Central Kansas Library System

On May 1, 1915, 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 anxious. Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone, and for months, its U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic. But the Lusitania was one of the era's great transatlantic "Greyhounds" and her captain, William Thomas Turner,...

Examines one of the enigmas of WWII, the fate of the submarine USS Grunion that vanished without a trace in 1942 carrying a crew of 70 men and the Navy's new top-secret MK 14 torpedoes.

"The final volume of the magisterial Pacific War Trilogy from acclaimed historian Ian W. Toll, "one of the great storytellers of war" (Evan Thomas). Twilight of the Gods is a riveting account of the harrowing last year of World War II in the Pacific, when the U.S. Navy won the largest naval battle in history; Douglas MacArthur made good his pledge to return to the Philippines; waves of kamikazes attacked the Allied fleets; the Japanese fought to the...

Tells the full story of the US Navy and Marine Corps' war in Korea from the first day of the war to the last, not only chronicling the front-line action, but also describing the technical development of aircraft and shipboard operations, and how these all affected the broader strategic situation on the Korean Peninsula

Journalist and historian Thomas writes with a knowing feel for the clash of cultures as he follows four men through the naval war of 1941-1945 in the South Pacific: Admiral William ("Bull") Halsey, the macho, gallant, racist American fleet commander; Admiral Takeo Kurita, the Japanese battleship commander charged with making what was, in essence, a suicidal fleet attack against the American invasion of the Philippines; Admiral Matome Ugaki, a self-styled...

A shipyard apprentice finds high adventure aboard the S.S. Alabama, a Confederate ship which sails the Atlantic destroying Union vessels.

They were legalized pirates empowered by the Continental Congress to raid and plunder, at their own considerable risk, as much enemy trade as they could successfully haul back to America's shores. They played a decisive role in America's struggle for independence and later turned their seafaring talents to the slave trade, revealing the conflict between enterprise and morality central to American history.In Patriot Pirates, Robert H. Patton, the grandson...

An action-packed account of the sea battles of the Napoleonic War, a naval struggle that lasted from 1798 to 1815, beginning with Napoleon's seizing power and ending with the War of 1812. In this vivid and visceral account, the authors draw on eyewitness records to portray not only the battles but also the details of a sailor's life--shipwrecks, press-gangs, prostitutes, spies, and prisoners of war. This epic narrative history will appeal to fans...

England, 1940. Clare Childs knew life would change when she inherited the Maggie Bright -- a noble fifty-two-foot yacht. But when a stranger arrives in search of documents hidden onboard, she's pulled into a Scotland Yard investigation that could shed light on Hitler's darkest schemes and prompt America to action. Then Churchill recruits civilian watercraft to rescue British troops at Dunkirk, and Clare knows the Maggie Bright must answer the call....