Watson and the Shark, by John Singleton Copley, 1778.

Watson and the Shark, by John Singleton Copley, 1778. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

The Sea

Volume VI, Number 3 | summer 2013

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Preamble

Sea Change

By Lewis H. Lapham

The sea offers a particular kind of freedom, though it’s one that comes at a price.

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Around Alone

By Maggie Shipstead

The challenge of the world’s first solo, nonstop, around-the-world yacht race: to endure the danger of the sea, and the strain of solitude.

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Map

Water World

From radioactive waste to underwater cables, the world under the sea.

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Miscellany

In 1906 Congress passed “An Act to Prohibit Shanghaiing in the United States.” One section made unlawful the inducing of a man “intoxicated or under the influence of any drug” to perform labor aboard a foreign or domestic ship.

1907 | London

Paradise Lost

“No one will see again on the shore of England what I saw in my early childhood.”More

1689 | Izumo Point

Sinking Sun

Matsuo Bashō spots an island.More

1914 | Panama

Accurate Forecasting

James Bryce on “the greatest liberty man has ever taken with nature.”More

Charts & Graphs

Seaworthy Vessels

Match the sailor to the boat.

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Photograph of American writer and naturalist Henry Beston.

Photograph of American dramatist Edward Albee.

Photograph of West Indian poet and playwright Derek Walcott.

Engraving of Portuguese poet Luís de Camões.

Image of Japanese poet Kakinomoto Hitomaro.

Image of English journalist and sociologist Henry Mayhew.

Black and white photograph of American novelist John Steinbeck.

Portrait bust of presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey Homer.

The wonderful sea charmed me from the first.

—Joshua Slocum, 1900

Benjamin Franklin & Charlotte Brontë

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