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showing 272 library results for 'd-day'

Empire of ice and stone : the disastrous and heroic voyage of the Karluk /Buddy Levy. "The true, harrowing story of the ill-fated 1913 Canadian Arctic Expedition and the two men who came to define it. In the summer of 1913, the wooden-hulled brigantine Karluk departed Canada for the Arctic Ocean. At the helm was Captain Bob Bartlett, considered the world's greatest living ice navigator. The expedition's visionary leader was a flamboyant impresario named Vilhjalmur Stefansson hungry for fame. Just six weeks after the Karluk departed, giant ice floes closed in around her. As the ship became icebound, Stefansson disembarked with five companions and struck out on what he claimed was a 10-day caribou hunting trip. Most on board would never see him again. Twenty-two men and an Inuit woman with two small daughters now stood on a mile-square ice floe, their ship and their original leader gone. Under Bartlett's leadership they built makeshift shelters, surviving the freezing darkness of Polar night. Captain Bartlett now made a difficult and courageous decision. He would take one of the young Inuit hunters and attempt a 1000-mile journey to save the shipwrecked survivors. It was their only hope. Set against the backdrop of the Titanic disaster and World War I, filled with heroism, tragedy, and scientific discovery, Buddy Levy's Empire of Ice and Stone tells the story of two men and two distinctively different brands of leadership: one selfless, one self-serving, and how they would forever be bound by one of the most audacious and disastrous expeditions in polar history, considered the last great voyage of The Heroic Age of Discovery."--Provided by publisher 2022. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 919.804
Blowing hot and cold : Thermotank and the story of air conditioning at sea "Air-conditioning is one of those universal modern conveniences whose origins are entirely unknown to the general public. Online sources credit the first commercial system to the American Willis Carrier in 1902 - but this is not true. The first workable machine was patented four years earlier by Alexander Stewart, a Scottish marine engineer, who called his invention the Thermotank. It offered a massive improvement in comfort for passengers and was rapidly adopted by the shipping industry, eventually equipping many of the greatest liners of their day like Lusitania and Mauretania. From these beginnings Alexander and his brothers William and Frederick Stewart built an immensely successful engineering firm with subsidiaries in America, Africa, Australia and Europe. Based on Clydeside, its fortunes were always closely linked to the shipbuilding industry, but with the slump at the end of the First World War the company was forced to look to other markets. At this point Alexander came up with a second world-beating invention, which he called the Punkah Louvre - the swivelling nozzle most familiar today as the source of ventilation in airliners. This made it easier to apply the Thermotank system to other forms of transport and even buildings, greatly expanding its sales potential. Still largely a family concern, the business remained innovative and competitive until the 1960s, when the decline in British shipbuilding and the beginnings of globalisation led to amalgamation, restructuring and eventually the demise of the Thermotank name. In the process, most of the company records were dispersed or lost so this book is a particularly valuable testimony to a great British - specifically, Scottish - success story. Although almost unknown today, Thermotank was a business that changed the world."--Provided by the publisher. 2024. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 623.853709411
The Bounty : the true story of the mutiny on the Bounty /Caroline Alexander. More than two centuries have passed since Master's Mate Fletcher Christian mutinied against Lieutenant Bligh on a small, armed transport vessel called Bounty. Why the details of this obscure adventure at the end of the world remain vivid and enthralling is as intriguing as the truth behind the legend. In giving the Bounty mutiny its historical due, Caroline Alexander has chosen to frame her narrative by focusing on the court-martial of the ten mutineers who were captured in Tahiti and brought to justice in England. This fresh perspective revivifies the entire saga, and the salty, colorful language of the captured men themselves conjures the events of that April morning in 1789, when Christian's breakdown impelled every man on a fateful course: Bligh and his loyalists on the historic open boat voyage that revealed him to be one of history's great navigators; Christian on his restless exile; and the captured mutineers toward their day in court. As the book unfolds, each figure emerges as a full-blown character caught up in a drama that may well end on the gallows. And as Alexander shows, it was in a desperate fight to escape hanging that one of the accused defendants deliberately spun the mutiny into the myth we know today-of the tyrannical Lieutenant Bligh of the Bounty. Ultimately, Alexander concludes that the Bounty mutiny was sparked by that most unpredictable, combustible, and human of situations-the chemistry between strong personalities living in close quarters. Her account of the voyage, the trial, and the surprising fates of Bligh, Christian, and the mutineers is an epic of ambition, passion, pride, and duty at the dawn of the Romantic era. 2003. • BOOK • 3 copies available. 355.133"1789"
Red Funnel 150 : celebrating one hundred and fifty years of the Southampton Isle of Wight and South of England Royal Mail Steam Packet Company Limited : the original Isle of Wight Ferries /by Keith Adams. An overview of the Red Funnel company from their beginnings as a paddle steamer ferry service in 1861, through to becoming a major provider of passenger and freight transportation between the south coast of England and the Isle of Wight. For over 150 years Red Funnel and its predecessors developed their services in line with the changing demands of travellers and business. They embraced the technological advancements of the day which enabled the early introduction of vehicle-carrying ferries and high-speed services. They also expanded into other areas of shipping, by acquiring companies such as Cosens & Co of Weymouth for their pleasure excursions, or merging with hauliers Vectis Transport. The first part of the book covers the company's history, with following chapters looking at all aspects of Red Funnel's business operations. These include the high-speed ferries Shearwater and Red Jet, River Medina crossings, Towage, and Red Funnel Distribution. There is also a compilation of the Red Funnel Fleet (from 1861) with a profile of each vessel, including dates when built, acquired, withdrawn or scrapped, builder's details, and technical information. All are accompanied by numerous photographs and illustrations from the Red Funnel archives. 2010. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 347.792RED FUNNEL:656.66
Bitter Peleliu : the forgotten struggle on the Pacific War's worst battlefield /Joseph Wheelan. "In late 1944, as a precursor to the invasion of the Philippines, U.S. military analysts decided to seize the small island of Peleliu to ensure that the Japanese airfield there could not threaten the invading forces. This important new book explores the dramatic story of the resulting campaign and its strategic failings. Joseph Wheelan expertly details how U.S. intelligence officers failed to detect the complex network of caves, tunnels, and pillboxes hidden inside the island's coral ridges. More importantly, they did not discern - nor could they before it happened - that the defense of Peleliu would represent a tectonic shift in Japanese strategy. No more contested enemy landings at the water's edge, no more wild banzai attacks. Now, invaders would be raked on the beaches by mortar and artillery fire. Then, as the enemy penetrated deeper into the Japanese defensive systems, they would find themselves on ground carefully prepared for the purpose of killing as many Americans as possible. For the battle-hardened 1st Marine Division, Peleliu was a hornets' nest like no other. Yet thanks to pre-invasion over-confidence on the part of commanders, 30 of the 36 news correspondents accredited for the campaign had left prior to D-Day. Bitter Peleliu reveals the full horror of this 74-day battle, a battle that due to the reduced media presence has never garnered the type of attention it deserves."--Provided by the publisher. 2022. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 940.542666