In 1819, the 238-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, the unthinkable happened: in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, the Essex was rammed and sunk by an enraged sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, decided instead to sail their three tiny boats for the distant South American coast. They would eventually travel over 4,500 miles. The next three months...

A chronicle of the U.S.S. Indianapolis is updated with newly uncovered data retracing the privations suffered by survivors of this World War II vessel in the aftermath of a Japanese torpedo attack.

"The North Pacific Ocean is vast and dark and deep. It's home to many creatures that swim and float and creep! Join Rabbit, Mouse, and Bird as they dive beneath the waves of the North Pacific Ocean and meet a host of Amazing Animals along the way."--P.[4] of cover.

Full-color and black-and-white photographs, illustrations, and maps describe the history and exploration of the Pacific regions, covering early Pacific navigation, culture and art of the people, and famous explorers who helped to colonized the various islands.

As they hunt for a bunch of paintings worth a walloping half a billion dollars, Juan Cabrillo and the crew aboard the Oregon chance upon a much bigger problem. A Filipino rebel leader is not only using them to finance the insurgency but has discovered a drug developed yet never used by the Japanese during World War II that makes mega warriors of ordinary soldiers. Not so far-fetched given the revelations of Norman Ohler's recent Blitzed: Drugs in...

"Pi Patel is an unusual boy. The son of a zookeeper, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior, a fervent love of stories, and practices not only his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes. The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan,...

The New York Times best-selling author of The Men Who United the States traces the geological history of the Pacific Ocean to assess its relationship with humans and indelible role in the modern world. A colorful and provocative exploration of the modern Pacific Ocean--what it has been, and the grip it holds on our future. Simon Winchester tackles this "oceanic behemoth of eye-watering complexity" by focusing on key moments since 1950 that speak...

Just after midnight on July 30, 1945, days after delivering the components of the atomic bomb from California to the Pacific Islands in the most highly classified naval mission of the war, the USS Indianapolis is sailing alone in the center of the Philippine Sea when she is struck by two Japanese torpedoes. The ship is instantly transformed into a fiery cauldron and sinks within minutes. Some 300 men go down with the ship. Nearly 900 make it into...

Trapped for eleven days on a deserted island, Jane, Buzz, Carter and Vanessa must venture deeper into the jungles of the island, where they discover a secret and find danger at every turn.

"Being shipwrecked on a jungle island in the middle of the South Pacific was bad enough. But now that Carter, Vanessa, Buzz and Jane have lost their boat--and almost everything on board--to another violent storm, it's like starting over. That means finding food and shelter, making fire for the first time, dealing with the wild boars that roam the island--and of course, figuring out how to get along (and not kill each other in the process)"--Page 4...