New Book Releases

Name: Disaster on the Potomac
Brand: Alvin F. Oickle
SKU: 9781596298132
Price: 16.49 USD
Availability: InStock

We’re always on the hunt for the next great American history book. When we find it, you’ll see about it here, with our new book releases. We release new history books each month in a variety of subjects and series. Browse through all of our newest titles below, and discover your next favorite history book at Arcadia Publishing! [View all New Book Releases]

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Disaster on the Potomac

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

Coast Guard Cutter Taney

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Burning the Gaspee:

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

Chesapeake Bay Deck Boats

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Down East Schooners and Shipmasters

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

Explosion on the Potomac

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

New York's Liners

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

The New England Mariner Tradition

$19.99 $14.99 Save 25%

Maritime Manitowoc

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

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Disaster on the Potomac

9781596298132

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

For passengers of the steamboat Wawaset, August 8, 1873, began with a pleasant cruise from Washington, D.C., down the Potomac River. As the Wawaset came into sight of a small Virginia landing, fire broke out below decks, and frantic passengers leapt from the flames only to be pulled down by the swift waters. Author Alvin F. Oickle puts a human face to the tragedy as he profiles some of the seventy-five who perished, among them young mother Alethea Gray and six members of the Reed family. With a fast-paced style and firsthand accounts, Oickle masterfully narrates the last run of the Wawaset against the backdrop of a tense post-Civil War society.

Coast Guard Cutter Taney

9781467127745

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Commissioned in 1936, The Taney was one of seven Secretary-class cutters built for the US Coast Guard during the Great Depression.

She served continuously for 50 years, including service in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The Taney was in Honolulu during the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941, and participated in the defense of Honolulu and Pearl Harbor. During World War II, she saw service in the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Pacific Ocean. The Taney spent several years on ocean weather station duty in both the Atlantic and the Pacific. Later, she patrolled the East Coast of the United States, performing drug interdiction duties. The Taney is the only surviving ship that was present during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. She was decommissioned in 1986 and has since been a museum ship in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, where she hosts an annual Pearl Harbor commemoration on December 7.

Burning the Gaspee:

9781609494780

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

This book chronicles the history of the HMS Gaspee, a sloop in the British Royal Navy that was sent to patrol the waters of Narragansett Bay in 1772.

The Gaspee cracked down on smugglers and enforced British customs regulation, particularly the Stamp Act. The ship and her captain, William Duddington, were quickly hated by colonists for their campaign of brutality, harassment, and arbitrary enforcement. When the Gaspee ran around in shallow waters, while in pursuit of a colonist merchant ship, they took immediate action. The colonists, led by John Brown and other local notables, burned Gaspee and wounded her captain. This act of revolt preceded the Boston Tea Party by 18 months.

Chesapeake Bay Deck Boats

9781467105194

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

During the 1880s, Chesapeake Bay boatbuilders began constructing small wooden open boats, referred to as deadrise boats, out of planks with V-shaped bows. As boatbuilders created larger deadrise boats, decks were installed to provide more work and payload space; these deck boats also had a house/pilothouse near the stern and a mast closer to the bow of the boat. Deck boats were powered by gasoline engines but also utilized sails and wind. From the 1910s to the 1940s, auxiliary “steadying” sails were raised to help steady the boat when encountering adverse seas. More deck boats were built in the 1920s than in any other decade. Over the history of the boats, several thousand worked the bay in the freight business, were used to buy and plant oysters, worked in the bay’s pound net fishery, and dredged for crabs and oysters. Approximately 40 boats are left on the bay. A few still work the water. Some have found new life as recreational yachts, and others are education boats owned by museums and nonprofits. In 2004, boat owners formed the Chesapeake Bay Buyboat Association, which holds an annual rendezvous at different ports as a way to educate the public about this unique aspect of Chesapeake Bay maritime history.

Down East Schooners and Shipmasters

9781609495145

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

Nothing is more iconic of Maine than the image of a majestic vessel, masts raised, gliding through the fog on the dark North Atlantic. From the early days of the search for a Northwest Passage to the quest for the mysterious and illusive Norumbega, the history of Mount Desert Island, Hancock, Bar Harbor and the rest of the Down East area has always traveled on schooners. Now, in the twenty-first century, these ships and their heritage are being preserved, and Mainers are sailing aboard them once again. In this collection, author Ingrid Grenon presents the most important and incredible stories from the decks of Down East's schooners, revealing how these remarkable vessels and Down East Maine are tied together.

Explosion on the Potomac

9781626191976

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

In 1844, the USS Princeton was the most technologically sophisticated warship in the world. Its captain, Robert Stockton, and President John Tyler were both zealous expansionists, and they hoped that it would be the forerunner in a formidable steam-powered fleet. On a Potomac cruise intended to impress power brokers, the ship's main gun--the Peacemaker--exploded as the vessel neared Mount Vernon. Eight died horribly, while twenty others were injured. Two of Tyler's most important cabinet members were instantly lost, and the president himself had a near miss--making it the worst physical disaster to befall a presidential administration. The tragedy set off an unpredictable wave of events that cost Tyler a second term, nearly scuttled plans to add Texas to the Union and stirred up sectional rancor that drove the nation closer to civil war. Author Kerry Walters chronicles this little-known disaster that altered the course of the nation's history.

New York's Liners

9781467123372

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

For 175 years, passenger ships have crossed the Atlantic, linking the Old World with the New World. Between 1892 and 1954, more than 12 million immigrants passed through the port of New York. National rivalries caused ships to grow in size, speed, and a comfort that had once been unimaginable. The advent of the passenger jet in 1958 changed how people travel. New York's harbor is now quieter, and there are no longer days with six liners ready to sail to fabled European ports. Happily, one can still sail to Europe, cruise the Caribbean, or take a world cruise from Manhattan aboard a new generation of liners like the Queen Mary 2. New York's Liners captures iconic images of the great ships from the 1890s to the present day.

The New England Mariner Tradition

9781626192287

$19.99 $14.99 Save 25%

For over three centuries, New Englanders have set sail in search of fortune and adventure--yet death lurked on every voyage in the form of storms, privateers, disease and human error. In hope of being spared by the sea, superstitious mariners practiced cautionary rituals. During the winter of 1779, the crew aboard the Family Trader offered up gin to appease the squalling storms of Neptune. In the 1800s, after nearly fifty shipwrecks on Georges Bank between Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and Nova Scotia, a wizard paced the coast of Marblehead, shouting orders out to sea to guide passing ships to safety. As early as 1705, courageous settlers erected watch houses and lighted beacons at Beavertail Point outside Jamestown, Rhode Island, to aid mariners caught in the swells of Narragansett Bay. Join Robert A. Geake as he explores the forgotten traditions among New England mariners and their lives on land and sea.

Maritime Manitowoc

9780738540023

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

From schooners to submarines, Manitowoc has been home to shipbuilders and their craft for over 200 years. Thanks to the vast collections of the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, Maritime Manitowoc: 1847-1947 uncovers the fascinating and colorful Golden Age of shipbuilding in the area. This book explores the remarkable history of Manitowoc's shipyards and the magnificent ships that were built there. These ships have sailed the Great Lakes as well as open oceans across the world.