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Never say p*g : the book of sailors' superstitions /R. Bruce Macdonald. "The nautical reference book you never knew you needed: a compendium of all superstitions maritime and marine. Learn your A-B-Seas of sailors' guiding magic and mythos--and why you should never stir your tea with a knife, lest you invite trouble and strife. Ever wondered why the skipper gave you a hairy eyeball when you stepped aboard the ship with your left foot? Or why a brolly or a bumbershoot--for the newly seasoned sailor, an umbrella--will bring trouble aboard? Find out all this and more in Never Say P*g, the never-seen-before collection of maritime superstitions ranging from the East Coast to the Great Lakes of Canada, the Inuit to the First Nations Peoples of the Pacific Northwest. From A: why killing an albatross is bad luck, but seeing one is good luck--to B: why bananas are so feared that some sailors only refer to them as "that curved yellow fruit"--to C: clapping aboard a ship will bring thunder--you'll be fluent in sailing superstitions in no time! From sailor and author R. Bruce Macdonald--who swears he didn't know not to stir his tea with a knife--comes an indispensable guide to the ways in which we ward off bad luck at sea and attempt to keep ourselves safe by shaping fate through signs and symbols. The original "marine insurance" for sailors, superstitions offered a semblance of control amidst a dangerous and volatile life aboard, at the mercy of the weather, the crew, the ship--even pirates. Ultimately, this encyclopedia reveals that superstitions have always been with us to comfort, to charm and to ease fears. Learn them all as you sail the high seas!"--Provided by the publisher. [2022] • BOOK • 1 copy available. 390/.43875
The Bounty and beyond : a textual and bibliographical investigation of William Bligh's journals of the first breadfruit expedition /John A. Fish. "Despite Bligh's Bounty journal being widely regarded as the most important of all of the primary documents related to the famous mutiny, the relationship between the official version of the journal (at The National Archives in London) and Bligh's private version (at the Mitchell Library in Sydney) has never been thoroughly investigated. That surprising omission has now been comprehensively rectified with the publication of The Bounty and beyond, a meticulous comparison of the two versions of the journal by John A. Fish. Numerous surprising and important differences are revealed, particularly those relating to food and drink, and Bligh's relationships with his officers and men. The comparison is preceded by a thorough historical and bibliographical investigation of Bligh's three first breadfruit expedition journals, that is, the journals of the Bounty, the Resource and the Vlydt. Also included is a comprehensive investigation and considered interpretation of Bligh's separate manuscript account of the mutiny and the voyage in the open boat. This large manuscript is the forerunner of Bligh's published Narrative of the Mutiny (1790). The significance of this manuscript, in Bligh's own hand and held by the Mitchell Library, has not, hitherto, been fully recognised. Based on extensive research (including several examinations of the primary sources) and a deep understanding of the relevant literature, this work will prove to be a landmark event in the history of Bligh/Bounty scholarship."--Provided by the publisher. 2023. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 996.18
Survivors : the lost stories of the last captives of the Atlantic slave trade /Hannah Durkin. "This is an immersive and revelatory history of the survivors of the Clotilda, the last ship of the Atlantic slave trade, whose lives diverged and intersected in profound ways. The Clotilda docked in Mobile Bay, Alabama, in July 1860 - more than half a century after the passage of a federal law banning the importation of captive Africans, and nine months before the beginning of the Civil War. The last of its survivors lived well into the twentieth century. They were the last witnesses to the final act of a terrible and significant period in world history. In this epic work, Dr. Hannah Durkin tells the stories of the Clotilda's 110 captives, drawing on her intensive archival, historical, and sociological research. Survivors follows their lives from their kidnappings in what is modern-day Nigeria through a terrifying 45-day journey across the Middle Passage; from the subsequent sale of the ship's 103 surviving children and young people into slavery across Alabama to the dawn of the Civil Rights movement in Selma; from the foundation of an all-Black African Town (later Africatown) in Northern Mobile - an inspiration for writers of the Harlem Renaissance, including Zora Neale Hurston - to the foundation of the quilting community of Gee's Bend, a Black artistic circle whose cultural influence remains enormous. An astonishing, deeply compelling tapestry of history, biography and social commentary, Survivors is a tour de force that deepens our knowledge and understanding of the Atlantic slave trade and its far-reaching influence on life today."--Provided by the publisher. 2024. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 306.3/62/0976109034
Inventing the English massacre : Amboyna in history and memory /Alison Games. "My Lai, Wounded Knee, Sandy Hook: the place names evoke grief and horror, each the site of a massacre. Massacres - the mass slaughter of people - might seem as old as time, but the word itself is not. It worked its way into the English language in the late sixteenth century, and ultimately came to signify a specific type of death, one characterized by cruelty, intimacy, and treachery. How that happened is the story of yet another place, Amboyna, an island in the Indonesian archipelago where English and Dutch merchants fought over the spice trade. There a conspiracy trial featuring English, Japanese, and Indo-Portuguese plotters took place in 1623 and led to the beheading of more than a dozen men in a public execution. Inventing the English Massacre shows how the English East India Company transformed that conspiracy into a massacre through printed works, both books and images, which ensured the story's tenacity over four centuries. By the eighteenth century, the story emerged as a familiar and shared cultural touchstone and a term that needed no further explanation. By the nineteenth century, the Amboyna Massacre became the linchpin of the British empire, an event that historians argued well into the twentieth century had changed the course of history and explained why the British had a stronghold in India. The broad familiarity with the incident and the Amboyna Massacre's position as an early and formative violent event turned the episode into the first English massacre. Drawing on archival documents in Dutch, French, and English, Alison Games masterfully recovers the history, ramifications, and afterlives of this event, which shaped the meaning of subsequent acts of violence and made intimacy, treachery, and cruelty indelibly connected with massacres.."-- [2020] • BOOK • 1 copy available. 959.8/021
Uniform : clothing and discipline in the modern world /edited by Jane Tynan and Lisa Godson. "Uniform: Clothing and Discipline in the Modern World examines the role uniform plays in public life and private experience. This volume explores the social, political, economic, and cultural significance of various kinds of uniforms to consider how they embody gender, class, sexuality, race, nationality, and belief. From the pageantry of uniformed citizens to the rationalizing of time and labour, this category of dress has enabled distinct forms of social organization, sometimes repressive, sometimes utopian. With thematic sections on the social meaning of uniform in the military, in institutions, and political movements, its use in fashion, in the workplace, and at leisure, a series of case studies consider what sartorial uniformity means to the history of the body and society. Ranging from English public school uniform to sacred dress in the Vatican, from Australian airline uniforms to the garb worn by soldiers in combat, Uniform draws attention to a visual and material practice with the power to regulate or disrupt civil society. Bringing together original research from emerging and established academics, this book is essential reading for students and scholars of fashion, design, art, popular culture, anthropology, cultural history, and sociology, as well as anyone interested in what constitutes a "modern" appearance."--Provided by the publisher. 2021. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 391