Surgeon's Mate' is a detailed and bloody eye-witness account of a Naval Surgeon in the thick of military action, and is highly recommended for inclusion on the bookshelf of any historian or anyone with an interest in military history. Many of these earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwor...

These Indian fairy tales are chosen from the many stories collected by Mr. Henry R. Schoolcraft, the first man to study how the Indians lived and to discover their legends. He lived among the Indians in the West and around the Great Lakes for thirty years in the first part of the Nineteenth Century and wrote many books about them. When the story-tellers sat at the lodge fires in the long evenings to tell of the manitoes and their magic, of how the little boy snared the sun, of the old Toad...

What was it really like to be at sea in the Navy with Nelson? Were the sailors excited about the Battle of Trafalgar, or suffering scurvy? How did life compare between those of a high range, and those who served them? What were conditions like below the decks, living among the rats and the filth? How did you cope if you suffered from sea sickness? This book takes you back in time to see, hear, smell and taste what life was really like for these brave sailors at sea.

This is Nicholas Monsarrat's final masterpiece, an epic tale of the sea and seafaring from the sixteenth century to near the end of the twentieth.Told from the point of view of Mathew Lawe, a young Devon sailor who is cursed after a spectacular act of cowardice to wander 'the wild waters till all the seas run dry', it is historical fiction but beset by real events. Monsarrat follows the great captains and naval adventurers from the Artic to the South Pacific. Lawe represents the spi...

"Jack's assignment: to capture the Indian Ocean islands of Réunion and Mauritius from the French. That campaign forms the narrative thread of this rollicking sea saga. But its substance is more beguiling still." —Elizabeth Peer, NewsweekThe year is 1810 and Great Britain is again at war with France. British naval officer Captain Jack Aubrey is ashore on half pay without a command, living in domestic bliss with his young family—until his friend Stephen Matu...

Napoleonic-era accounts of life aboard Royal Navy warships: "Readers of Patrick O'Brian and C. S. Forester will enjoy this collection" ( Library Journal ).At the dawn of the nineteenth century, the British Navy was the mightiest instrument of war the world had ever known. The Royal Navy patrolled the seas from India to the Caribbean, connecting an empire with footholds in every corner of the earth. Such a massive Navy requ...

A rollicking tour of the history of the high seas with Blackbeard, Captain Kidd, 'Calico Jack' Rackham, Anne Bonney and other figures of maritime legend.Includes Francis 'The Scourge of Spain' Drake's audacious night-time treasure raid on Nombre de Dios; Alexander Exquemelin's fly-on-the-wall account of the 'wicked order of pirates, or robbers of the sea'; the journal of William Dampier, found stashed in a hollow bamboo tube, and much more. Witness skulduggery and malice, terror an...

Over the years, thousands of tales both true and fantastic have been told about the dastardly thievery of pirates, and their rum-drunk exploits and high-seas violence never fail to delight. Now in a brand-new series collection, The Best Pirate Stories Ever Told includes many of the very best pirate yarns ever created on history’s most debaucherous scalawags. Anyone who loves a good story full of excitement, adventure, thrills, and laughs will find this collection irresistible....

“For all of you who need some great fantasy to read while you're waiting for The Winds of Winter...try Quillifer, by Walter Jon Williams. WJW is always fun, but this might be his best yet, a delight from start to finish, witty, colorful, exciting and amusing by turns, exquisitely written.” —George R. R. Martin, author of the Song of Ice and Fire series“Chock full of derring-do, blood and thunder, swashbuckling, and other good stuff.” —Paul...

According to the Preface: "I have in the following pages endeavoured to resist the temptation to weave a web of pleasant but unreliable fiction round actual occurrences. That which is here set forth has been derived from facts, and in almost every case from manuscript records. It aims at telling the story of an eventful and exciting period according to historical and not imaginative occurrence. There are extant many novels and short stories which have for their heroes the old-time smuggler...

Did you know…Until 1812 the British Royal Navy would seize Americans and force them into British military service. This was one of the causes of the war between Britain and the US between 1812 and 1815 (see Pressgangs).British seamen in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were extremely badly paid, but by helping to seize foreign ships they could earn rewards equivalent to a million dollars or more in modern terms (see Five Hundred Pounds Prize Money).If Napoleon...

A collection of 50 classic pirate stories with an active table of contents to make it easy to quickly find the book you are looking for.Works included in this collection: The Cruise of the Jasper The Filibusters and The Great Quest.