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

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

c. 1835 | Cape of Good Hope

The Tormented Sea

Herman Melville tossed by the waves. More

1892 | Strait of Formosa

The Curious Sensation of Drowning

The mechanics of watery death. More

1834 | Pacific Ocean

Committed to Davy Jones’ Locker

Richard Henry Dana Jr. mourns a loss. More

Charts & Graphs

Mutinous Tides

Thar be traitors aboard.

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Jules Verne

Photograph of German-English novelist W.G. Sebald.

Black and white photograph of Polish-born English writer Joseph Conrad.

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Photograph of English novelist Charles Dickens.

Portrait bust of presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey Homer.

Photograph of English novelist John Fowles.

The sea receives us in a proper way only when we are without clothes.

—Pliny the Elder, 77

Portrait bust of Roman poet Virgil.

Photograph of French writer Guy de Maupassant.

Virgil & Guy de Maupassant

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