Second part of Mariner's trilogy - as a young deck officer in the 1960s and 1970s
This is a meticulously-researched reference guide to 300 shipping losses, and the events surrounding their sinking, off the coast of Scotland from Berwick-on-Tweed to the Forth and Tay, and northwards to Stonehaven. This new book is a very much improved and updated edition of the successful previous edition, Shipwrecks of the Forth, and benefits hugely from the vast amount of vital new information gleaned by the author during 15 years of painstaking research. Each wreck is listed by area with details of position, history and fate. The text is accompanied by maps and charts and illustrated with many dramatic photographs. As a result of this meticulous work, exciting discoveries and recoveries such as ships' bells and pottery have been made by divers, allowing them to confirm identities of previously unknown wrecks. In addition to first-hand local knowledge of fishermen, coastguards, lifeboat men and divers, the author has consulted primary sources including official records from the Admiralty and Lloyds, official German U-boat records and Norwegian, Swedish and Danish records. Many vessels were lost due to running aground or collisions but the vast majority of shipwrecks immediately surrounding our coasts resulted from military activities during the First and Second World War. As such this aspect of the book provides significant historical interest for readers.
A guide to the complex problems of investigation and remediation of degraded land. This book addresses the fundamental science and engineering of land degradation and rehabilitation from a multi-disciplinary perspective. It provides an introduction for those in the area of land remediation.
Timber is probably man's oldest building material, with a huge variety of form, and it remains an important material both in domestic and commercial construction. This manual provides a step-by-step approach to the detailing of timber, and deals with codes of practice from the UK, Europe, America and Russia.
Provides a detailed understanding of the issues associated with the processes of decommissioning and radioactive waste management.
After joining the Australian Merchant Navy at the age of sixteen, Dick Jolly trained as an engineer before joining the Australian National Line as a cadet. After a four-year apprenticeship, he gradually gained promotion while travelling around the Australian coast. Fascinated by the world of commercial deep-sea tugs and salvage, his first real break came in Portsmouth in 1963 when he landed a job on RFA Typhoon. Relocating to Singapore and with a Foreign Going tugmaster's qualification under his belt, he went on to travel the oceans of the world, hauling derelict ships, dredgers, floating cranes and all manner of other craft. For four years he left the sea, trying to earn a living as an opal-miner in Andamooka in the Australian Outback where the vast majority of miners go bankrupt! It was an advert for the post of tugmaster in the Port of Eden which brought him to his senses, and he returned to the world of salvage. After further work in the Far East, his no-nonsense attitude was appreciated by the managing director of a new salvage company and the author was sent to Germany to purchase the company's tug, the Intergulf. Captain Jolly relates many fascinating stories from the hard-bitten world of commercial salvage: dragging blazing ships off rocky shorelines, rescuing crews from the middle of the ocean and avoiding hostile natives. On one occasion, he had to drive through the jungle at break-neck speed to avoid being taken hostage! These and many other gripping adventures are recounted in this exciting, true-life and humorous story, which is complemented by stunning colour and black & white photographs.
A kayak trip in Greenland's Nuuk fjords through an area of amazing beautyTurreted fairytale peaks, glistening snowfields, waterfalls plunging over immense cliffs into the sea, a million tons of ice capsizing - this is the setting for Fallen Pieces of the Moon, an account of a kayak trip along the west coast of Greenland, paddling about 150 miles of coastline in the Nuuk fjords area. Into the day-to-day account of contending with unsettled weather such as fog, unstable icebergs, midges and bugs by the billion, are woven insights into Inuit culture - their language, their shamanic practices, their hunting and navigation techniques and much more. On the way, the reader learns a great deal about the Arctic animals, pollution and the Arctic environment. Information on the early Arctic whalers, when whole fleets were beset and crushed by ice, is included; and an appreciation will be gained of the hardships endured by the Viking settlers and explorers such as Frobisher and Franklin who suffered scurvy, frostbite and starvation. Told with humour, the book is endlessly informative and entertaining on topics ranging from cannibalism, kayak rolling and Inuit string games to cargo cults or how the invention of bully beef influenced naval tactics. Fallen Pieces of the Moon is a celebration of a sparse, billion-year-old landscape where the roots of things, both physical and human, seem less hidden. It conveys something of the wonder and awe that Greenland inspires in all who have been there. It describes days of absolute stillness, sliding though shoals of waxing suns; ephemeral cloudscapes on broad-winged breezes; a high corrie where jet black ravens float in a crystal bowl of Alpine air; and the ever-present icebergs like cathedrals of glass, like floating jewels, like fallen pieces of the moon.
Although Neil M. Gunn is well-known as one of Scotland's foremost writers of the 20th century, he is less well-known as a perceptive and meditative essayist who wrote on a variety of. In this collection the focus is on landscape and the stimulus it provides for a journey of an enquiring mind from the observation of everyday life to a state of self-realisation. The essays mark the route. For example, in The French Fishing Smack there is a sense of freedom that only the sea can give; in The First Salmon a primal sense of adventure captivates; The Heron's Legs cannot but engender a sense of wonder and Light is a signal that the inner journey of the spirit has all but ended. Products of the uneasy and uncertain 1930s, the Second World War and the Cold War, the essays lead not only to a more imaginative and enlightened way of looking at life in troubled times but also to a greater understanding of the mind of this profoundly thoughtful writer. They can be understood as a miniature biography of the writer himself in terms of being a series of moments of revelation and delight experienced during walks in the countryside, fishing expeditions and chance encounters with people and books. Covering 40 years of the writer's life, the essays show that the ideas derived from them evolve rather than change; there is always a sense of movement. In the later essays it is the smallest social entity of all, the human psyche, that fascinates Gunn and becomes the essential ingredient in the search for self-enlightenment. Encounters with Zen Buddhism and other disciplines and philosophies were to reassure him that he had been moving in the right direction throughout his life.
Biography of famous geotechnical engineer
After giving up a hectic life as a journalist in Europe and Hollywood in the late 1960s to return to his boyhood love of nature, Mike Tomkies found Eilean Shona, a remote island 'between earth and paradise' off the west coast of Scotland. There he rebuilt a rotting wooden crofthouse which sheep had used for shelter from the bitter Atlantic winds and began a new way of life, observing nature, that was to last to the present day. He tracked wildlife, stags, foxes, made friends with the seals, and taught a young injured sparrowhawk to hunt for itself. It was the indomitable spirit of this tiny hawk that taught Tomkies what it takes for any of us to be truly free. Whether he was fishing, growing his own food or battling through stormy seas in a small boat, he learned that he could survive in the harsh environment. This book, the beginning of a remarkable Scottish odyssey, has long been out of print until now - but one which has long been demanded by Tomkies' loyal readers. Between Earth and Paradise tells of an astonishing story - of daring to take the first step away from urban routines, which many of us only dream about - which led in turn to an even more remote location and his unrivalled series of books on the golden eagle, the wildcats he reared, and his faithful dog, Moobli.
The legendary wildlife writer's biography including his time mingling with Hollywood stars, before he went to the Canadian wilderness
The story of the conversion of a general dumping-ground to a rich and productive wildlife haven
Second part of auto about leaving his Hollywood life for wilderness writing
The geological background to carbonate sediments and rocks is provided and basic information on the compositions, origins and distributions of carbonate sediments.
Suitable for both practitioners and students, this book covers the topic of engineering geomorphology as a distinct discipline. It explains the causes, mechanisms and consequences of landform change and then considers how the land surface works in the context of wetland, flatland, hills, mountains, rivers and coasts.
Horrific experiences of the blitz in wartime London and the spiritual bankruptcy of her lover and his Marxist acquaintances are seen through the eyes of Nan, a young Scotswoman, who has returned to her native Highlands to recover from a nervous breakdown. Her letters to her lover from the warm and friendly ambience of a widowed aunt's farmhouse reflect her innermost thoughts on the essence of being and the restorative effects of the quiet rhythm of country life. The shadows of the immediate past begin to recede, but her return to health is rudely interrupted by news of the brutal murder of a neighbouring crofter and the unsolicited attentions of a sinister stranger. The inevitable relapse brings her aunt, a practical and cultured woman, into contact with both lover and stranger and pits her optimistic, human and emotional approach to life against the theories and bleak logic of the two men. The recovery of the young woman brings aunt and niece even closer together in their understanding of life, but the final denouement, although imbued with hope, is inconclusive and leaves the reader to imagine the eventual outcome. Written with all the power of a master hand this is a subtly thoughtful and gripping novel that has a strange relevance to today's events. The blight of terrorism, the dominance of consumerism, the absence of a spiritual dimension in domestic affairs and fears of the harmful effects of globalisation on the freedom and development of small communities, are symptoms of an uneasiness with regard to world stability and the erosion of traditional values and beliefs
Worked examples derived from international publications on the subject; valuable learning/teaching tool
Previously untold story of how Ascension Island was crucial to the success of British operations during the conflict
Observation of deer behaviour providing insight into forest life
A record of a life spent at sea, from junior cadet to captain, encompassing the mundane and the exotic
Biographical accounts from 30 eminent international engineers
Discussing the durability of construction materials in the context of structures, this book also deals with steel, concrete, timber, masonry, aluminium, plastics and composites. Each chapter is augmented by examples illustrating the durability of elements in a structure, the performance of materials, and any problems encountered with durability.
A classic of Scottish nature writing and of the literature of our mountains
Presents a comprehensive working manual for the laboratory testing of soils for civil engineering purposes. This handbook is suitable for those who are engaged in laboratory testing of soils as well as to professional engineers, consultants, academics and students in geotechnical engineering.
The story of a British Liaison Officer in a Free French sloop during WWII. Acclaimed as a minor classic
Nautical folklore
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