Watson and the Shark, by John Singleton Copley, 1778.

Watson and the Shark, by John Singleton Copley, 1778. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

The Sea

Volume VI, Number 3 | summer 2013

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Preamble

Sea Change

By Lewis H. Lapham

The sea offers a particular kind of freedom, though it’s one that comes at a price.

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A Winelike Sea

By Caroline Alexander

Homer’s famous “wine-dark sea” has left scholars wondering: how did the Greeks truly see the sea?

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Map

Water World

From radioactive waste to underwater cables, the world under the sea.

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Miscellany

The world’s largest shipbreaking yard is near Alang, India, where, during the 2011–2012 season, around fifty thousand employees broke down 435 ships for scrap, which had a value of about $2 billion.

1812 | Atlantic Ocean

Taking Stock

A slave smuggler’s journal.More

1862 | London

On the Waterfront

Henry Mayhew surveys the docks of London.More

1776 | London

Trade Routes

Adam Smith extols the benefits of maritime trade.More

Charts & Graphs

If by Sea

Approximate distances and travel times.

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Painting of an older Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.

Photograph of African-American poet and writer Langston Hughes.

Painted portrait of Italian navigator Christopher Columbus.

Photograph of American dramatist Eugene O’Neill.

Author and journalist Caroline Alexander.

Photograph of former U.S. President Millard Fillmore.

Never trust her at any time when the calm sea shows her false alluring smile.

—Lucretius, c. 60 BC

Portrait bust of Roman poet Virgil.

Photograph of French writer Guy de Maupassant.

Virgil & Guy de Maupassant

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