Colorado Parks & Wildlife Research Library

In 1819, the 238-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage to hunt whales. Fifteen months later the Essex was rammed and sunk by an enraged sperm whale. Fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, the 20-man crew set out in three small boats for South America, almost 3,000 miles away. Three months later, only eight were left alive. This book shares a fantastic saga of survival and adventure, steeped in the lore of the whaling tradition,...

Photographs and text provide information about boats and ships, looking at different types of sailing vessels from throughout history, investigating their different parts, and discussing how and why they work.

"Thirteen-year-old Charlotte Doyle is excited to return home from her school in England to her family in Rhode Island in the summer of 1832. But when the two families she was supposed to travel with mysteriously cancel their trips, Charlotte finds herself the lone passenger on a long sea voyage with a cruel captain and a mutinous crew. Worse yet, soon after stepping aboard the ship, she becomes enmeshed in a conflict between them! What begins as an...

The crew of the Oregon has just completed a top secret mission against Iran in the Persian Gulf, when they come across a cruise ship adrift in the sea. Hundreds of bodies litter its deck, and as ship captain Cabrillo tries to determine what happened, explosions rack the length of the ship. Barely able to escape with his own life and that of the liner's sole survivor, Cabrillo finds himself plunged into a mystery as intricate--and as perilous--as any...

Draws on stories from survivors and archival photographs to describe the history of the "Titanic" from its launch to its sinking.

In Paris, a graduate student in a secret laboratory reveals a powerful new technology to a beautiful and mysterious woman. A few hours later, the student is drugged and dumped in a river. Radical environmental terrorists are launching a fanatical campaign--and the very future of the world they seek to protect may be at stake. Only MIT scientist and federal agent John Kenner can stop the deadly plot before the terrifying consequences are realized--and...

A picture-packed guide to the fascinating story of trains and how they have transformed our world. Discover how the vision of George Stephenson, the "father of the railroad," materialized into an age of steam around the world. Study the cut-out of a locomotive to understand how the movement of the piston turns the wheels. Learn how the American railroad contributed to the development and progress in the US and facilitated the spread of population...

"When Lilith Iyapo wakes from a deep sleep, she finds herself aboard a vast spaceship, haunted by confused memories of a nuclear war that ravaged the world. She discovers that she is being held by the Oankali, a seemingly benevolent alien race that intervened in the human race's extinction, rescuing the survivors from their ruined planet and placing them in a coma-like sleep for centuries. Now the restored Earth is ready for inhabitants, and the Oankali...

Describes, in easy-to-read text, the disastrous 1912 sinking of the world's largest ocean liner after colliding with an iceberg during its maiden voyage.

Still pursued by the evil Count Olaf, the Baudelaire orphans attempt to reach a very important VFD meeting, but first they must travel in a rattletrap submarine to the Gorgonian Grotto, a dangerous underwater cave, in search of the sugar bowl.