Skippers Tale

Illustrations, jokes, and lots and lots of penguins fill the pages of this chapter book based on the movie The Penguins of Madagascar! The Penguins of Madagascar hits theaters on November 26, 2014, just in time for the holidays! As the leader of the penguins, Skipper goes on the adventure of a lifetime as he tries to save his friend Private, who’s been kidnapped by the dastardly Dr. Octavius Brine. Can Skipper rescue Private before Dr. Octavius Brine uses his “Medusa Serum” to steal the cuteness from all the penguins in the world? The Penguins of Madagascar fans will love getting Skipper’s side of the story in this fun-filled chapter book that includes black-and-white illustrations and hilarious jokes sprinkled throughout. © 2014 DreamWorks Animation, L.L.C

In this unique oral history of Disneyland's iconic attraction, the World Famous Jungle Cruise, dozens of skippers, from the 1950's to the present, share harrowing, humorous, sometimes even horrific tales of their pun-fraught voyages and their behind-the-scenes hellraising. They Jungle Cruise is that most unusual of Disney attractions where the ride itself is secondary to the cast member. Once the boat leaves the dock, Disney no longer controls the experience; your skipper does. Former skipper and now history professor David John Marley presents the uncensored stories of six decoades of Jungle Cruise skippers. Their never before spieled tales include: Skipper Selection, skipper training, how the ride works, and no holds barred confessions of what life is like in the jungle Celebrity guests; the good, the bad, and the entitled, and one very public embarrassment, skipper style The rite of passage for new Jungle Cruise skippers; peeing in the river Drunken orgies, stand-u comedy, and a heist that led to one skipper's permanent expulsion from Disneyland Pranks and more pranks, from the comic to the cruel. with dickish skippers and unruly guests learning the law of the jungle. WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE...

Yacht delivery skipper Jack North leaves home without informing his family to sail the world. He is arrested on a drugs charge in Morocco. He hires a beautiful American girl as a mate and saves refugees.Meantime his actions create all kinds of problems for his family, children and grandchildren. How will it all work out?

Two days after Christmas in 1738, a British merchant ship traveling from Rotterdam to Philadelphia grounded in a blizzard on the northern tip of Block Island, twelve miles off the Rhode Island coast. The ship carried emigrants from the Palatinate and its neighboring territories in what is now southwest Germany. The 105 passengers and crew on board-sick, frozen, and starving-were all that remained of the 340 men, women, and children who had left their homeland the previous spring. They now found themselves castaways, on the verge of death, and at the mercy of a community of strangers whose language they did not speak. Shortly after the wreck, rumors began to circulate that the passengers had been mistreated by the ship's crew and by some of the islanders. The stories persisted, transforming over time as stories do and, in less than a hundred years, two terrifying versions of the event had emerged. In one account, the crew murdered the captain, extorted money from the passengers by prolonging the voyage and withholding food, then abandoned ship. In the other, the islanders lured the ship ashore with a false signal light, then murdered and robbed all on board. Some claimed the ship was set ablaze to hide evidence of these crimes, their stories fueled by reports of a fiery ghost ship first seen drifting in Block Island Sound on the one-year anniversary of the wreck. These tales became known as the legend of the Palatine, the name given to the ship in later years, when its original name had been long forgotten. The flaming apparition was nicknamed the Palatine Light. The eerie phenomenon has been witnessed by hundreds of people over the centuries, and numerous scientific theories have been offered as to its origin. Its continued reappearances, along with the attention of some of nineteenth-century America's most notable writers-among them Richard Henry Dana Sr., John Greenleaf Whittier, Edward Everett Hale, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson-has helped keep the legend alive. This despite evidence that the vessel, whose actual name was the Princess Augusta, was never abandoned, lured ashore, or destroyed by fire. So how did the rumors begin? What really happened to the Princess Augusta and the passengers she carried on her final, fatal voyage? Through years of painstaking research, Jill Farinelli reconstructs the origins of one of New England's most chilling maritime mysteries.

The riveting story of the submarine force that helped win World War II by ravaging Japan's merchant fleet and destroying its economy. A dramatic account of extraordinary heroism, ingenuity, and perseverance--and the vital role American submarines played in winning the Pacific war.

Recounts the true account of how Genore Guillory, an avid animal lover who cared for stray dogs, was found shot, stabbed, beaten with a baseball bat, raped, and mutilated in a small Louisiana town.

“An intense, immersive deep dive into a wild, dangerous, and unknown world, written with the pace and appeal of a great thriller. This is nonfiction at its very best.”—Lee Child The true story of two doomed ships and a daring search-and-rescue operation that shines a light on the elite Coast Guard swimmers trained for the most dangerous ocean missions In late September 2015, Hurricane Joaquin swept past the Bahamas and swallowed a pair of cargo vessels in its destructive path: El Faro, a 790-foot American behemoth with a crew of thirty-three, and the Minouche, a 230-foot freighter with a dozen sailors aboard. From the parallel stories of these ships and their final journeys, Tristram Korten weaves a remarkable tale of two veteran sea captains from very different worlds, the harrowing ordeals of their desperate crews, and the Coast Guard’s extraordinary battle against a storm that defied prediction. When the Coast Guard received word from Captain Renelo Gelera that the Minouche was taking on water on the night of October 1, the servicemen on duty helicoptered through Joaquin to the sinking ship. Rescue swimmer Ben Cournia dropped into the sea—in the middle of a raging tropical cyclone, in the dark—and churned through the monstrous swells, loading survivors into a rescue basket dangling from the helicopter as its pilot struggled against the tempest. With pulsating narrative skill in the tradition of Sebastian Junger and Jon Krakauer, Korten recounts the heroic efforts by Cournia and his fellow guardsmen to haul the Minouche’s crew to safety. Tragically, things would not go as well for Captain Michael Davidson and El Faro. Despite exhaustive searching by her would-be rescuers, the loss of the vessel became the largest U.S. maritime disaster in decades. As Korten narrates the ships’ fates, with insights drawn from insider access to crew members, Coast Guard teams, and their families, he delivers a moving and propulsive story of men in peril, the international brotherhood of mariners, and the breathtaking power of nature. Praise for Into the Storm “The story [Tristram] Korten tells is impressively multifaceted, exploring everything from timely issues such as climate change to timeless themes such as man’s struggle against the ocean’s fury.”—Miami New Times “Into the Storm is a triumph of reporting and you-are-there writing that becomes a deeper tale—with more implications about our own lives—with every chapter.”—Robert Kurson, New York Times bestselling author of Shadow Divers