Myth, Fact, and Navigators’ Secrets: Incredible Tales of the Sea and Sailors

After culling little-known facts from the world’s nautical heritage, author J. Gregory Dill has written an engaging series of marine stories-like the 1813 account of a short and bloody sea duel between the U.S. frigate Chesapeake and His Britannic Majesty’s Ship Shannon, equally matched in firepower and their captains’ tactical skills, but in the final analysis having absolutely no strategic significance in the war’s outcome. Then there is the bizarre tale of Captain John Paul Jones’s 1779 naval raid on a Scottish coastal estate to kidnap the local VIP, Lord Selkirk, in a bid to win release of American prisoners of war. When Selkirk was found to be away, Jones seized instead his intended victim’s household silverware, including teapots and sugar bowls, after having politely declined Lady Selkirk’s kind invitation to dinner. H05