d/070JHYDK

Space Angel by John Maddox Roberts

For Kelly, it was an impossible dream come true when he shipped out on the Space Angel. Ship's boy was the most menial job aboard, but it was excitement enough just to be in space. Things became more exciting than even Kelly wanted when an unimaginably old and powerful entity commandeered the Space Angel and sent the freighter on an incredible mission to the center of the galaxy - with two hereditary killers and a poetic crab added to the crew for extra interest! Kelly knew that he would finish the trip as a seasoned spacer - or a very dead one.

This book is out of print at this time.

Amazon link: https://a.co/d/06yMe2y3

Company Wars / Alliance-Union Series by C. J. Cherryh

The fateful meeting between the owner of a tramp star-freighter that flies the Union planets under false papers and fake names and a proud but junior member of a powerful starship-owning family leads to a record-breaking race to Downbelow Station--and a terrifying showdown at a deadly destination off the cosmic charts. Books in the merchanter series (a subset of the Company Wars):

Merchanter’s Luck
Tripoint
Finity’s End

Books in the Company War series:

Heavy Time
Hellburner
Downbelow Station
Merchanter’s Luck
Rimrunners
Tripoint
Finity’s End

Not all books are available in Kindle format.

Starship’s Mage / Red Falcon Series by Glynn Stewart

A ship that cannot leave A Mage that will not stay A meeting of desperations In a galaxy tied together by the magic of the elite Jump Mages, Damien Montgomery graduates into their numbers—only to discover that without connections, he can't find a ship and is stuck in the Sherwood system. Pirates attacked David Rice's jump freighter, leaving him with a dead Mage and a damaged ship—stuck in Sherwood, where a grieving father has blacklisted him from hiring a replacement Jump Mage. When their desperate needs meet, Damien Montgomery is drawn into a conflict with the most powerful criminal organization in the galaxy—and to the attention of the Mage-King of Mars himself! Books in the series:

Starship’s Mage
Interstellar Mage
Mage-Provocateur
Agent of Mars

This is a side series of the larger 19 book Starship Mage series which is more military sci-fi.

These books can be bought via Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BTLKKPZ?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tkin

Trading in Danger (Vatta's War 6 book series) by Elizabeth Moon.

Kylara Vatta is the only daughter in a family full of sons, and her father's only child to buck tradition by choosing a military career instead of joining the family business. For Ky, it's no contest: Even running the prestigious Vatta Transport Ltd. shipping concern can't hold a candle to shipping out as an officer aboard an interstellar cruiser. It's adventure, not commerce, that stirs her soul. And despite her family's misgivings, there can be no doubt that a Vatta in the service will prove a valuable asset. But with a single error in judgment, it all comes crumbling down.

The Cosmic Computer by H. Beam Piper.

While the book is old school space opera, it does highlight the importance of trade.

MERCHANT MARINE MOVIES

Action in the North Atlantic (1943)

An American tanker's sunk by a German U-boat and the survivors spend 11 days at sea on a raft. Their next assignment; bound for Murmansk through the sub-stalked N. Atlantic. Stars Humphrey Bogart, Raymond Masey, Alan Hale IMDB Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035608/

The Finest Hours (2016)

The Coast Guard makes a daring rescue attempt off the coast of Cape Cod after a pair of oil tankers are destroyed during a blizzard in 1952. IMDB Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2025690/

MARITIME / MERCHANT MARINE HISTORY

This is for non-fiction that is about merchant marine or maritime history.

The Way of the Ship: America's Maritime History Reenvisoned, 1600-2000 by Alex Roland

An excellent history of American maritime, rather than naval, history.

Sailing On Friday: The Perilous Voyage of America’s Merchant Marine (History of the US Merchant Marine) by John A Butler

Sailing on Friday recounts the growth and decline of what twice became the world's most powerful maritime fleet. This is a tale of operatic dimension, peopled with patriots, politicians, industrial geniuses, fearless seamen, and gallant swashbucklers. It includes accounts of little-noted innovations that had long-lasting effects, daring ocean rescues, sea battles, and financial gambles that won or lost millions. Growing stress among diverse forces of merchants, shipowners, seafarers, and federal agencies brings this exciting story to an appalling climax. Link: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1574882996/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_qBN0FbPSJMYCX?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World by Lincoln P Paine

A monumental retelling of world history through the lens of maritime enterprise, revealing in breathtaking depth how people first came into contact with one another by ocean and river, lake and stream, and how goods, languages, religions, and entire cultures spread across and along the world’s waterways, bringing together civilizations and defining what makes us most human.

Lincoln Paine takes us back to the origins of long-distance migration by sea with our ancestors’ first forays from Africa and Eurasia to Australia and the Americas. He demonstrates the critical role of maritime trade to the civilizations of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Indus Valley. He reacquaints us with the great seafaring cultures of antiquity like those of the Phoenicians and Greeks, as well as those of India and Southeast and East Asia, who parlayed their navigational skills, shipbuilding techniques, and commercial acumen to establish thriving overseas colonies and trade routes in the centuries leading up to the age of European expansion. And finally, his narrative traces how commercial shipping and naval warfare brought about the enormous demographic, cultural, and political changes that have globalized the world throughout the post–Cold War era. This tremendously readable intellectual adventure shows us the world in a new light, in which the sea reigns supreme. We find out how a once-enslaved East African king brought Islam to his people, what the American “sail-around territories” were, and what the Song Dynasty did with twenty-wheel, human-powered paddleboats with twenty paddle wheels and up to three hundred crew. Above all, Paine makes clear how the rise and fall of civilizations can be linked to the sea. An accomplishment of both great sweep and illuminating detail, The Sea and Civilization is a stunning work of history. ASIN: B00CNQ2W5A Link: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B00CNQ2W5A&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_lPd1FbWZKQX5C

The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans by David Abulafia

From the beginning of history to the present, a sweep of the world's oceans and seas and how they have shaped the course of civilization. From the author of the acclaimed The Great Sea, ("Magnificent . . . radiates scholarship and a sense of wonder and fun," Simon Sebag Montefiore; Book of the Year, The Economist), David Abulafia's new book guides readers along the world's greatest bodies of water to reveal their primary role in human history. The main protagonists are the three major oceans--the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Indian--which together comprise the majority of the earth's water and cover over half of its surface. Over time, as passage through them gradually extended and expanded, linking first islands and then continents, maritime networks developed, evolving from local exploration to lines of regional communication and commerce and eventually to major arteries. These waterways carried goods, plants, livestock, and of course people--free and enslaved--across vast expanses, transforming and ultimately linking irrevocably the economies and cultures of Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Far more than merely another history of exploration, The Boundless Sea shows how maritime networks gradually formed a continuum of interaction and interconnection. Working chronologically, Abulafia moves from the earliest forays of peoples taking hand-hewn canoes into uncharted waters, to the routes taken daily by supertankers in the thousands. History on the grandest scale and scope, written with passion and precision, this is a project few could have undertaken. Abulafia, whom The Atlantic calls "superb writer with a gift for lucid compression and an eye for the telling detail," proves again why he ranks as one of the world's greatest storytellers. AISN: 978-0190933135 Link: https://a.co/d/02ZHhLPX

Churchill's Thin Grey Line: British Merchant Ships at War 1939 – 1945

The naval historian and retired merchant navy captain recounts the contributions of Britain’s civilian ships during WWII in this “cracking read” (The Bridgend & Porthcawl Gem).

The first British casualties of the Second World War were not members of the Royal Navy, the army, or the Royal Air Force. They were British merchant seamen on the transatlantic passenger liner SS Athenia, torpedoed by a German U-30 submarine on September 3, 1939.
For the duration of the war, Britain’s merchant fleet performed a vital role, carrying the essential supplies that kept the country running during the darkest days and made victory possible. Their achievements came at a terrible cost with 2,535 British oceangoing merchant ships being sunk and, of the 185,000 men and women serving in the British Merchant Navy at the time, 36,749 sacrificed their lives. Another 4,707 were wounded and 5,720 ended up as prisoners of war. Their casualty rate of twenty-five percent was second only to RAF Bomber Command’s.
Thoroughly researched and full of fascinating true accounts, Bernard Edwards’s Churchill’s Thin Grey Line tells the inspiring story of those brave civilian volunteers who fought so gallantly to defend their ships, cargo, and country.
“A cracking read which brings home to the reader how much we in [England] owe to the Merchant Navy . . . Bernard Edwards has done them proud.” —The Bridgend & Porthcawl Gem

AISN: B07D59R3NG Link: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B07D59R3NG&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_SbT0FbJPTRF6V

Heroes in Dungarees: The Story of the American Merchant Marine in World War II by John Bunker

A World War II merchant seaman, John Bunker takes a thorough look at the American merchant marines' significant contributions to the war effort. There are plenty of fascinating facts about their extensive supply operations, but the focus of the book is on the men and their often-heroic actions. Bunker draws from his own experiences to describe the action at sea and also includes the personal stories of many other civilian participants. It is an engaging portrayal of the courage, bravery, and ingenuity demonstrated by these merchant seamen. All theaters of operation using U.S. merchant ships are covered, and in addition, Bunker provides information on events before the country entered the war when efforts were being made to build more ships and to recruit the men necessary to crew the huge fleet. AISN: B00A9XVKUM Link: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B00A9XVKUM&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_CcT0Fb7TM2AQQ

The Forgotten Heroes: The Heroic Story of the United States Merchant Marine by Brian Herbert

The United States Merchant Marine has a tradition---from the Revolutionary War to the present-day Gulf conflicts---of being in the forefront of every American military action. They have served with distinction in every case. Brian Herbert has chronicled the amazing exploits of these gallant seamen, assembling a fascinating array of data to describe the world of the Merchant Marine in peace and especially in war. Drawing from historical documents, government records, diaries, and interviews with surviving veterans, Herbert has constructed a brilliant history that details the heroism, self-sacrifice, and grim determination that has been the hallmark of the United States Merchant Marine. He also reveals one of the great injustices of American history---the grave failure of our legislators that has allowed the veterans of the Merchant Marine to become the forgotten heroes of World War II. The civilian fighters of the Merchant Marine performed feats of extraordinary bravery during World War II; they were the lifeline of the entire Allied war effort, delivering troops, materiel, food, fuel, and every essential needed for victory over the Axis enemy. While executing these duties, the Merchant Marine suffered losses so high that the casualty rates were kept secret. At the war's end, the men and women of every other branch of the service were honored by parades and given medical and educational benefits. But the members of the Merchant Marine, who were so vital to our victory, have received neither the benefits nor the recognition they deserved. New York Times bestselling author Brian Herbert is part of the growing movement across the United States to right this terrible wrong. The Forgotten Heroes is a history of the unsung heroes of the United States Merchant Marine and a plea for justice for these neglected veterans of World War II. AISN: 978-0765307064 Link: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B008DM2LDG&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_PqT0Fb6GF25JB

At All Costs: How a Crippled Ship and Two American Merchant Mariners Turned the Tide of World War II by Sam Moses

In this gripping, page-turning account, Sam Moses has told a story in the tradition of Sebastian Junger’s A Perfect Storm, Robert Kurson’s Shadow Divers, and Hampton Sides’s Ghost Soldiers. It’s a story about the heroism of two men in battle at sea during World War II, and one woman fleeing Nazi Norway with her child. It’s about how courage can change the course of history.

AT ALL COSTS: How a Crippled Ship and Two American Merchant Marines Turned the Tide of World War II is the astonishing untold account, with original historical reporting, of how two men faced unfathomable danger to help save the island of Malta, Churchill’s crux of the war.

Link: https://a.co/d/02fkXOkX

The Fourth Arm of Defense: Sealift and Maritime Logistics in the Vietnam War by Salvatore R. Mercogliano

ISBN 978-0-945274-96-4. Also available as a free e-book from US Navy History and Heritage Command. A history of the US merchant marine and its actions to support the Vietnam War. TRADE AND COMMERCE HISTORY AND EFFECTS This is for non-fiction that is more about trade and commerce, especially water born trade, and economics and it’s impact on history.

The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger by Marc Levinson

In April 1956, a refitted oil tanker carried 58 shipping containers from Newark to Houston. From that modest beginning, container shipping developed into a huge industry that made the boom in global trade possible. The Box tells the dramatic story of the container's creation, the decade of struggle before it was widely adopted, and the sweeping economic consequences of the sharp fall in transportation costs that containerization brought about. Published on the 50th anniversary of the first container voyage, this is the first comprehensive history of the shipping container. It recounts how the drive and imagination of an iconoclastic entrepreneur, Malcom McLean, turned containerization from an impractical idea into a massive industry that slashed the cost of transporting goods around the world and made the boom in global trade possible. But the container didn't just happen. Its adoption required huge sums of money, both from private investors and from ports that aspired to be on the leading edge of a new technology. It required years of high-stakes bargaining with two of the titans of organized labor, Harry Bridges and Teddy Gleason, as well as delicate negotiations on standards that made it possible for almost any container to travel on any truck or train or ship. Ultimately, it took McLean's success in supplying U.S. forces in Vietnam to persuade the world of the container's potential. Drawing on previously neglected sources, economist Marc Levinson shows how the container transformed economic geography, devastating traditional ports such as New York and London and fueling the growth of previously obscure ones, such as Oakland. By making shipping so cheap that industry could locate factories far from its customers, the container paved the way for Asia to become the world's workshop and brought consumers a previously unimaginable variety of low-cost products from around the globe.

ASIN : B01772PS00 Link: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B01772PS00&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_PstCFb8HR2AA0

Maritime Economics 2nd Edition by M. Stopford

Description from 3rd Edition. The 2nd Edition can be found as a free download. This is a textbook that is updated every few years. For 5000 years shipping has served the world economy and today it provides a sophisticated transport service to every part of the globe. Yet despite its economic complexity, shipping retains much of the competitive cut and thrust of the “perfect” market of classical economics. This blend of sophisticated logistics and larger than life entrepreneurs makes it a unique case study of classical economics in a modern setting. The enlarged and substantially rewritten Maritime Economics uses historical and theoretical analysis as the framework for a practical explanation of how shipping works today. Whilst retaining the structure of the second edition, its scope is widened to include: lessons from 5000 years of commercial shipping history shipping cycles back to 1741, with a year by year commentary updated chapters on markets; shipping costs; accounts; ship finance and a new chapter on the return on capital new chapters on the geography of sea trade; trade theory and specialised cargoes updated chapters on the merchant fleet shipbuilding, recycling and the regulatory regime a much revised chapter on the challenges and pitfalls of forecasting. With over 800 pages, 200 illustrations, maps, technical drawings and tables Maritime Economics is the shipping industry’s most comprehensive text and reference source, whilst remaining as one reviewer put it “a very readable book”. Martin Stopford has enjoyed a distinguished career in the shipping industry as Director of Business Development with British Shipbuilders, Global Shipping Economist with the Chase Manhattan Bank N.A., Chief Executive of Lloyds Maritime Information Services; Managing Director of Clarkson Research Services and an executive Director of Clarksons PLC. He lectures regularly at Cambridge Academy of Transport and is a Visiting Professor at Cass Business School, Dalian Maritime University and Copenhagen Business School. 2nd Edition ISBN: 0-203-44266-0

Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your Plate by Rose George On ship-tracking websites, the waters are black with dots. Each dot is a ship; each ship is laden with boxes; each box is laden with goods. In postindustrial economies, we no longer produce but buy. We buy, so we must ship. Without all those dots, the world would not work. Freight shipping has been no less revolutionary than the printing press or the Internet, yet it is all but invisible. Away from public scrutiny, shipping revels in suspect practices, dubious operators, and a shady system. Infesting our waters, poisoning our air, and a prime culprit of acoustic pollution, shipping is environmentally indefensible. And then there are the pirates. Rose George, acclaimed chronicler of what we would rather ignore, sails from Rotterdam to Suez to Singapore on ships the length of football fields and the height of Niagara Falls; she patrols the Indian Ocean with an antipiracy task force; she joins seafaring chaplains and investigates the harm that ships inflict on endangered whales. Sharply informative and entertaining, Ninety Percent of Everything reveals the workings and perils of an unseen world that holds the key to our economy, our environment, and our very civilization. ASIN: B009LRWJKW Link: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B009LRWJKW&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_rCtCFbNHT7F18

To Rule the Waves: How Control of the World’s Oceans Shapes the Fate of Superpowers by Bruce Jones

For centuries, oceans were the chessboard on which empires battled for supremacy. But in the nuclear age, air power and missile systems dominated our worries about security, and for the United States, the economy was largely driven by domestic production, with trucking and railways that crisscrossed the continent serving as the primary modes of commercial transit.

All that has changed, as nine-tenths of global commerce and the bulk of energy trade is today linked to sea-based flows. A brightly painted forty-foot steel shipping container loaded in Asia with twenty tons of goods may arrive literally anywhere else in the world; how that really happens and who actually profits from it show that the struggle for power on the seas is a critical issue today.

Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BZXKQKB?ref_=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_YKNBEDBV7X6DXE8PGR3R&bestFormat=true MERCHANT MARINE SOCIOLOGY

Hello Sailor! The Hidden History of the Gay Life at Sea by Paul Baker and Jo Stanley

When gays had to be closeted, ships were the only places where homosexual men could not only be out but also camp. And on some liners to the sun and the New World, queens and butches had a ball. They sashayed and minced their way across the world's oceans. Never before has the story been told of the masses. These are the thousands of queer seafarers, mainly stewards, who sometimes even outnumbered the straight men in the catering departments of ships that were household names and the pride of the British fleet. Hello Sailor! uniquely shows what it was like to be queer at sea at a time when land meant straightness. ISBN: 1138151181 Link: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B0171ZQV5E&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_kFtCFbNFWVNZY

An Ethnography of Marine Convoys of World War II by Morgiana P Halley

This study is an ethnographic exploration of the experiences of those who sailed in marine convoys during World War II, based on extensive field interviews in North America and Britain. Work is Dr Halley’s PhD Thesis on the subject. Free Download: http://www.stexboat.com/books/Ethnography_MarineConvoys_WWII.pdf

MERCHANT MARINE BIOGRAPHIES AND AUTOBIOGRAPHIES

The Bucko Mate: Twenty Years in the Merchant Marine by Kevin Zahn

The Bucko Mate (140,000 words) describes the author's seafaring experiences over two decades sailing as an officer in the American merchant marine. This nonfiction, nautical adventure is full of the profane, the dangerous, the drunken, the crazy, the humorous, the romantic and the brave shipmates the author knew. The degeneration of the maritime industry in the United States is paralleled with the disintegration of the abilities and mental stability of a man who had to finally realize that he was burned out at the age of forty. To be a mate on a merchant ship in the modern heyday of the freighters was to be a man in the middle – in the middle of maritime chaos, living a colorful life that few have ever experienced. From the storms, fog, waterfront bars and union halls, to the near collisions, deaths at sea, fistfights, dangerous cargo and foreign lands, it is a harsh but exciting life. Yet changes in the industry have taken away much of the color and adventure of it. Ships got bigger and crews got smaller. With vast improvements in cargo handling, they don't stay in port long. This effort is my way of getting some of that colorful era written down before it all fades away. Also by Kevin Zahn -- One Fine Summer -- available on Amazon. ASIN: B00A5WQUNY Link: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B00A5WQUNY&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_njtCFbV1G370P

Looking For a Ship by John McFee

This is an extraordinary tale of life on the high seas aboard one of the last American merchant ships, the S.S. Stella Lykes, on a forty-two-day journey from Charleston down the Pacific coast of South America. As the crew of the Stella Lykes makes their ocean voyage, they tell stories of other runs and other ships, tales of disaster, stupidity, greed, generosity, and courage. AISN: B005E8AF0S Link: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B005E8AF0S&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_d0S0Fb7KZPY9T

Life Aboard a Wartime Liberty Ship by Ian M Malcom

During the Second World War, when Britain s very survival depended on her Merchant Navy, ships were being sunk faster than they could be replaced. The mass production of the Liberty Ship, on the assembly-line method in the USA, solved the problem: Britain received 200 of them under the Lend-Lease agreement. From 1943 until 1951, Ian Malcolm was a radio officer/purser with Alfred Holt & Co., owners of the Blue Funnel Line and the Glen Line. His voyages on the Liberty Ships Samite and Samforth, described in this book, were made during wartime, after which he spent a year on the Samnesse, trading mainly between Italy and East Africa. Subsequent voyages were made to the Continent, Far East, Australia and Indonesia. Dealing mainly with life on board his ships and how he spent the sometimes prolonged spells in port, Ian begins his story with his entrance into the Merchant Navy as a radio officer and continues with his crossing to Canada on the Queen Elizabeth to join the Samite in Baltimore. During the Samite’s fifteen month voyage, she called at various ports in the USA and North Africa while Ian s next ship, the Samforth, on her ten-month voyage, visited Canada, the USA, Egypt, Arabia, India, Mozambique, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Norway and Finland. Life Aboard a Wartime Liberty Ship is an engaging memoir of a young man s maritime adventures, the people he met, the countries he saw, and the intoxicating thrill of life at sea. AISN: B00A0NLFQ0 Link: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B00A0NLFQ0&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_gYS0FbYP8204P

The Last American Sailors: A Wild Ride in the Modern Merchant Marine by Michael R. Rawlins

A sadistic captain puts his crew on edge. A young officer has a breakdown in a near-collision. A sailor jumps to the bottom of the sea. The Last American Sailors recounts one man's decade in a misunderstood industry--the merchant marine, a fleet with a glorious past and an uncertain future. If On the Road met The Perfect Storm, we would have The Last American Sailors, the definitive travelogue of a merchant seaman and an encompassing look into the mysterious world of merchant shipping. AISN: Link: https://a.co/d/0bBpsrSp