The Sunshine Coast From Gibsons to Powell River

By Howard White, photos by Keith Thirkell & Others

ISBN 13: 978-1-55017-081-8

ISBN 10: 1-55017-081-3

 Price: $29.95 CAD; $29.95 USD

Hardback

 8.5 X 11 - 128 pp - 1996

From deep rain forests to logging camps, Indian villages and bustling ports, The Sunshine Coast offers an insider's look at one of the most fascinating regions on the BC coast.

BC's Sunshine Coast is 100 miles of sublimely scenic shoreline just 40 minutes north of Vancouver. Award-winning humorist and Historian Howard White brings his ample experience as a lifelong coast denizen to bear in this fresh look at a unique place and its unique people.

The Sunshine Coast covers the waterfront in words and over 150 full-colour photographs from Gibsons, where the long-running TV series the Beachcombers was filmed, to Powell River, the largest community in the region and home to one of the world's largest pulp and paper mills. Visit Pender Harbour, where some local fishing folk still do their Saturday shopping in motorized "kicker" boats. Drop anchor in Princess Louisa Inlet, where the likes of John Barrymore and Andrew Carnegie once came to marvel at its canyon-like splendour. Stopover in Sechelt, whose name is a remnant of the shi'sha'lh or Sechelt Nation who once occupied the bulk of the Sunshine Coast territory. And sojourn in Roberts Creek, whose patron saint Harry Roberts put the Sunshine Coast on the map when he emblazoned the slogan "The Sunshine Belt" on a freight shed at the nearby steamer dock.

Join Howard White as he explores the rugged area with its reputation for being the maverick among BC's favoured south coast regions. The painters, writers, hermits, handloggers, stumpranchers, trappers, prospectors, fishers and draft dodgers met along the way will find a permanent haven in your heart.

Harbour Publishing wrote this timeless classic in 1996 and makes an enjoyable coffee table. This book has been given to clients by realtors in the region to their clients as it is an excellent compendium of local sights.

Profusely illustrated with photography by Keith Thirkell of West Vancouver BC, the book is more an examination of the modern day Sunshine Coast and not a work of history. The definitive history of the Sunshine Coast is yet to be written.

Illustrated and written about in an eye-pleasing layout, the unofficial trademark of Harbour Publishing, brings to life Gibsons, Sechelt and Pender Harbour.

A Field Guide to Seashells and Shellfish of the Pacific Northwest A user-friendly guide for all ages!

By Rick M. Harbo

ISBN 13: 978-1-55017-417-5

ISBN 10: 1-55017-417-7

 Price: $7.95 CAD; $7.95 USD

Pamphlet

 37 x 9 - 2 pp - February 2009

 

There are few more enjoyable ways to spend a relaxing afternoon than at the seashore collecting ornate seashells. But there is no need to fly away to some exotic tropical locale to begin the fun. If you are in the Pacific Northwest, you will find local beaches as rich in fascinating treasures as any place on earth—or at least you will once you have this handy eight-fold guide to show you where to look and how to identify what you find. Those whose interest in shellfish is mainly gastronomic will also find this waterproof guide an essential tool.

This laminated pamphlet makes the perfect addition to your next trip to the beach.

American Flying Boats and Amphibious Aircraft An Illustrated History

By E.R. Johnson

Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-3974-4

EBook ISBN: 978-0-7864-5708-3

391 photos & illustrations, appendices, glossaries, bibliography, index

384pp. Soft cover (7 x 10) 2010 $49.95

This work is a comprehensive, heavily illustrated history of the many flying boats and amphibious aircraft designed and built in the United States. It is divided into three chronological sections: the early era (1912-1928), the golden era (1928-1945), and the post-war era (1945-present), with historical overviews of each period. Within each section, individual aircraft types are listed in alphabetical order by manufacturer or builder, with historical background, technical specifications, drawings, and one or more photographs. Appendices cover lesser known flying boat and amphibian types as well as various design concepts that never achieved the flying stage.

As a child, this reviewer’s first memory of being in an aircraft was my brother and I getting to sit in the cockpit of a P-5 Marlin at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island during the Vietnam War. As a result, a lifelong fascination with flying boats ensued.

This book is a naval aviation fan's dream; listed are every conceivable craft, military and civil, that were the efforts of US designers and builders, large and small, over the years.

Profusely illustrated with everything from personal watercraft to the famed Pan Am Clippers and PBY Catalinas, the reader will be hard pressed to find more information than that contained in these pages.

Author Johnson has proven once again his excellence in compiling a handy reference tool. This book cannot come more highly recommended.

Collishaw & Company, Canadians in the Royal Naval Air Service 1914 – 1918

Collishaw & Company Canadians in the Royal Naval Air Service 1914 – 1918

By J. Allan Snowie

ISBN 978-0-69200989-5

Author J. Allan Snowie is well known in naval aviation circles as the Canadian Navy’s last LSO, Air Canada pilot, author and his transcontinental flight in a First World War Nieuport replica.

The book is a labor of love compiled over many years and was well and truly worth the wait. Snowie spent many days in research the UK’s PRO in Kew as well as in North America in research. A biographical sketch of each pilot as well as a photo when available.

The book is a welcome addition to the historical recollection in this often forgotten period of naval aviation history.

PROJECT AZORIAN—The CIA and the Raising of the K-129

PROJECT AZORIAN—The CIA and the Raising of the K-129

By Norman Polmar and Michael White


Naval Institute Press, 2010 ISBN/SKU: 9781591146902. $29.95 US list price.

The book Project Azorian describes the Nixon Administration’s attempted salvage of the Soviet Golf-II submarine in 1974, based on CIA records. It is a quick read, about 180 pages less illustrations. Interesting items include:
• Very good illustrations and diagrams provide much technical information.
• The submarine was lost when two of its liquid-fuel missiles ignited inside their launch tubes and fractured the submarine.
• The salvage project focused on recovering the third missile in its tube, which was the forward-most of three, along with the bow section forward of it;
• The Soviet embassy in Washington received an anonymous revelation of the operation but no known reaction resulted.
• According to the ComSubPac plans officer at the time, should USSR ships seize the recovery ship Hughes Glomar Explorer, USS Tautog (SSN 639) and another submarine carried WW2 anti-ship torpedoes specifically to sink her, a contingency not told to the crew of the recovery ship.
• A supposed attempt to dig further under the Soviet submarine strained the huge recovery mechanism, nicknamed Clementine, and resulted in the loss of most of the salvaged section during the ensuing hoist.
The authors of Project Azorian say little about what actually was learned but somewhat wishfully ask the reader to regard the operation as successful. Project Azorian challenges particular statements in other books and newspaper articles but is silent about contradictory analyses that have previously appeared:
• The book Blind Man's Bluff—The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage by Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew (2000) stated that USN personnel suggested use of submarines and vehicles to break open the hull to salvage the contents, instead of waiting six years for the huge grappling device that fractured. Blind Man’s Bluff is a cited reference in Project Azorian.
• A past television program, not the upcoming program associated with the book Project Azorian, quoted one participant that when the submarine section lifted free from the sea bed, the resulting sudden increase in buoyed mass caused Hughes Glomar Explorer naturally to settle deeper in the water. The suspended submarine and the grappling mechanism crashed back on the sea bed. According to the program, that impact was the cause of the structural damage to the mechanism.
• Blind Man’s Bluff contends that the hull structure, which was the primary item that the CIA’s mission could obtain over the Navy’s proposed alternative, had little value for intelligence purposes.
• The National Security Archive at The George Washington University posted on February 12, 2010, the web page “Project Azorian—The CIA's Declassified History of the Glomar Explorer” (http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nukevault/ebb305/index.htm). A director with the National Security Archive commented there that the operation “resembles the Bay of Pigs more than U-2 or Corona.”
Items that this reviewer adds:
• The acceptance of the six-year duration for this operation, against the alternative faster USN proposal, suggests that recovery of Soviet crypto gear and publications, offered as one justification for the huge project, had no urgency. The risk of disclosure was high and occurred during the six-year duration.
• The above TV program did not mention that the dynamic change in buoyancy is known in salvage, which suggests that the interviewed participant did not know of it, which in turn suggests that actual salvage expertise was missing from conception to the end.
• In terms of project management, and also in terms of a military commander’s estimate of the situation, the planning phase for this operation should have recognized that multiple risks of the chosen method were very high and were of a nature that no increase in time and resources could recover.
Project Azorian contains source notes, an index, and as mentioned, very good illustrations. This is the first public access to relevant newly-declassified documents and to the authors’ interviews of former Soviet personnel. Project Azorian is inexpensive and easy to read and adds significant authoritative information, including many dramatic details, to Blind Man's Bluff. While a comprehensive analysis of this operation has yet to appear, Project Azorian adds greatly to available information.


(MP)

Legacy of Leadership: Lessons from Admiral Lord Nelson

Hardcover, 148 pages, published in 1999 by Hellgate Press. ISBN: 1555715109

A concise history of the career of the Royal Navy’s Admiral Lord Nelson, the most famous naval leader of all time and hence has set the example for others to follow. The book is divided into Nelson's most famous operations and battles with an inherent lesson what leadership lessons could be learned from this book. A valuable tool in teaching aspiring naval officers that leadership and not just Power Point skills are essential to the leaders of tomorrow.

Camping Haida Gwaii A Small Vessel Guide Revised Second Edition

Boat Camping Haida Gwaii A Small Vessel Guide Revised Second Edition

by Neil Frazer

978-1-55017-487-8 • 1-55017-487-8

$29.95 • Paperback 8.5 x 11 • 176 pp • March 2010

With information on ancient native settlements, hidden campsites and everything in between, Boat Camping Haida Gwaii offers a fascinating and comprehensive marine guide to the wild beauty of the Queen Charlotte Islands for kayakers and other small vessel operators. The book has a wide range of informative maps and numerous photographs of the Queen Charlotte coast; offering meticulously field-tested paddling and boating routes to the islands’ majestic attractions. Detailed descriptions are given of each campsite and special appendices are provided with helpful hints on bear safety, tides and currents. The book also contains invaluable information about the history and culture of the Haida, the indigenous people of the Queen Charlotte Islands. This guide’s comprehensive information will be valuable to kayakers, canoeists, those in small motorboats and everyone interested in exploring this unique area.

This book is finished in Harbour’s usual high quality standard and at first glance looks very nice. The format is similar to a number of coastal sailing and boating references published over the years but ultimately disappoints.

Unfortunately the author ascribes to the “natives are one with nature and all non-natives are inherently evil” camp which puts an unfortunate spin on the book which means it should not be used as a meaningful reference work. This is a real shame as obviously a lot of work was put into this book. An example of this is an illustration on page 76 showing the (now scrapped if the author had done his research would have known) Haida Brave with the caption “A log carrier with the gratuitously insulting name Haida Brave self loads at Ferguson Bay….”

The author sets a bad example for boaters by including a photo of his boat on page 29 with the occupants not wearing lifejackets.

Author Frazer should determine if he wants to have his writings in the “New Age” section of the book store or “Local Interest” or “Boating.” The biases in this book ultimately are its demise and resultant lack of recommendation.