This book investigates the highly engaging topic of the literary and cultural significance of 'sailor talk.' The central argument is that sailor talk offers a way of rethinking the figure of the nineteenth-century sailor and sailor-writer, whose language articulated the rich, layered, and complex culture of sailors in port and at sea. From this argument many other compelling threads emerge, including questions relating to the seafarer's multifaceted identity, maritime labor, questions of performativity, the ship as 'theater, ' the varied and multiple registers of 'sailor talk, ' and the foundational role of maritime language in the lives and works of Herman Melville, Joseph Conrad, and Jack London. The book also includes nods to James Fenimore Cooper, Rudyard Kipling, and Robert Louis Stevenson. Meticulous scholarly research underpins the close readings of literary texts and the scrupulously detailed biographical accounts of three major sailor-writers. The author's own lived experience as a seafarer adds a refreshingly materialist dimension to the subtle literary readings. The book represents a valuable addition to a growing scholarly and political interest in the sea and sea literature. By taking the sailor's viewpoint and listening to sailors' voices, the book also marks a clear intervention in this developing field.

Adolph Gysbert Malan was born in Wellington, South Africa. A natural leader and driven individual with a totally positive outlook, aged fourteen Malan became an officer cadet in the South African Merchant Navy, before being commissioned into the Royal Navy Reserve. Well-travelled and worldly-wise, aged twenty-five the intrepid adventurer applied for a Short Service Commission in the RAF. Universally known as ‘Sailor’ in the RAF, Malan became a fighter pilot. Shortly after war was declared, Malan was involved in the infamous ‘Battle of Barking Creek’, in which 74 Squadron mistakenly destroyed friendly Hurricanes. Then, over Dunkirk in May 1940, Malan’s exceptional ability was immediately demonstrated in combat and a string of confirmed aerial victories rapidly accumulated. The following month, Malan scored the Spitfire’s first nocturnal kill. By August 1940 he was commanding 74 Squadron, which he led with great distinction during the Battle of Britain. In March 1941, Malan was promoted and became the first Wing Commander (Flying) at Biggin Hill, leading the three-squadron-strong Spitfire wing during operations over northern France. After a break from operations, Malan went on to command a succession of fighter training units, passing on his tactical genius and experience, and producing his famous ‘Ten Rules of Air Fighting’ which are still cited today. By the war’s end, Group Captain Malan was the RAF’s tenth top-scoring fighter pilot. Leaving the RAF in 1945 and returning to South Africa, he was disgusted by Apartheid and founded the ‘Torch Commando’ of ex-servicemen against this appalling racist policy. This part of Malan’s life is equally as inspirational, in fact, as his wartime service, and actually tells us more about the man than just his RAF record. Tragically, in 1963, he died, prematurely, aged just fifty-three, of Parkinson’s. Written with the support of the Malan family, this biography is the full story of a remarkable airman and politician.

In 1888, a US Navy sailor begins writing letters to his niece. The letters tell her where he is and what ventures he has gotten himself into. His sailor letters are retrospective, written after things happen. He also must tell her how he got to the place in time he started writing. He is educated for the time, trained as a naval navigator, lighthouse repairman, and watch repairman. His language is as he would speak to his fellow crew—clipped, as sailors use few G sounds, and an apostrophe is used to indicate the word is shortened, as they do. He is honest and kind. He is well trained in sword fighting. His enlistment contract is not the standard form. His mother’s attorney wrote it. The fleet admiral approved it as he had served with the sailor’s uncle. His uncle was a noted ship navigator, shipmaster, an author of navy lore, and now provided ocean metrological data to the naval observatory. He has carried this on. His early experiences involve train travel to San Francisco. The ship charts the then Northwest Territory and the Alaskan coast. His group verifies charts of the Missouri River. Mostly, his ship supplies food provisions to navy frigates in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean.

In this book, Guthrie's family and friends offer personal and often poignant recollections of his life. Noted writers shed new light on the Guthrie legacy, including an expanded appreciation of his impact on rock and roll.

As a stocky Thessalian merchant from Farsalos arrives in a small town seeking shelter, he is led to a building where he is welcomed by a servant-like elderly man. After Kloppas introduces himself, he finds it strange that the old man does not tell him his own name. Still, Kloppas brushes off a dark foreboding feeling and settles in to listen to the mans tales about his clan, tribe, and the wars that sometimes break out in his land. It is not long before Kloppas learns the mans nameAnaxarhosand of incredible times gone by. Kloppas becomes mesmerized by stories that lead him through years of history full of as much suffering as glory. Throughout the retellings, the Argead-Timenid creation and expansion of the ancient Macedonian state comes alive again as it is revealed how members of the House of Agis and other prominent lords worked together through their rivalry with the Greek city-states as well as the Persian wars, the Ilyrian and Thracian dangers, and the glory days of Philip II and Alexander the Great. Makedonia is the historical tale of an ancient peoples struggles to survive as the tables of fortune continuously turn from 700 BCE to beyond 323 BCE.

A romantic and tragic story about a sailor who too quickly determines which women in his life are scandalous and which ones are beautiful, only to find that he had beautiful women in his life all along. In the end he discovers that love is the thing that fuels us and gives us the ability to continue on even when we do wrong.