Seafaring Lore and Legend

Front Cover
McGraw Hill Professional, Feb 5, 2007 - History - 382 pages

"A valuable and lively resource. Jeans sorts truth from fiction with a sure hand and does full justice to both."—Peter Stanford, President Emeritus, National Maritime Historical Society

“A veritable sourcebook of nautical history, beliefs, and heritage. Every true mariner will get lost in this book.”—Boating

Seafaring Lore and Legend is a storehouse of wonders for those who love the sea. From Noah’s Ark to Thor Heyerdahl’s raft, from Atlantis to the Northwest Passage, author Peter Jeans scours the ages and the seven seas for fanciful, inspiring, and bizarre tales of sea monsters, ghost ships, lost continents, castaways, pirates, explorers, superstitions, and customs.

Discover the surprising truths behind:

  • The origins of naval salutes and the Beaufort Scale
  • Flogging a dead horse and other oddities of nautical custom
  • Sea chanties, scurvy, and the hardships of life at sea
  • Infamous and noteworthy sea captains and their ships
  • Famous wrecks and mutinies
  • Mermaids, sirens, and sea nymphs
  • Nautical superstitions such as the albatross and Fiddler’s Green
  • And much more

This is a book you can open anywhere to savor for a few minutes or an afternoon. But be careful: it's easy to lose track of time at sea.

From inside the book

Contents

Introduction
1
1 In the Beginning
13
2 Fabled Lands
30
3 Legendary Voyages
43
4 Sea Quests of Old
64
5 Maritime History
85
6 Nautical Custom
95
7 Life at Sea
104
12 Navigable Waters
206
13 Castaways and Survivors
214
14 At Odds with the Law
227
15 Sea Fancies
246
16 Myth and Mystery
254
17 Sea Monsters
276
18 Wraiths of the Sea
295
19 Superstition and Belief
304

8 The Captain and His Ship
134
9 A Murmuring of Men
161
10 Big Ships and Battles
176
11 Death and Disaster
192
Sources and Notes
329
Select Bibliography
350
Index
362
Copyright

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Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 318 - The sun now rose upon the right : Out of the sea came he, Still hid in mist, and on the left Went down into the sea. And the good south wind still blew behind, But no sweet bird did follow, Nor any day for food or play Came to the mariner's hollo ! And I had done a hellish thing, And it would work 'em woe : For all averred I had killed the bird That made the breeze to blow.
Page 17 - And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
Page 36 - And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.
Page 13 - And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth ; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
Page 13 - In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
Page 217 - The many men, so beautiful! And they all dead did lie: And a thousand thousand slimy things Lived on; and so did I.
Page 116 - With sloping masts, and dipping prow, As who pursued with yell and blow Still treads the shadow of his foe, And forward bends his head ; The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast, And southward aye we fled.
Page 277 - It passed rapidly, but so close under our lee quarter, that had it been a man of my acquaintance I should have easily recognised his features with the naked eye...

About the author (2007)

Peter D. Jeans is the author of Ship to Shore: A Dictionary of Everyday Words and Phrases Derived from the Sea.

Bibliographic information