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showing 195 library results for '1824'

One crew : the RNLI's official 200-year history /Helen Doe. "In the 200 years since it was founded, the RNLI has saved more than 144,000 lives. It all began with a meeting in London in 1824 to act on a proposal by Sir William Hillary: the formation of a National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck. It is his vision that still drives the RNLI today. The vast majority of its crews are volunteers, backed up by large numbers of fundraisers from every walk of life. And the charity today saves lives in more ways, in more places - through lifeguards, water safety and international work. But, since the RNLI's foundation, it has not always been plain sailing. In April 1852, the Lifeboat Journal observed that 'lifeboats have been too few in number, of imperfect form and construction, and often unsuited to the nature of the locality where stationed'. This book takes a fresh look at the creation of the Institution and its early founders, and examines how it has responded over 200 years to the inevitable stresses and external pressures. It provides information on many hitherto unsung heroes and heroines and lesser-known rescues, as well as the well-known events. The RNLI has overcome many obstacles and is now one of the UK and Ireland's most respected organisations. How it became so is a story of determination, acumen, skill and bravery. More than 700 names are inscribed on the RNLI Memorial at RNLI Support Centre in Poole, Dorset. The author and publishers hope that this book is a fitting tribute to such self-sacrifice."--Provided by publisher. 2024. • BOOK • 1 copy available.
Russian California, 1806-1860 : a history in documents /compiled and edited by James R. Gibson and Alexei A. Istomin. "This two-volume book is a documentary history of Russia's 19th-century settlement in California. It contains 492 documents (letters, reports, travel descriptions, censuses, ethnographic and geographical information), mostly translated from the Russian for the first time, very fully annotated, and with an extensive historical introduction, maps, and illustrations, many in colour. This broad range of primary sources provides a comprehensive and detailed history of the Russian Empire's most distant and most exotic outpost, one whose liquidation in 1841 presaged St Petersburg's abandonment of all of Russian America in 1867. Russia from the sixteenth century onwards had steadily expanded eastwards in search of profitable resources. This expansion was rapid, eased not only by the absence of foreign opposition and disunity of the native peoples but also by Siberia's river network and the North Pacific's convenient causeway of the Aleutian chain leading to Alaska. It was paid for largely by the 'soft gold' of Siberian sables and Pacific sea otters. By the end of the 1700s, however, on the Northwest Coast of North America the Russians met increasing opposition from the indigenous people (Tlingits) and foreign rivals (American and English fur-trading vessels). This combination soon depleted the coast of sea otters, and at the same time the Russians were finding it ever more expensive to obtain supplies from Europe by overland transport across Siberia or round-the-world voyages, so under the aegis of the monopolistic Russian-American Company (1799) they leapfrogged southward to the frontera del norte of the Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain. Here, in 1812, they founded Russian California (officially, Ross Counter) as a base for hunting the Californian sea otter, growing grain and rearing stock, and trading with the Spanish missions. Eventually the exclave comprised a fort (Ross), a port (Bodega), five farms, and a hunting and birding station on the Farallon Islands, as well as a shipyard, a tannery, and a brickworks. The successes and failures of these enterprises, the perils of navigation, experiments in agriculture, the personal, political and economic problems of the colony, and Russian engagement with the indigenous population all come to life in these pages."--Provided by the publisher. 2014. • BOOK • 2 copies available. 061.22HAKLUYT
River gunboats : An illustrated encylopaedia /Roger Branfill-Cook "The first recorded engagement by a steam-powered warship took place on a river, when in 1824 the Honourable East India Company?s gunboat Diana went into action on the Irrawaddy in Burma. In the 150 years that followed river gunboats played a significant part in over forty campaigns and individual actions, down to the Portuguese and American ?Brown Water? fighting in Africa and Vietnam respectively at the end of the twentieth century. They proved to be the decisive factor in operations against the Maoris, with Gordon?s Ever Victorious Army in China, during the river campaigns of the American Civil War, in the French conquest of Indochina, during Kitchener?s advance on Khartoum, and on the Rufiji and Tigris during the Great War. River gunboats fought for the Paris Commune, on the rivers of South America, against the Bolsheviks, and during the Second World War in the open waters of the Mediterranean, while armoured Soviet gunboats fought German Panzers, and a pair of ?Girls? attacked the Japanese on the banks of the Irrawaddy. This lavishly illustrated encyclopaedia describes vessels of every nation designed as river gunboats, plus those converted river steamers which took part in combat. Maps of the river systems where they operated are included, together with narratives of the principal actions involving river gunboats. Their story is brought up-to-date with data on current riverine combat vessels in service today."--Provided by the publisher. 2016. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 623.824
Dumont d'Urville, explorer & polymath / Edward Duyker. "Explorer Jules-Sâebastien-Câesar Dumont d'Urville (1790-1842) is sometimes called France's Captain Cook. Born less than a year after the beginning of the French Revolution, he lived through turbulent times. He was an erudite polymath: a maritime explorer fascinated by botany, entomology, ethnography and the diverse languages of the world. As a young ensign he was decorated for his pivotal part in France's acquisition of the famous Vâenus de Milo. D'Urville's voyages and writings meshed with an emergent French colonial impulse in the Pacific. In this magnificent biography Edward Duyker reveals that D'Urville had secret orders to search for the site for a potential French penal colony in Australia. He also effectively helped to precipitate pre-emptive British settlement on several parts of the Australian coast. D'Urville visited New Zealand in 1824, 1827 and 1840. This wide-ranging survey examines his scientific contribution, including the plants and animals he collected, and his conceptualisation of the peoples of the Pacific: it was he who first coined the terms Melanesia and Micronesia. D'Urville helped to confirm the fate of the missing French explorer Lapâerouse, took Charles X into exile after the Revolution of 1830, and crowned his navigational achievements with two pioneering Antarctic descents. Edward Duyker has used primary documents that have long been overlooked by other historians. He dispels many myths and errors about this daring explorer of the age of sail and offers his readers grand adventure and surprising drama and pathos."--Provided by the publisher. 2014. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 92D'URVILLE
The lifeboat baronet : launching the RNLI /Janet Gleeson. "The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is a treasured charity whose mission is to save lives at sea, but what is known of its founder, Sir William Hillary? Back in the early nineteenth century, when death from shipwreck was a tragic reality of life, the handsome, charismatic and adventurous Hillary decided to atone for his chequered past and do something to prevent it. His journey from Regency rake to national hero led him to leave his slave-owning family in Liverpool, travel abroad, mingle with royalty, marry an heiress and, during the Napoleonic Wars, head the largest volunteer army in Britain. Then, financial and marital catastrophe struck. Forced to seek exile on the Isle of Man, a harrowing shipwreck and guilty conscience inspired his historic campaign. Having battled to found the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck (today's RNLI) in 1824, Hillary's commitment never faltered. He frequently took to the lifeboats, braving terrifying storms and saving hundreds of lives, despite never learning to swim. Thanks to him the sea remains a safer place today. In this comprehensive biography of Sir William Hillary, Janet Gleeson draws on previously unpublished lettersm - many written by Hillary himself - revealing the RNLI's development, Hillary's links with the Jamaican slave trade, as well as the tribulations of his private life."--Provided by the publisher. 2014. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 92HILLARY
DP&L : A history of the Dundee, Perth & London Shipping Company Ltd and associated shipping companies /by Graeme Somner. A history of the Dundee, Perth & London Shipping Company Ltd which dates its history back to 1798 with the formation of the Dundee Shipping Company to provide a service to London. The company acquired a number of other businesses through the years and survived the transition from sail to steam. The company sold its last ship, the Kingennie in 1967 but continues to operate in other business areas including travel and leisure. The Appendices include fleet lists of sailing vessels, steamships and motor vessels owned or managed by the Dundee, Perth & London Shipping Company Ltd (1826-1967), the Dundee Shipping Co (1798-1806), Dundee & Perth Shipping Co (1806-1826), Dundee & Perth Union Shipping Co (1819-1826), Dundee & Hull Shipping Co (1824-1857), Dundee & Newcastle Steam Ship Co Ltd (1861-1891), Dundee & Newcastle Shipping Co Ltd (1891-1917), Kirkaldy Steamship Co Ltd, Thomas Cowan, Aberdeen, Newcastle & Hull Steam Co Ltd, Aberdeen & Newcastle Steam Navigation Co (1844-1866), Aberdeen, Grimsby & Hull Steam Packet Co (1855-1863), Aberdeen & Hull Steam Navigation Co (1863-1866), Aberdeen, Newcastle & Hull Steam Co Ltd (1866-1940), VA Cappon Tugs Ltd (1913-1946), Coquet Shipping Co Ltd (1946-1956), John Wilson (1949-1951), Lockett Wilson Ltd (1951-1954), Lockett Wilson Line Ltd (1954-1968), Channel Shipping Ltd (1955-1968), Western Shipping Ltd (1962-1969), David C Thomas (1873-1885), David C Thomas & Son (1885-1913) and the Brussels Steam Ship Co Ltd (1913-1967). A further appendix lists company managers and managing directors from 1826 to the date of publication. 1995. • BOOK • 3 copies available. 347.792Dundee, Perth & London