lamdha books -
Catalogue of books on ocean liners

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31261 Bremer, Stuart Australia's Golden Era of Ships Bullion Books, Silverwater, 1989. Hardcover quarto; blue boards with white upper board and spine titles; monochrome photographic endpapers, prelims and frontispiece; 224pp., numerous monochrome plates. Minor wear; mildly scraped lower board corners with very slight wear to edges; light spotting to upper text block edges. Illustrated blue dustwrapper with mild edgewear (now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film). Very good. A nostalgic look at the golden age of Australian maritime history, focusing on the prominent passenger liners and cargo shipping lines that connected Australia to the world and travelled its coastline. Click here to order $22

93808 Burgess Jr., Douglas R. Seize the Trident The Race for Superliner Supremacy and How It Altered the Great War International Marine/McGraw-Hill, Camden ME, 2005. Octavo; hardcover, quarter-bound in papered boards with gilt spine titling; 296pp., with 6pp. of monochrome plates. Minor wear; a few spots to the text block edges. Dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Near fine. Seize the Trident re-creates the Anglo-German race to build the biggest, fastest, most luxurious passenger ships in the world. Sparked in 1889 by the Kaiser's declaration that he would 'seize the trident' from English shipping firms, this friendly rivalry soon became a clash of fierce national pride, personal ego, and global ambitions, including those of wealthy robber barons such as J. P. Morgan. Douglas Burgess delivers a riveting account of the race's origins, how it both paralleled and influenced the naval rearmament of the same period, and the crowning irony of its outcome. In size and splendour, the Germans won hands-down, but German ships in U.S. ports were seized at the outbreak of World War I. Later, they would carry hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops to fight against Germany. Click here to order $25

201181 Duffy, James P The Sinking of the Laconia and the U-Boat War Disaster in the Mid-Atlantic Praeger, Santa Barbara, 2009. Octavo hardcover; black boards with gilt spine titling; 129pp., monochrome illustrations. Minor wear only; fine in like dustwrapper. James P. Duffy relates the story of the sinking of the British liner Laconia by the German U-boat U-156. On September 12, 1942, as Laconia sailed crowded with 1,800 Italian prisoners of war, 103 Polish soldiers, 286 mostly severely wounded British military personnel, 80 civilians, and 463 officers and crew, she was hit by two torpedoes fired by U-156. Laconia's captain ordered the vessel abandoned, and within an hour, she sank. Perhaps surprisingly, the German U-boat then surfaced and sent a signal that brought two other U-boats, an Italian submarine, and three Vichy French warships to assist with rescue operations. The rescue operation by German ships and the subsequent bombing raid by Allied aircraft are both compelling stories and events that had major repercussions for the conduct of the war. In the wake of the incident, German admiral Karl Donitz issued instructions known as the Laconia Order demanding that all attempts to rescue survivors from Allied merchant ships be ended. The order provoked an international outcry against inhumane treatment of survivors stranded at sea. After the war, Donitz was charged with and acquitted of war crimes in connection with this order. Click here to order $25

63439 Fitchett, T.K. The Vanished Fleet Australian Coastal Passenger Ships 1910-1960 Rigby Pty. Ltd., Adelaide SA, 1976. Oblong quarto; hardcover, 112pp., with a colour frontispiece and many illustrations likewise. Mild wear; pages very lightly toned. Dustwrapper liightly rubbed and edgeworn (now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film). Very good. The story of Australian passenger liners from the arrival of the tiny Express during the Victorian gold rush to the departure of the Manoora under a foreign flag. Click here to order $25

208947 Harris, C.J., & Brian D. Ingpen (Peter Bilas, illus.) Mailships of the Union-Castle Line Fernwood Press, Vlaeberg South Africa, 1994. Square quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine titles and upper board decoration and decorative endpapers; 180pp., with a monochrome frontispiece and many full-colour and monochrome illustrations. Moderate wear; somewhat cocked; spine heel softened; text block edges lightly spotted; a small tear to the hinge of the upper board; previous owner's ink inscription to the flyleaf. Dustwrapper is mildly rubbed and edgeworn; a large tear to the hinge of the upper panel; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Good to very good. An absorbing account of the ocean mail service that plied between Britain and southern Africa for 1857 to 1977 captures the spirit of an era now gone. Click here to order $55

82946 Howarth, David & Stephen The Story of P&O The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company Weidenfeld & Nicholson Ltd., London, 1986. First edition. Quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine-titling and illustrated endpapers; 224pp., with a full-colour frontispiece and many full-colour and monochrome illustrations. Minor wear. Dustwrapper sunned along spine with mild edgewear (now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film). Very good to near fine. For 150 years P&O has been one of the world's greatest shipping lines. Beginning with the mail contract to Gibraltar, P&O quickly became the natural way for generations of English men and women to travel to India and the Far East. As early as 1844 Arthur Anderson invented deep-sea cruising, and by the 1880s Victorian doctors had no hesitation in prescribing health-giving sea voyages. Click here to order $28

208498 Hutchings, David F. QE2 - A Ship for All Seasons Waterfront Publications, Blandford Forum, 1993. Quarto paperback; 68pp., colour & b&w illustrations. Mild wear to cover edges. Near fine. Click here to order $17

208499 Hutchings, David F. RMS Queen Elizabeth - From Victory to Valhalla Kingfisher Publications, Southampton, 1990. Quarto paperback; 108pp., colour & b&w illustrations. Mild wear to cover edges. Near fine. Click here to order $28

99524 King, Greg & Penny Wilson Lusitania Triumph, Tragedy and the End of the Edwardian Age St Martins Press, New York, 2015. Octavo; hardcover, 370pp., monochrome plates. Dustwrapper. New, remainder. "On the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania, King and Wilson dig for clues to unanswered questions. The details surrounding how the elusive information disappeared uncover guilt on all sides. The British Admiralty had to protect the fact that they were transporting contraband in a ship sailing without a flag. The local coroner's inquest, the British Board of Trade's hearing and a U.S. District Court all dismissed charges of negligence. The admiralty never sent escort to protect the Lusitania as she entered British waters, and the captain acted contrary to orders. Even the journal of the U-boat captain has been altered. Did he fire one or two torpedoes? The German government published a warning as the Lusitania was about to sail from New York, proclaiming that ships misusing neutral flags found in British waters would be subject to destruction. Prior to this statement, the 'Cruiser Rules' codified by The Hague in 1899 required enemy ships to give warning, demand a search for contraband and allow the ship to be abandoned before sinking it. In January 1915, England ordered her merchant vessels to sail under false flags and carry munitions, knowing Germany would respond in kind. First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill referred to the Lusitania as 'live bait,' hoping to draw the Americans into the war. The ship was the last of the great Edwardian ships, as her upper-class passengers showed, some of whom had actually been warned by Germans not to sail. The authors devote inordinate portions of the text to biographies of passengers and still more to the lives of the survivors, but their exploration of the facts surrounding the mystery is the primary pleasure of the book. Those who relish tales of the rich and famous will appreciate this book, but the real joy is in the authors' detective work and attention to detail." - Kirkus Click here to order $24

45374 Kludas, Arnold (Charles Hodges & Keith Lewis, trans.) Great Passenger Ships of the World - six volumes (complete set) Patrick Stephens Ltd., Cambridge & Wellingborough UK, 1975-1977 & 1986. Six volumes, five first editions and one reprinted volume: small quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine titling; 1,346pp. [216pp. + 240pp. + 240pp. + 232pp. + 226pp. +192pp.], with 6 monochrome frontispieces and many illustrations likewise. Moderate wear; all volumes have lightly toned and spotted page and text block edges, with very minor overall wear, being very good in like price-clipped dustwrappers. Sticker marks on Vol. 5 dustwrapper with some residual marking on front pastedown; mild toning to spine panels of all but Vols. 2 and 6 dustwrappers. All now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Volume 6 is a reprint with a price-clipped dustwrapper, an additional volume added to the original set when reprinted. Volumes cover years 1858 to 1986. A work covering all passenger ships over 10,000 gross registered tons with relevant technical and historical data and including photographs of the vessels. Click here to order $135

208497 McCart, Neil P&O's Canberra & Sea Princess FAN Publications, Cheltenham, 1993. Quarto paperback; 48pp., colour & b&w illustrations. Mild wear to cover edges. Near fine. Click here to order $17

208597 McCaughan, Michael The Birth of the Titanic The Blackstaff Press Ltd., Belfast Northern Ireland, 1999. Reprint: square quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine titles and decorative endpapers; 184pp., with a monochrome frontispiece and many illustrations likewise. Mild wear; slightly cocked. Dustwrapper a little rubbed and creased; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. From the building of the gigantic twin gantries for Titanic and her sister ship Olympic, through keel-laying, framing, plating, launching, construction and installation of the vast engines, and the final fitting out of the elegant liner, the high-quality photographs and informative text and captions capture the almost superhuman achievement of the thousands of skilled men involved in this truly titanic task. Also covering the fatal maiden voyage, the collision and rescue attempts, and concluding with vivid descriptions of how the dreadful news was received in Belfast, this - the first major book to focus on the construction of the ship - is a unique addition to the Titanic legend. Click here to order $30

89029 Maxtone-Graham, John Liners to the Sun An evocative re-creation of great cruises past & present, from cruise ship conversion, construction & design to the pleasures and occasional perils of life on board Macmillan, New York, 1985. Octavo hardcover; blue papered boards with blue cloth spine and silver gilt spine titling, map endpapers; 495pp., monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; slightly scuffed and worn lower board edges and corners and slightly creased tail of dustwrapper spine. Very good to near fine otherwise and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Click here to order $25

208503 Maxtone-Graham, John The North Atlantic Run "The only way to cross." Cassell, London, 1974. First edition: hardcover, octavo; red boards with gilt spine titling, blue map endpapers; 434pp., b&w illustrations. Offsetting to endpapers; toned and spotted text block edges; wear and chipping to dustwrapper edges. Very good. Wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. The North Atlantic Run is a nostalgic look back at the great passenger lines which sailed the North Atlantic between Europe and the United States and which in the days before the aeroplane came into dominance, were the main link between the old world and the new. The age of the liners began with the building of the two original turbine engined giants, the British Mauretania and Lusitania. With increasing competition between nations and with the rise to international power of the United States, the transatlantic route quickly gained importance and prestige. The era reached its height between the wars and began its decline with the first scheduled aeroplane flight in 1939; ships such as the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth ensured that the decline was always stately, and the giant liners have never lost their romantic aura. Rich with reminiscences and anecdotes and lavishly illustrated. Click here to order $25

208946 Newall, Peter Union-Castle Line A Fleet History Carmania Press, London, 1999. Quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine titles; 256pp., with many full-colour and monochrome illustrations. Mild wear; somewhat cocked; spine heel softened. Dustwrapper mildly rubbed and edgeworn; some small tears and associated chipping to the spine panel head; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $35

33331 Plowman, Peter Emigrant Ships to Luxury Liners Passenger Ships to Australia and New Zealand 1945 -1990 NSW University Press, Kensington NSW, 1992. First edition: quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine titles and decorative endpapers; 296pp., with 8pp. of colour plates and many monochrome illustrations. Moderate wear; somewhat shaken and rolled; spine extremities softened; minor spotting to the text block edges; mild offset to the preliminaries. Dustwrapper a little rubbed and edgeworn; small tear to the spine panel head and upper flap-turn with associated creasing; old price sticker to the lower panel; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Every ship which visited Australia or New Zealand between 1946-1990 is described here; where and when it was built, tonnage, dimensions, service speed and method of propulsion. Also included are stories of the owners and builders, the crew and the often hapless passengers who sailed in them. Click here to order $50

91216 Various (Arthur Gough-Calthorpe; A W Clarke; F C A Lyon; J H Biles; Edward C Chaston - Assessors) Report on the Loss of the SS Titanic: The Official Government Enquiry Alan Sutton, Stroud, 1990. Quarto hardcover; black boards with gilt spine titling, titanic diagram plan endpapers; 74pp., monochrome photographic plates. Minor wear only; near fine in like illustrated dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. The loss of the Titanic is probably the most famous shipwreck ever. A vast number of books have been produced by the survivors, crew and many others since 1912. All of these have leant heavily upon this report, the one fully documented, factual account of the disaster. All the facts are here, from the technical description of the vessel to the evidence of the passengers and the actions of the other two ships involved, the Californian and the Carpathia. The result of thirty-seven public sittings and the cross-examination of ninety-seven witnesses, the unemotional reporting of the official investigation fails to reduce the tragic nature of this maritime disaster which has gripped the imaginations of so many. This report, which has been out of print for many years, illustrated with archive photographs of the ship and of survivors who gave evidence at the enquiry, will enable the reader to get closer to the reality of that dreadful night. Click here to order $23

218068 Warwick, Capt. Ronald W. (Foreword by H.R.H. The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh): signed QE2 The Cunard line flagship, Queen Elizabeth II W.W. Norton & Company Inc., New York NY, 1993. Signed second edition: square quarto; hardcover; blue cloth boards with gilt spine titles and decorative endpapers; 224pp., with many full-colour and monochrome illustrations. Inscribed to the owner by the author on title page and small bookplate showing the book was bought on board the vessel (Ocean Bookshop - Queen Elizabeth 2). Mild wear; slight scattered spotting on front endpaper and mild rubbing and edgewear to dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. This new edition of the most thorough book on the legendary Queen Elizabeth II includes the refit of the mid-1990s and many new photographs of interiors and details. Captain Ronald Warwick begins with the colourful history of the Cunard Line. He continues with the construction and launching of QE2 and provides an engrossing narrative of the ship's colourful history, including her service in the Falklands war, her various mishaps, the recent sale of Cunard to Carnival, and the new owners' plans for the future. The final chapter of the book is a deck-by-deck guide with photographs of all of the ship's public areas as well as those not seen by passengers: the engine room, kitchens, and areas limited to officers and crew. Click here to order $35