The Old Merchant Marine: A Chronicle of American Ships and Sailors
Paine, Ralph Delahaye, 1871-1925Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019
Rating 3.9- Word count
- 241K words
- Chapters
- 25
Tags
English Originals World History Transportation ChangesTrade HistoryNational MemorySea AdventureAmerican ShippingRise and FallGroup BiographyNautical EpicDocumentary NarrativeSocial ObservationSummary
Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Old Merchant Marine: A Chronicle of American Ships and Sailors by PaineAuthor: Paine, Ralph Delahaye, 1871-1925,Language: English, Class: HE: Social sciences: Transportation and communications, Release Date: Feb 1, 2002Editor's review
The Old Merchant Marine: A Chronicle of American Ships and Sailors by Ralph Delahaye Paine is a chronicle of American merchant ships and sailors, available as a Project Gutenberg public-domain eBook. Its value lies in tracing the history of American merchant shipping in the form of a thematic chronicle, weaving ships, routes, and people's experiences into one narrative; it suits readers interested in maritime history, transportation history, and nautical culture. As a public-domain text, it is freely accessible, easy to search and excerpt, and useful for supplementary course reading or writing material. Read it as historical narrative rather than a technical manual, and remain aware of the author's period perspective, comparing his historical judgments against other sources. Reading with a map or a timeline of American shipping history makes it easier to follow. Overall, it suits readers with some English reading ability who are willing to read historical material slowly.Who it's for
A good fit for
- English-language readers interested in American maritime history and merchant shipping
- Students and teachers in courses on transportation history and maritime culture
- Researchers who need public-domain historical material for supplementary reading or writing
- General readers who enjoy chronicle-style historical narrative and can read English
Not a good fit for
- Readers who want a Chinese-language general history of American shipping
- Specialist researchers who need the latest scholarship and detailed annotated data
- Readers who prefer novel-like adventure narrative and lack patience for historical accounts
Reading tips
- Skim the contents and chapter titles first to build a timeline of American merchant shipping before reading closely
- Keep a map of the United States or shipping routes at hand to match the places and ports mentioned
- Mark unfamiliar names of people and ships, then look them up together after finishing a chapter
- Write two or three summary sentences after each chapter for review and later citation in writing
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
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- 25
FAQ
Is this book a novel or history?
According to the information provided, it is a chronicle of American merchant ships and sailors, classified under transportation and communications, not a work of fiction. It is suitable as reading material on maritime and shipping history.What background knowledge is needed to read it?
Basic English reading ability is enough to begin; familiarity with American shipping and trade around the nineteenth century will make it smoother. Reading with a map and a timeline is recommended; unfamiliar nautical terms can be skipped without affecting overall understanding.Is the electronic edition suitable for research citation?
As a Project Gutenberg public-domain eBook, it is easy to search and excerpt and can be used for general reading and writing material. However, the information does not indicate that it includes scholarly notes or the latest research; for formal citation, check authoritative editions and primary sources.This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.
About the author
Paine, Ralph Delahaye, 1871-1925 AuthorRalph Delahaye Paine (1871–1925) was an American writer whose life and education are poorly documented in publicly available sources. Judging from the five works held in this collection, he wrote chiefly on American maritime history and seafaring adventure, and also produced fiction. His representative works include The Old Merchant Marine: A Chronicle of American Ships and Sailors, a history of American merchant ships and sailors; The Fight for a Free Sea: A Chronicle of the War of 1812, which deals with the naval contest of that war; The Book of Buried Treasure, a treatment of tales of buried treasure; and Blackbeard: Buccaneer, which takes piracy as its subject. The story collection The Praying Skipper, and Other Stories shows that he could also handle maritime characters and life in short fiction. On the whole, his writing leans toward factual narrative and adventure stories for general readers, in clear and readable prose.