The ocean almanac
By: Robert Hendrickson
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Doubleday
Published: 1984
Place of publication: Garden City, N.Y
Language: eng
Number of pages: 446
ISBN-13: 9780385140775
Subjects: Ocean
Description: Of course itʾs impossible to contain the ocean in a book, but The Ocean Almanac comes very near to doing just that. This entertaining, informative almanac offers essays, anecdotes, facts and legends, all pertaining to the earthʾs oceans: life in the seven seas, from the humble plankton (the absolute bottom of the food chain and hence the basis of all life on earth) to the mighty blue whale (the largest creature ever to live on the planet); sea monsters, from Jonahʾs ʺgreat fishʺ to Moby Dick; sailorsʾ superstitions (never carry a black seabag; always board a ship right foot first); great ships and seamen, from the fifteenth-century voyages of discovery to contemporary naval commanders; pirates, buccaneers, mutineers and other seafaring outcasts; the riches of the sea, from tuna to petroleum; great sea disasters; ocean and beach sports; seafood recipes; and virtually everything else that one could want to know about the oceans of the world, the creatures who inhabit them and the people who tap their riches.

Includes information on salt marshes, seaweed, sponges, corals and coral reefs, oyster, mussel, scallop, barnacle, horseshoe crab, eel, lamprey, albatross, whales, sharks, octopus, monsters, crocodile, sirens, mermaids and mermen, Flying Dutchman, Devilʾs Triangle, Mary Celeste, St. Elmoʾs fire, lost continent of Mu, lost continent of Atlantis, Bimini blocks, wave power, desalting plants, Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, Magellan, Darwin, Thor Heyerdahl, figureheads, the Golden Hind, Mayflower, Columbia, Old Ironsides, Lusitania, ocean liners, supertankers, Sir Henry Morgan, Captain Kidd, Blackbeard, Black Caesar, Jean Lafitte, sea battles, American Navy firsts, Lord Horatio Nelson, Monitor and Merrimack, Pearl Harbor, ship disasters, Lloydʾs of London, hurricanes, tsunami, waterspout, floods, the whaleship Essex, lighthouses, lifeboats, red tide, shipwreck, ocean swimming, treasure hunting, etc.
Notes: Includes index.
Table of contents: title: I Life in the Seven Seas; title: II Of Finned and Feathered Creatures; title: III Odd, Incredible and Deadly Sea Creatures; title: IV Sea Monsters, Real and Unreal; title: V Superstitions, Strange Customs and Mysteries of the Seven Seas; title: VI Charting the Seven Seas: Past, Present and Future; title: VII Master Mariners Running Proud: A Galaxy of Great Voyages and Discoveries; title: VIII Ships and the Sea: Great Ships and Shipwrights; title: IX Under the Brave Black Flag: Pirates and Mutineers; title: X War at Sea; title: XI Full Fathom Five: Terrible Shipwrecks, Great Calamities, Lamentable Disasters and Providential Deliverances of the Sea; title: XII Survival at Sea: Of Those who were Saved and How to Save Yourself; title: XII Sea Sports Off and On the Beach; title: XIV Ports of Call: a Cruise to Famous Islands, Marine Museums and Shrines; title: XV Home is the Sailor, Home from the Sea: Last Words of Famous, Infamous and Ordinary Seamen.