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

Purchase

Preamble

Sea Change

By Lewis H. Lapham

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

More

Around Alone

By Maggie Shipstead

The challenge of the world’s first solo, nonstop, around-the-world yacht race: to endure the danger of the sea, and the strain of solitude.

More

Map

Water World

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

View

Miscellany

In 1906 Congress passed “An Act to Prohibit Shanghaiing in the United States.” One section made unlawful the inducing of a man “intoxicated or under the influence of any drug” to perform labor aboard a foreign or domestic ship.

c. 1895 | Grand Isle, LA

Last Swim

Kate Chopin describes a drowning.More

1914 | Panama

Accurate Forecasting

James Bryce on “the greatest liberty man has ever taken with nature.”More

c. 1856 | Louisiana

Liquid Eternity

Lafcadio Hearn on the shore and the “infinite blue ghost” beyond.More

Charts & Graphs

Talking Like a Sailor

Definitions from Admiral William Henry Smyth’s “The Sailor’s Word Book” (1867).

View

Color image of English novelist Charlotte Brontë with book in hand.

Image of American lawyer and autobiographer Richard Henry Dana Jr.

Photograph of Sri Lankan memoirist and economist Sonali Deraniyagala.

Engraving of Roman poet Horace.

Engraving of Portuguese poet Luís de Camões.

Photograph of West Indian poet and playwright Derek Walcott.

Photograph of American journalist Sebastian Junger.

Image of English journalist and sociologist Henry Mayhew.

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

Portrait bust of Roman poet Virgil.

Photograph of French writer Guy de Maupassant.

Virgil & Guy de Maupassant

Purchase