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Maritime events today appear to be tied more closely to events ashore than ever before and seafaring has been the primary catalyst of much of world history. These essays by many of the world's leading scholars present an up-to-date assessment of the field of maritime history in the early 21st century.

While numerous studies have examined Woodrow Wilson's policy of neutrality prior to US entry into World War I, none has focused on the actual merchant ship losses that created the final casus belli. This work focuses on what the president knew and when he knew it concerning the loss of ten ships between February 3 and April 4, 1917.

Passamaquoddy Bay lies between Maine and New Brunswick at the mouth of the St Croix River. Rich in beaver pelts, fish, and timber, the area was a famous smuggling center after the American Revolution. This book examines the reasons for smuggling in this area. It interprets smuggling as provoked by government efforts to regulate borders.

Today USS Pampanito is a tourist destination. During WWII the submarine earned six battle stars, sank six Japanese ships, damaged four others, and rescued seventy-three British and Australian POWs from the South China Sea. Astonishingly, this rescue happened three days after she sank one of the transport ships on which the Allied prisoners were being ferried to Japan.The chain of events that led to this rescue is truly remarkable. Captured in 1942, forced to spend fifteen months constructing the Burma-Thai Railroad, and then loaded onto floating concentration camps--hellships, as they were called--the prisoners were in the wrong place at the wrong time when Pampanito and her wolf pack attacked a Japanese convoy. Returning to the coordinates a few days later, the crew was astonished to discover survivors in the water from among the more than 2,200 prisoners who had been aboard the Japanese ships.Even more remarkable is that the officers and crew of Pampanito, after picking up these men (the Lucky 73), thought to have them record their thoughts and experiences while the events were still fresh in their minds, before returning to port. While working as curator for Pampanito, Aldona Sendzikas discovered these documents and began an odyssey of tracking down one of the most incredible rescue stories of the Pacific War.

Abraham Whipple (1733-1819) is little-known, yet intrepid and frequently successful Continental Navy officer who contributed significantly to the War for Independence. This biography of Whipple presents a look inside the life of this Continental officer. It illustrates at a personal level the complexities of naval warfare.

One of the untold stories of World War II is the guarding of Greenland and its coastal waters, where the first U.S. capture of an enemy ship took place. For six months in 1942 and against standing orders of the time, Thaddeus Nowakowski (now Novak) kept a personal diary of his service on patrol in the North Atlantic. Supplemented by photos from his last surviving shipmates, Novak's diary fills a void in the story of American sailors at war in the North Atlantic. It is the only known diary of an enlisted Coast Guard sailor to emerge from WWII.