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

Waves generated by the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 reached the shores of Peru and Nova Scotia.

1872 | South Pacific Ocean

Our Seaworthy Captain

Isabella Bird encounters a very heavy sea.More

1834 | Pacific Ocean

Committed to Davy Jones’ Locker

Richard Henry Dana Jr. mourns a loss. More

1912 | Atlantic Ocean

Jumping Ship

Getting off the Titanic.More

Charts & Graphs

Mutinous Tides

Thar be traitors aboard.

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Photograph of American food writer M.F.K. Fisher with cat.

Engraving of William Shakespeare from the first folio edition.

Photograph of Sri Lankan memoirist and economist Sonali Deraniyagala.

Photograph of American novelist Maggie Shipstead.

Photograph of American novelist Kate Chopin.

Photograph of American dramatist Eugene O’Neill.

Black and white photograph of Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson.

You never enjoy the world aright, till the sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens, and crowned with the stars.

—Thomas Traherne, c. 1670

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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