What’s New?
- Biographies: Jamaica Kincaid, Marilyn Nelson, Clifford Ashley, Sylvia Earle, and Phillis Wheatley
- Audio: Harriet Beecher Stowe's The Pearl of Orr’s Island
- Video: Derek Walcott reads "Sea Grapes"
- Featured Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Tag Archives: Maritime History
Murphy, Robert Cushman
by R. D. Madison (2000) MURPHY, ROBERT CUSHMAN (1887-1973). Born in Brooklyn, Robert Cushman Murphy graduated from Brown University in 1911. The following year he married Grace E. Barstow and embarked on the whaler Daisy for the South Atlantic. A naturalist Continue reading text links
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Tagged 20th Century, Atlantic Ocean, Maritime History, Nonfiction, Pacific Ocean, Science/Nature, Whaling/Sealing
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Mowat, Farley
by Boyd Childress (2000) MOWAT, FARLEY [MCGILL] (1921-2014). Farley Mowat is one of Canada’s more popular and controversial writers. Born 12 May 1921, in Belleview, Ontario, Mowat graduated from the University of Toronto in 1949. He spent two years during Continue reading text links
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Tagged 20th Century, Arctic, Children's Writing, Fiction, Maritime History, Nonfiction, Race/Ethnicity and the Sea, Whaling/Sealing
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Peterson, Charles Jacob (“J. Thornton Randolph” or “Harry Danforth”)
by Robert L. Gale (2000) [PETERSON, CHARLES JACOB], “HARRY DANFORTH,” “J. THORNTON RANDOLPH” (1819-1887). Charles Jacob Peterson was an editor, publisher, and historian, born in Philadelphia, where he worked all his life. Once he acquired an ample fortune, he and Continue reading text links
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Tagged 19th Century, Journalism, Maritime History, Navy/Coast Guard, Nonfiction, War
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Whitman, Walt
by Philip A. Greasley (2000) WHITMAN, WALT[ER] (1819-1892). Walt Whitman was born in West Hills, near Huntington on northwestern Long Island. With almost two centuries of ancestral residence on the island and some seafaring tradition in his family, Whitman was naturally Continue reading text links
Posted in W
Tagged 19th Century, Atlantic Ocean, Class/Labor and the Sea, Fishing, Gender/Sexuality and the Sea, Maritime History, Navy/Coast Guard, Pacific Ocean, Passenger Travel, Poetry, Recreation, Whaling/Sealing
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Snow, Edward Rowe
by Mary Malloy (2000) SNOW, EDWARD ROWE (1902-1982). A prolific producer of maritime history and lore for popular consumption, Edward Rowe Snow was born in Winthrop, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard University and earned a master’s degree in history from Continue reading text links
Semmes, Raphael
by Anna E. Lomando (2000) SEMMES, RAPHAEL (1809-1877). A naval officer first in the United States and then in the Confederate navy, Raphael Semmes wrote two books on his naval adventures. The first, Service Afloat and Ashore during the Mexican War Continue reading text links
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Tagged 19th Century, Fiction, Maritime History, Navy/Coast Guard
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Nordhoff, Charles, the younger AND James Norman Hall
by Grove Koger (2000) NORDHOFF, CHARLES [BERNARD] the younger (1887-1947) AND JAMES NORMAN HALL (1887-1951). Writers Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall were born the same year but worlds apart, Nordhoff in London of American parents and Hall in Colfax, Continue reading text links
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Tagged 20th Century, Fiction, Maritime History, Multimedia/Multimodal, Navy/Coast Guard, Pacific Islands, Pacific Ocean, War
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Nickerson, Thomas
by Nathaniel Philbrick (2000) NICKERSON, THOMAS (1805-1883). At fifteen years old, Thomas Nickerson was the youngest member of the crew of the Nantucket whale-ship Essex when she was rammed and sunk by a whale in the Pacific Ocean, 20 November Continue reading text links
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Tagged 19th Century, First-person narrative, Maritime History, Pacific Ocean, Whaling/Sealing
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Nelson, James L.
by John F. Hussey (2000, revised 2014, by Eleanore MacLean) NELSON, JAMES L. (1962- ). Born in Lewiston, Maine, James L. Nelson, a former professional square-rig sailor, traces his love of the sea to his earliest memories when he chose Continue reading text links
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Tagged 20th Century, Atlantic Ocean, Fiction, Maritime History, Merchant Marine, Navy/Coast Guard, Nonfiction, Pacific Ocean, Piracy, War
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Jennings Jr., John Edward (“Bates Baldwin”)
by Debra Glabeau (2000) [JENNINGS, JOHN EDWARD, JR], “BATES BALDWIN” (1906-1973). John Edward Jennings Jr., historical novelist, was born in Brooklyn, New York. The son of a surgeon, he began his seafaring in 1925 as a foremast hand aboard a Continue reading text links
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Tagged 20th Century, Exploration, Fiction, Maritime History, Navy/Coast Guard, Nonfiction, Short Story
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de Hartog, Jan
by James F. Millinger (2000) DE HARTOG, JAN (1914-2002). Born in Holland, Jan de Hartog ran off to sea when he was ten years old. Six years later he enrolled in Amsterdam Naval College and became a junior mate in Continue reading text links
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Tagged 20th Century, Fiction, Maritime History, Plays, Short Story, War
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Haley, Alex
by Robert Shenk HALEY, ALEX (1921-1992). Alex Haley joined the Coast Guard as a “mess boy” at seventeen after two years of college. During World War II, aboard the cargo ship U.S.S. Murzim, he sent story after story to national Continue reading text links
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Tagged 20th Century, Journalism, Maritime History, Middle Passage and Enslavement, Navy/Coast Guard
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Gilkerson, William
by Michael P. Dyer (2000) GILKERSON, WILLIAM (1936-2015). William Gilkerson wrote nine books, most of which relate directly to maritime history. His first book, Gilkerson on War–From Rocks to Rockets (1964), is an exception, as it only touches upon maritime Continue reading text links
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Tagged 20th Century, Fiction, Maritime History, Multimedia/Multimodal, Whaling/Sealing
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Ellms, Charles
by Boyd Childress (2000) ELLMS, CHARLES (1805-1851). The elusive Charles Ellms was a Boston stationer who, after 1830, turned to popular writing and compiling almanacs. Little is known of Ellms, his birth, education, or even his death. Before he turned Continue reading text links
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Tagged 19th Century, Maritime History, Nonfiction, Piracy
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Dey, Richard
by Leah Feldman (2013) DEY, RICHARD (1945-) is an American poet born in 1945 who writes of New England and the West Indies. As a teenager he sailed in the Schooner Tabor Boy out of Marion, Massachusetts. After serving in Continue reading text links
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Tagged 20th Century, Caribbean, Maritime History, Poetry, video
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Desrosiers, Leo-Paul
by Donald P. Curtis (2000) DESROSIERS, LEO-PAUL (1896-1967). Leo-Paul Desrosiers was born in Berthier-en-Haut, Quebec, a village on the banks of the Saint Lawrence River northeast of Montreal. His happy childhood provided him with material for his first work, Ames Continue reading text links
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Tagged 20th Century, Fiction, French, Great Lakes, Maritime History
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Colcord, Lincoln Ross
by Parker Bishop Albee Jr. (2000) COLCORD, LINCOLN ROSS (1883-1947). Lincoln Ross Colcord, author of sea fiction and maritime historian, was born at sea aboard the bark Charlotte A. Littlefield, commanded by his father, Lincoln Alden Colcord of Searsport, Maine. Colcord Continue reading text links
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Tagged 19th Century, 20th Century, Fiction, Journalism, Maritime History, Nonfiction, Poetry
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Catherwood, Mary Hartwell
by Kenneth A. Robb (2000) CATHERWOOD, MARY HARTWELL (1847-1902). Mary Hartwell Catherwood began her career with realistic stories of the midwest frontier but focused on stories of the French in early America after her novel The Romance of Dollard (1888). This interest Continue reading text links
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Tagged 19th Century, Fiction, Great Lakes, Maritime History, Nonfiction
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Carse, Robert
by Donald P. Curtis (2000) CARSE, ROBERT (1902-1971). A Great Lakes sailor at seventeen, Robert Carse later worked salt water, attaining the position of chief mate. He sailed most of the world and developed a reputation as an expert seaman Continue reading text links
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Tagged 20th Century, Children's Writing, Exploration, Fiction, Great Lakes, Maritime History, Short Story
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Binns, Archie
by Matthew Evertson (2000) BINNS, ARCHIE [FRED] (1899-1971). Archie Binns, novelist and historian of the northwestern United States, is best known for his critically acclaimed novel Lightship (1934). Based partly on Binns’ own experiences at age eighteen aboard the Umatilla Reef Lightship off Cape Continue reading text links
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Tagged 20th Century, Atlantic Ocean, Children's Writing, Fiction, Indian Ocean, Journalism, Maritime History, Pacific Ocean
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Baldwin, Bates (John Edward Jennings, Jr.)
Posted in B
Tagged 20th Century, Exploration, Fiction, Maritime History, Navy/Coast Guard, Nonfiction, Short Story
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