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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Open Waters

By Simon Winchester

Simon Winchester muses on what it means to be truly at 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.

1709 | Juan Fernández Islands

Castaway

The real Robinson Crusoe.More

77 | Rome

Man’s Best Friend

In which dolphins are superior to all other creatures. More

1955 | Caribbean Sea

Infinite Solitude

Gabriel García Márquez alone and adrift. More

Charts & Graphs

Talking Like a Sailor

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

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Portrait bust of Roman poet Virgil.

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

Author and journalist Caroline Alexander.

Photograph of Sri Lankan memoirist and economist Sonali Deraniyagala.

Engraving of Portuguese poet Luís de Camões.

Photograph of British historian and diplomat James Bryce.

Jules Verne

Image of English journalist and sociologist Henry Mayhew.

The sea hath fish for every man.

—William Camden, 1605

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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