Non-Fiction Releases
This section lists upcoming and recently released non-fiction books about the Age of Sail. They will also appear in the Non-Fiction Listings
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- By: Roger Crowley
- Non-Fiction Releases
Roger Crowley's new book, Spice: The 16th-Century Contest that Shaped the Modern World, is now available worldwide for Kindle. The UK Hardcover will be released on 15 May 2024 and the US Hardcover on 18 June 2024 when the Audiobooks will also be released worldwide.
The story of the sixteenth-century’s epic contest for the spice trade, which propelled European maritime exploration and conquest across Asia and the Pacific
Spices drove the early modern world economy, and for Europeans they represented riches on an unprecedented scale. Cloves and nutmeg could reach Europe only via a complex web of trade routes, and for decades Spanish and Portuguese explorers competed to find their elusive source. But when the Portuguese finally reached the spice islands of the Moluccas in 1511, they set in motion a fierce competition for control.
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- By: Sean Kingsley & Rex Cowan
- Non-Fiction Releases
Sean Kingsley & Rex Cowan's new book, The Pirate King: The Strange Adventures of Henry Avery and the Birth of the Golden Age of Piracy, will be available worldwide for Kindle and Hardcover on 2 April 2024 and is now available for pre-order.
The incredible story of the "Robin Hood of the Seas," who absconded with millions during the Golden Age of Piracy and who harbored an even greater secret.
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- By: Peter J. Emanuel Jr.
- Non-Fiction Releases
Peter J. Emanuel Jr.'s new book, Course Change: The Whaleship Stonington in the Mexican-American War, will be available worldwide for Kindle on 5 March 2024. The US Paperback will be released on the same day and the UK Paperback on 5 May 2024. It is now available for pre-order.
The Stonington, a whaleship from New London, Connecticut, is sailing a course for home after being at sea for more than three years. When it pulls into San Diego, California in September 1846 for food and supplies, the crew learns that war has broken out between the United States and Mexico. The town is under siege by Mexican forces, leaving the US inhabitants no escape route but the sea. In response to their desperate situation, the Stonington’s captain allows them to take refuge aboard his ship. Thus begins the first step in what would become the Stonington’s months-long tour of duty as a member of the US Navy’s Pacific Squadron.
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- By: Shane Granger
- Non-Fiction Releases
Shane Granger's new book, Cargo of Hope: Voyages of the Humanitarian Ship Vega, will be available worldwide for Kindle on 6 February 2024. The US Paperback will be released on the same day and the UK Paperback on 6 April 2024. It is now available for pre-order.
This is the story of the historic ship Vega's first missions of mercy-a real-life sea tale complete with vicious storms, exotic locations, heart-rending moments, and priceless glimpses into real life on some of the world's most remote tropical islands. In December 2004, Shane Granger and his partner, Meggi Macoun, had just completed a sailing odyssey from South Africa to Malaysia and were enjoying a well-earned siesta when the Boxing Day Tsunami changed their lives forever. In a matter of hours, unstoppable waves, often over ten meters high, demolished cities not only in Malaysia but also as far away as Sri Lanka, Thailand, and East Africa, making it the deadliest tsunami in recorded history. With thousands of people suddenly in dire need, Shane and Meggi loaded their vessel with donated food and medical supplies, then set sail for Sumatra to deliver aid.
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- By: Eric Jay Dolin
- Non-Fiction Releases
Eric Jay Dolin's new book, Left for Dead: Shipwreck, Treachery, and Survival at the Edge of the World, will be available worldwide for Kindle on 7 May 2024. The US Hardcover will be released on the same day and the UK Hardcover on 18 June 2024. It is now available for pre-order.
The true story of five castaways abandoned on the Falkland Islands during the War of 1812—a tale of treachery, shipwreck, isolation, and the desperate struggle for survival.
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- By: George D. Jepson
- Non-Fiction Releases
George D. Jepson's new book, Sailing the Sweetwater Seas: Wooden Boats and Ships on the Great Lakes, 1817–1940, will be available worldwide for Kindle on 15 December 2023. The US Hardcover will be released on the same day and the UK Hardcover on 15 February 2024. It is now available for pre-order.
The Great Lakes were America’s first superhighway before railroad lines and roads arrived in the late nineteenth century. This book tells the story of the ships and boats on which the United States, barely decades old, moved to the country’s middle and beyond, established a robust industrial base, and became a world power, despite enduring a bloody Civil War. The “five sisters,” as the Great Lakes came to be called, would connect America’s far-reaching regions in the century ahead, carrying streams of Irish, German, and Scandinavian settlers to new lives, as the young nation expanded west. Initially, schooner fleets delivered passengers and goods to settlements along the lakes, including Chicago, Milwaukee, and Green Bay, and returned east with grain, lumber, and iron ore.
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- By: Angus Konstam
- Non-Fiction Releases
Angus Konstam's new book, The Pirate Menace: Uncovering the Golden Age of Piracy, will be available in the US in Hardcover on 9 April 2024, and worldwide in Hardcover and Kindle on 11 April 2024. It is now available for pre-order.
Uncovers the heyday of the legendary 'Barbary corsairs', pirates and slave-raiders from the North African coast who for centuries terrorized European shipping in the Mediterranean and western Atlantic, and even raided the English and Irish coasts.
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- By: William M. Fowler, Jr
- Non-Fiction Releases
Author William M. Fowler, Jr has a new book Commanding Old Ironsides: The Life of Captain Silas Talbot which is now available for pre-order in paperback. It will be released in the US on 7 May 2024 and in the UK on 7 July 2024.
Silas Talbot’s life illuminates his time―not with greater brightness than the lives of his more famous contemporaries, but with perhaps broader range and greater insight into the experiences and circumstances of a plain citizen of the new republic―a citizen whose bravery and energy helped to create it.