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.

77 | Rome

Man’s Best Friend

In which dolphins are superior to all other creatures. More

c. 1185 BC | Strait of Messina

Between the Devil and the Deep-Blue Sea

Odysseus faces Scylla and Charybdis.More

c. 150 | Samosata

Sex on the Beach

Zeus has his way with Europa on the shore.More

Charts & Graphs

If by Sea

Approximate distances and travel times.

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Engraving of William Shakespeare from the first folio edition.

Painting of François Rabelais.

Photograph of West Indian poet and playwright Derek Walcott.

Photograph of American journalist Sebastian Junger.

Manuscript image of St. Bede.

Photograph of African-American poet and writer Langston Hughes.

Painted portrait of British explorer James Cook.

Sepia toned photograph of Lewis Carroll in a suit, reading a book

I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast, for I intend to go in harm’s way.

—John Paul Jones, 1778

Painting of an older Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.

Photograph of English novelist John Fowles.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel & John Fowles

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