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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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.

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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.

1851 | Broadstairs

On Vacation

Charles Dickens hits the beach.More

1776 | London

Trade Routes

Adam Smith extols the benefits of maritime trade.More

1812 | Atlantic Ocean

Taking Stock

A slave smuggler’s journal.More

Charts & Graphs

Talking Like a Sailor

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

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Image of American lawyer and autobiographer Richard Henry Dana Jr.

Black and white image of Greek biographer and writer Plutarch.

Photograph of British writer and journalist Simon Winchester.

Engraving of Italian adventurer Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri.

Photograph of Scottish physician James Lowson.

Sculpture bust of Greek historian Herodotus.

A fair complexion is unbecoming to a sailor: he ought to be swarthy from the waters of the sea and the rays of the sun.

—Ovid, c. 1 BC

Painting of Benjamin Franklin reading a batch of papers next to a classical bust.

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

Benjamin Franklin & Charlotte Brontë

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