Brian Murphy’s fourth book, Adrift, drops today and is a magnificently researched telling of the sinking of the John Rutledge and subsequent nightmare endured by her passengers and crew. Murphy is no stranger to chilling tales as illustrated by his prior book, 81 Days Below Zero, which narrates the survival of a World War Two bomber crew after their plane crashed in the Yukon Territory. Adrift is co-authored with Murphy’s wife, Toula Vlahou, and the pair weave a gripping narrative about the voyage, sinking and subsequent fight for survival of the John Rutledge and her crew and passengers.
Several elements combine to make the book a gripping and informative read. First, Murphy eschews quotation marks, but attempts to accurately infuse dialogue into the book based on his research into the story line. Second, the book contains numerous historical asides and anecdotes that help the reader understand the life and times of mid-19th century mariners, immigrants and shipping line owners. Third, and finally, readers don’t need to be able to discern a mizzen from a main or port from starboard to enjoy Murphy’s tale of Thomas Nye and his fight for survival.
Murphy’s use of the ever quotable Joseph Conrad at the beginning of the book is apt – “The most amazing wonder of the deep is its unfathomable cruelty.” Not to give too much away, but Murphy could just as well have quoted Conrad’s Heart of Darkness for lying within the book are indeed hearts of darkness and the sinful nature of man that can be revealed in the midst of toil and trial. As beach season comes to a close and hurricane season begins to come into full swing, there are few better books to remind readers of the power of the deep blue ocean than Brian Murphy’s Adrift.
, an intriguing investigation into the tragic sinking of the SS Japan in the late 19th century. Leading the reader through a wealth of primary sources and photographs, Wells pieces together the origins of Chinese emigration to the US in the mid to late 19th century. Tales of the wealth of Gum Shan (Gold Mountain, aka the United States) lured thousands of Chinese residents of Guangdong province to the California coast as laborers for farms and the infant transcontinental railway system.
, is a critical look at Winston Churchill’s role in the Great War. Freeman advances the position that Churchill is given less credit than he deserves for his role in Great Britain’s victory in World War One. The book follows Churchill from his initial days in the Admiralty to his time in Flanders as an infantry officer to his ultimate role as Minister of Munitions at the end of the war. Freeman makes a very compelling case based upon historical evidence and documents not declassified until after the war that Churchill was made the scapegoat for the Gallipoli disaster and that he was the victim of political infighting and poor political choices on his own part.
, by Owen Matthews, is a fascinating glimpse into a little remembered aspect of American history – the Russian colonization of what is now Alaska and California. Matthews details how, spurred on by eccentric Russian nobleman Nikolai Rezanov, the Russian-American Company established outposts throughout the American Pacific coast. Flowing between America and Russia, the book weaves a tragic tale of initial success but ultimate failure as Rezanov’s dreams are undone by his own flaws and environmental conditions. For history buffs looking to learn more about the settling of the American West or Russia’s colonial history in the western hemisphere, 
brings to life the capture of the Pueblo, the torture and humiliation of her crew at the hands of the North Korean government and the efforts to secure their return to the United States. Relying on period documents, interviews with crew members and government records, Cheevers reconstructs for readers not just the “exciting” parts of the capture and torture, but also the bureaucratic decision making that led to the capture of the Pueblo.
, is a timely narrative of the voyage of David Porter and the USS Essex from October 1812 until March 1814. As the 
is a well argued account of the decline of America’s seapower. Cropsey, a former Deputy Undersecretary of the Navy for four presidential administrations, is highly qualified to comment on the state of American naval power and makes a compelling case for America’s (and the rest of the free world’s) need for alarm. Cropsey opens his argument with a survey of current American naval power and the crumbling edges of America’s superpower status. Any significant exposition on modern naval doctrine would be incomplete without a discussion of Alfred Thayer Mahan and Cropsey devotes an entire chapter to Mahan, his theory and its continued relevance to American naval strategy today.
, Paul Schneider provides readers with a sweeping overview of the river from its geological origins to the taming of the river by the modern US Army Corps of Engineers. Schneider serves up a veritable feast with an appetizer of geology, a second course of pre-historic and Indian tales, a main course of 19th and 20th century stories spiced with liberal helpings of Mike Fink, Ulysses S. Grant and Mark Twain and finished off with a dessert of modern events.
, expat journalist and 
Shipwreckology 