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The Wreckers: A Story of Killing Seas, False Lights and Plundered Ships
by Bathurst, Bella
- Used
- Fine
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Fine/Near Fine
- ISBN 10
- 0007170327
- ISBN 13
- 9780007170326
- Seller
-
east Sussex, Aberdeen, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Synopsis
Bella Bathurst's first book, the acclaimed The Lighthouse Stevensons,told the story of Scottish lighthouse construction by the ancestors of Robert Louis Stevenson. Now she returns to the sea to search out the darker side of those lights, detailing the secret history of shipwrecks and the predatory scavengers who live off the spoils. Even today, Britain's coastline remains a dangerous place. An island soaked by four separate seas, with shifting sand banks to the east, veiled reefs to the west, powerful currents above, and the world's busiest shipping channel below, the country's offshore waters are strewn with shipwrecks. For villagers scratching out an existence along Britain's shores, those wrecks have been more than simply an act of God; in many cases, they have been the difference between living well and just getting by. Though Daphne Du Maurier made Cornwall Britain's most notorious region for wrecking, many other coastal communities regarded the "sea's bounty" as an impromptu way of providing themselves with everything from grapefruits to grand pianos. Some plunderers were held to be so skilled that they could strip a ship from stem to stern before the Coast Guard had even left port, some were rumored to lure ships onto the rocks with false lights, and some simply waited for winter gales to do their work. From all around Britain, Bathurst has uncovered the hidden history of ships and shipwreck victims, from shoreline orgies so Dionysian that few participants survived the morning to humble homes fitted with silver candelabra, from coastlines rigged like stage sets to villages where everyone owns identical tennis shoes. Spanning three hundred years of history, The Wreckers examines the myths, the realities, and the superstitions of shipwrecks and uncovers the darker side of life on Britain's shores.
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Details
- Bookseller
- thelondonbookworm.com
(GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 098665
- Title
- The Wreckers: A Story of Killing Seas, False Lights and Plundered Ships
- Author
- Bathurst, Bella
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Fine
- Jacket Condition
- Near Fine
- Edition
- First Edition
- ISBN 10
- 0007170327
- ISBN 13
- 9780007170326
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Place of Publication
- London England
- Date Published
- 2005
- Keywords
- The Wreckers: A Story of Killing Seas, False Lights and Plundered Ships SS87
- Bookseller catalogs
- True Crime;
- Size
- 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall
Terms of Sale
thelondonbookworm.com
Postage costs are as follows: UK £4.50 paperback ï £6.00 hardback.Europe£ 5 paperback £4.50hardback US £ 8.00 surface £10 Airmail ïRest of World £9.00 Airmail Books can only be returned within 7 days if they are incorrectly described. As part of our service, if on receipt of your order you think that the condition of the book(s) you have received are not as described, a refund will be made on receipt of the returned book(s), based on the following criteria: We receive notification from you within 2 days of you receiving the order that you wish to return the book(s). The book(s) are returned to us within 7 days from receipt (proof of postage may be required). The book(s) have not been damaged or defaced whilst in your care.
About the Seller
thelondonbookworm.com
About thelondonbookworm.com
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- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Cloth
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