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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the bestselling author and master of narrative nonfiction comes the enthralling story of the sinking of the Lusitania“Both terrifying and enthralling.”—Entertainment Weekly“Thrilling, dramatic and powerful.”—NPR“Thoroughly engrossing.”—George R.R. MartinOn May 1, 1915, with WWI entering its tenth month, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants. The passengers were surprisingly at ease, even though Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone. For months, German U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic. But the Lusitania was one of the era’s great transatlantic “Greyhounds”—the fastest liner then in service—and her captain, William Thomas Turner, placed tremendous faith in the gentlemanly strictures of warfare that for a century had kept civilian ships safe from attack. Germany, however, was determined to change the rules of the game, and Walther Schwieger, the captain of Unterseeboot-20, was happy to oblige. Meanwhile, an ultra-secret British intelligence unit tracked Schwieger’s U-boat, but told no one. As U-20 and the Lusitania made their way toward Liverpool, an array of forces both grand and achingly small—hubris, a chance fog, a closely guarded secret, and more—all converged to produce one of the great disasters of history. It is a story that many of us think we know but don’t, and Erik Larson tells it thrillingly, switching between hunter and hunted while painting a larger portrait of America at the height of the Progressive Era. Full of glamour and suspense, Dead Wake brings to life a cast of evocative characters, from famed Boston bookseller Charles Lauriat to pioneering female architect Theodate Pope to President Woodrow Wilson, a man lost to grief, dreading the widening war but also captivated by the prospect of new love.  Gripping and important, Dead Wake captures the sheer drama and emotional power of a disaster whose intimate details and true meaning have long been obscured by history.Finalist for the Washington State Book Award • One of the Best Books of the Year: The Washington Post, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Miami Herald, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, LibraryReads, Indigo Read more

"Fractions of a second in time. What amazing violence can be meted out in the blink of an eye."In the mid-nineteen sixties, Harry Constance made a life-altering journey that led him out of Texas and into the jungles of Vietnam. As a young naval officer, he went from UDT training to the U.S. Navy's newly formed SEAL Team Two, and then straight into furious action. By 1970, he was already the veteran of three hundred combat missions and the recipient of thirty-two military citations, including three Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart.Good To Go is Constance's powerful, firsthand account of his three tours of duty as a member of America's most elite, razor-sharp stealth fighting force. It is a breathtaking memoir of harrowing missions and covert special-ops—from the floodplains of the Mekong Delta to the beaches of the South China Sea—that places the reader in the center of bloody ambushes and devastating firefights. But his extraordinary adventure goes even farther—beyond 'Nam—as we accompany Constance and the SEALs on astonishing missions to some of the world's most dangerous hot-spots . . . and experience close-up the courage, dedication, and unparalleled skill that made the U.S. Navy SEALs legendary.Includes 8 Pages of SEAL Team Action Photos! Read more

How history's only five-star admirals triumphed in World War II and made the United States the world's dominant sea power. Only four men in American history have been promoted to the five-star rank of Admiral of the Fleet: William Leahy, Ernest King, Chester Nimitz, and William Halsey. These four men were the best and the brightest the navy produced, and together they led the U.S. navy to victory in World War II, establishing the United States as the world's greatest fleet. In The Admirals, award-winning historian Walter R. Borneman tells their story in full detail for the first time. Drawing upon journals, ship logs, and other primary sources, he brings an incredible historical moment to life, showing us how the four admirals revolutionized naval warfare forever with submarines and aircraft carriers, and how these men -- who were both friends and rivals -- worked together to ensure that the Axis fleets lay destroyed on the ocean floor at the end of World War II. Read more

Lord’s classic, bestselling account of the bombing of Pearl HarborThe Day of Infamy began as a quiet morning on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. But as Japan’s deadly torpedoes suddenly rained down on the Pacific fleet, soldiers, generals, and civilians alike felt shock, then fear, then rage. From the chaos, a thousand personal stories of courage emerged. Drawn from hundreds of interviews, letters, and diaries, Walter Lord recounts the many tales of heroism and tragedy by those who experienced the attack firsthand. From the musicians of the USS Nevada who insisted on finishing “The Star Spangled Banner” before taking cover, to the men trapped in the capsized USS Oklahoma who methodically voted on the best means of escape, each story conveys the terror and confusion of the raid, as well as the fortitude of those who survived. Read more

Winner of the Northern California Book Award for Nonfiction"Both a serious work of history…and a marvelously readable dramatic narrative." —San Francisco ChronicleOn the first Sunday in December 1941, an armada of Japanese warplanes appeared suddenly over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and devastated the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Six months later, in a sea fight north of the tiny atoll of Midway, four Japanese aircraft carriers were sent into the abyss, a blow that destroyed the offensive power of their fleet. Pacific Crucible—through a dramatic narrative relying predominantly on primary sources and eyewitness accounts of heroism and sacrifice from both navies—tells the epic tale of these first searing months of the Pacific war, when the U.S. Navy shook off the worst defeat in American military history to seize the strategic initiative. Read more

The Fight for the Seas: A Captivating History of Naval Warfare Through the AgesFor centuries, the world’s oceans have been battlegrounds where nations fought for power. From ancient wooden ships to modern warships armed with missiles, naval battles have shaped history in ways many people don’t realize. This book takes you on a journey through the most important sea battles, the strategies behind them, and the incredible technology that changed warfare forever.Why does naval history matter today? The lessons of the past still shape military tactics, trade routes, and global security. Understanding how these battles were fought helps us see why control of the seas remains so important.What You’ll Discover Inside:How ancient and medieval warriors, like the Vikings, used ships to explore and conquerThe race to build the most powerful warships before the world warsHow naval battles went from cannons and wooden ships to high-tech submarinesThe most important sea battles and the strategies that won themHow nuclear-powered ships changed warfare foreverWhat the future of naval warfare might look likeAnd so much more!Why This Book:Whether you love history or military strategy or just want to know how battles at sea shaped the modern world, this book makes learning easy and exciting.Set sail through history and uncover the incredible stories of wars on the water. Scroll up and click “Add to Cart” to begin your journey today! Read more

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“[A] white-knuckle tale” of the targeted kill . . .of the admiral behind the Pearl Harbor attack “sheds new light on an important . . .turning point in the war” (USA Today).On December seven, 1941, the Japanese navy launched a surprise aerial assault on U.S. bases on Hawaii. In a little over two hours, more than two,400 Americans were dead, propelling the U.S.’s entry into World War II.Dead Reckoning is the true story of the high-stakes operation undertaken to avenge that deadly strike. Expertly crafting this “hunt for Bin Laden” —style WWII story, New York Times–bestselling author Dick Lehr recreates the tension-filled events leading up to the climactic clash in the South Pacific skies.Lehr goes behind the scenes at Station Hypo on Hawaii, where U.S. Navy code breakers first discovered exactly where and when to find Admiral Yamamoto, and then chronicles in dramatic detail the nerve-wracking mission to kill him.Lehr focuses on Army Air Force Major John W. Mitchell, the ace fighter pilot tasked with conceiving a flight route. Given unprecedented access to Mitchell’s personal papers, Lehr reveals for the first time the full story of Mitchell’s wartime exploits up to the face-off with Yamamoto, along with those of key American pilots Mitchell chose for the momentous mission. The spotlight also shines on their enemy target –Admiral Yamamoto, the enigmatic, charismatic commander in chief of Japan’s Combined Fleet.“Riveting . . .Major John Mitchell and his avenger flyboys emerge in these pages as true-blue military heroes of the Greatest Generation.” — Douglas Brinkley“Lehr is a gifted raconteur. . . .[His] telling . . .has the excitement of a Steve McQueen car chase.” — Wall Street Journal Read more

The definitive story of submarines and the heroism of the men who sailed them, from their invention to the end of the Second World War.Essential reading for fans of James D. Hornfischer, Eugene B. Fluckey, and James M. Scott.When submarines first joined the fighting fleets of the world in the early 20th century, they were unimpressive, unseaworthy craft armed with unreliable, low-performance weapons.Even at the outbreak of the First World War, they had not entirely shed that reputation. Yet, by the war’s end, Britain — the world’s greatest naval power at the time — had been brought to the brink of defeat by submarines in the hands of her enemies.Submariners had risen to the front ranks of fighting seamen, revolutionising naval warfare. By the Second World War, they had become one of the most effective arms of sea warfare.But how did submarines evolve into some of the most fearsome fighting vessels of the 20th century? And what was it like to be submerged within their hulls during the heat of battle?Fighting Under the Sea draws on a wealth of sources to reveal the impact of submariners and their boats beneath the waves, whether British, German, or American. Read more

The author graduates from an elite university and enters the submarine service in the mid-1980s when rhetoric between the US and USSR threatens to turn the Cold War hot. He encounters an unforgiving world where submarines hunt each other unseen and unheralded in the ocean depths and in which minor mistakes can result in catastrophe. On four classified missions to the Mediterranean Sea, the North Atlantic, the Barents Sea, and the North Pole, he gradually and painfully learns the trade of a nuclear submarine officer in a world few people know of and even fewer have experienced.These missions exert a heavy personal toll. At sea, the submarine crew exercises total radio silence and the rescue buoy is welded fast to the hull, ensuring that their families will never know if a catastrophe occurs. During these missions, his young wife suffers a miscarriage and later gives birth via emergency C-section, all while the author is at sea and unaware. While she undergoes these trials alone, the sub conducts missions vital to the security of the United States. Far from home, in the unforgiving depths, they track adversary submarines in dangerous games of cat and mouse where a mistake could result in a collision, flooding, and death. A storm damages the sub on the way to the North Pole, jeopardizing the ability to surface through the ice. They finally do so, after weeks of transiting through underwater ice canyons of pressure ridges capable of rupturing the hull on impact. While under the ice the crew suffers a poison gas leak and has to find a hole to surface quickly or perish.The main theme of the work is growth. As the author journeyed to the ends of the earth and the depths of the ocean, he also made a personal journey from a sniveling boy-man to an apex predator of the deep. Sub-themes are how men and women cope with adversity, and how when things are at their worst, people are at their best. It is a tribute to the human spirit, especially the men who sailed these ships, and the families who loved and supported them. Read more

BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from James D. Hornfischer's Neptune's Inferno. “This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can.” With these words, Lieutenant Commander Robert W. Copeland addressed the crew of the destroyer escort USS Samuel B. Roberts on the morning of October 25, 1944, off the Philippine Island of Samar. On the horizon loomed the mightiest ships of the Japanese navy, a massive fleet that represented the last hope of a staggering empire. All that stood between it and Douglas MacArthur’ s vulnerable invasion force were the Roberts and the other small ships of a tiny American flotilla poised to charge into history. In the tradition of the #1 New York Times bestseller Flags of Our Fathers, James D. Hornfischer paints an unprecedented portrait of the Battle of Samar, a naval engagement unlike any other in U.S. history—and captures with unforgettable intensity the men, the strategies, and the sacrifices that turned certain defeat into a legendary victory. Read more

A comprehensive history of the modern battleship, from its development through its most brutal battles to its eventual twilight.This account of the most influential ships of the twentieth century deserves to be essential reading for fans of N.A.M. Rodger, Mark Stille, and Ian W. Toll.Donald Macintyre, the famous U-boat hunter and renowned naval historian, takes readers on a journey through naval construction and armament, exploring how the ironclads of the American Civil War revolutionised thinking in naval design and ultimately led to the emergence of HMS Dreadnought and the age of the battleships.Key pivotal engagements, including Tsushima and Jutland, as well as the battleship’s swan song at Surigao Strait, are detailed with in-depth historical analysis and brought to life with firsthand narratives of ferocious combat.The Thunder of the Guns investigates a century of battleship warfare, explaining how figures like Jacky Fisher were instrumental in their development. Through covering key battles and tactics of both World Wars, Macintyre offers insight into how different navies utilised these behemoths of the high seas. Read more

A classic memoir from the Battle of the Atlantic.‘Macintyre was England’s top U-boat destroyer during World War II, with seven kills and several captures to his credit. Here he offers his firsthand account of safeguarding convoys in the North Atlantic from roaming German subs. Pretty scary stuff.’ — Library JournalDonald Macintyre’s U-Boat Killer is a unique account of the Battle of the Atlantic from the perspective of a destroyer captain who fought through this brutal campaign. Few other books transport the reader to the deck of a convoy escort in the cold, stormy seas of the Atlantic and bring to life the terrifying conflict between the Royal Navy and the U-boats.Over the course of four unrelenting years, Captain Macintyre escaped the clutches of the German ‘wolf packs’ and brought dozens of convoys to safety. Credited with destroying seven U-boats, Macintyre was a calculated master of combating his underwater foes and, during one savage night, captured Germany’s greatest U-boat commander, Otto Kretschmer, and sank another famous ace.His memoir, U-Boat Killer, charts the course of the Atlantic War and explores how both Allied and Axis strategies developed until the convoys were able to turn the tide of the war in 1943.This book should be essential reading for all fascinated by the longest campaign of World War Two and for those who wish to learn more about the lives of the men who kept the war against the Nazis going even through the Allies’ darkest moments.‘gripping and fast-moving narrative’ Naval War College Review‘Through his eyes we glimpse the stunning savagery of the battle’ Admiral Robert B. Carney, United States Navy (Retired) Read more

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One of the great untold stories of World War II finally comes to light in this thrilling account of Torpedo Squadron Eight and their heroic efforts in helping an outmatched U.S. fleet win critical victories at Midway and Guadalcanal. Thirty-five American men -- many flying outmoded aircraft -- changed the course of the war, going on to become the war's most decorated naval air squadron, while suffering the heaviest losses in U.S. naval aviation history. Mrazek paints moving portraits of the men in the squadron, and exposes a shocking cover-up that cost many lives. Filled with thrilling scenes of battle, betrayal, and sacrifice, A Dawn Like Thunder is destined to become a classic in the literature of World War II. Read more

A New York Times bestseller  The secret history of America's submarine warfare is revealed for the first time in this "vividly told, impressively documented," (The New York Times) and fast-paced chronicle of adventure and intrigue during the Cold War. For decades, only a select and powerful few knew the truth about the submarines that silently roamed the ocean in danger and in stealth, seeking information and advantage. Based on six years of groundbreaking investigation into the “silent service,” Blind Man’s Bluff uncovers an epic story of adventure, courage, victory, and disaster beneath the surface. With an unforgettable array of characters from the Cold War to the twenty-first century, Sontag and Drew recount scenes of secrecy from Washington, DC, to the depths of the sea. A magnificent achievement in investigative reporting, Blind Man’s Bluff reads like a spy thriller with one important difference: everything is true. Read more

Winner of the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval LiteratureWinner of the Fraunces Tavern Museum Book AwardA Massachusetts Center for the Book "Must-Read"Finalist for the New England Society Book AwardFinalist for the Boston Authors Club Julia Ward Howe Book AwardSamuel Eliot Morison Book Award for Naval LiteratureNational Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR) Excellence in American History Book AwardThe bestselling author of Black Flags, Blue Waters reclaims the daring freelance sailors who proved essential to the winning of the Revolutionary War. The heroic story of the founding of the U.S. Navy during the Revolution has been told many times, yet largely missing from maritime histories of America’s first war is the ragtag fleet of private vessels that truly revealed the new nation’s character—above all, its ambition and entrepreneurial ethos.In Rebels at Sea, best-selling historian Eric Jay Dolin corrects that significant omission, and contends that privateers, as they were called, were in fact critical to the American victory. Privateers were privately owned vessels, mostly refitted merchant ships, that were granted permission by the new government to seize British merchantmen and men of war. As Dolin stirringly demonstrates, at a time when the young Continental Navy numbered no more than about sixty vessels all told, privateers rushed to fill the gaps. Nearly 2,000 set sail over the course of the war, with tens of thousands of Americans serving on them and capturing some 1,800 British ships. Privateers came in all shapes and sizes, from twenty-five foot long whaleboats to full-rigged ships more than 100 feet long. Bristling with cannons, swivel guns, muskets, and pikes, they tormented their foes on the broad Atlantic and in bays and harbors on both sides of the ocean.The men who owned the ships, as well as their captains and crew, would divide the profits of a successful cruise—and suffer all the more if their ship was captured or sunk, with privateersmen facing hellish conditions on British prison hulks, where they were treated not as enemy combatants but as pirates. Some Americans viewed them similarly, as cynical opportunists whose only aim was loot. Yet Dolin shows that privateersmen were as patriotic as their fellow Americans, and moreover that they greatly contributed to the war’s success: diverting critical British resources to protecting their shipping, playing a key role in bringing France into the war on the side of the United States, providing much-needed supplies at home, and bolstering the new nation’s confidence that it might actually defeat the most powerful military force in the world.Creating an entirely new pantheon of Revolutionary heroes, Dolin reclaims such forgotten privateersmen as Captain Jonathan Haraden and Offin Boardman, putting their exploits, and sacrifices, at the very center of the conflict. Abounding in tales of daring maneuvers and deadly encounters, Rebels at Sea presents this nation’s first war as we have rarely seen it before. Read more

A technical history of the ship from 1600 to 1850 through models, with informative illustrations and text, by the author of Warships of the Napoleonic Era. The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London, houses the largest collection of scale ship models in the world. Many of the models are official, contemporary artifacts made by the craftsmen of the Royal Navy or the shipbuilders themselves, ranging from the mid-seventeenth century to the present day. As such they represent a three-dimensional archive of unique importance and authority. Treated as historical evidence, they offer more detail than even the best plans, and demonstrate exactly what the ships looked like in a way that even the finest marine painter could not achieve. This book tells the story of the evolution of the cruising ship under sail. It includes many model photos, all in full color, as well as close-up and detail views. These are captioned in depth, but many are also annotated to focus attention on interesting or unusual features. Although pictorial in emphasis, The Sailing Frigate weaves the pictures into an authoritative text, producing an unusual and attractive form of technical history. While the series will be of particular interest to ship modelers, all those with an interest in ship design and development will be attracted to the in-depth analysis of these beautifully presented books. Read more

“Riveting. . . . A compassionate account of a dramatic incident in modern naval history, told with cinematic immediacy and narrative skill.” —Kirkus ReviewsThe aircraft carrier USS Forrestal was preparing to launch attacks into North Vietnam when one of its jets accidentally fired a rocket into an aircraft occupied by pilot John McCain. A huge fire ensued, and McCain barely escaped before a 1,000-pound bomb on his plane exploded, causing a chain reaction with other bombs on surrounding planes. The crew struggled for days to extinguish the fires, but, in the end, the tragedy took the lives of 134 men. For thirty-five years, the terrible loss of life has been blamed on the sailors themselves, but this meticulously documented history shows that they were truly the victims and heroes.“[A] thorough, absorbing account.” —Library Journal Read more