Empires of the Sea - Audio book

[vedrand]

This might be interesting to some here.

Empires of the Sea - Roger Crowley
The Final Battle for the Mediterranean, 1521-1580




Read By: John Lee
Copyright: 2008
Total Duration: 11:12:07


Crowley picks up where he left off in 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople
and the Clash of Islam and the West (2005). After the fall of Constantinople
to Mehmet the Conqueror and his army of Turks, the author writes, it
was only a matter of time before Mehmet's great-grandson Suleiman set
out to achieve his own ambition to become Padishah of the White Sea,
the Mediterranean. From the 1520s on, Suleiman and later his son Selim
II clashed repeatedly with Charles V and then Philip II of Spain in
a battle for holy ascendancy that stretched from Rhodes to Tunis, Cyprus
to Lepanto. Suleiman unleashed his murderous corsairs, led by the Barbarossa
brothers, to wreak havoc on the Barbary Coast (North Africa), while
Charles employed the astute services of the valiant Genoese sea commander
Andrea Doria. Radiating from Madrid and Istanbul across Europe, the
engines of imperial power collided catastrophically in 1565 on the rugged
island of Malta, a launch pad for the crusading Knights of Saint John
headed by the zealous Jean Parisot de La Valette. Here Crowley lingers
with chillingly detailed precision, depicting the armada of Turkish
galleys bearing down on the island. Seventy-year-old La Valette and
his 6,000 or so fighting men hastily prepared for defense against an
Ottoman force exceeding 20,000. The Knights and the rest of Europe were
convinced that this was the final redoubt, "the glorious last-ditch
stand against impossible odds, massacre, martyrdom, and death." What
ensued was a four-month bloodbath, with the Christians routing the Turks
and checking their advance into the White Sea.

A masterly narrative that captures the religious fervor, brutality and
mayhem of this intensive contest for the center of the world.

[vedrand]

On July 30, 1945, after completing a top secret mission to deliver parts of the atom bomb "Little Boy," which would be dropped on Hiroshima, the battle cruiser USS Indianapolis was torpedoed in the South Pacific by a Japanese submarine. An estimated 300 men were killed upon impact; close to 900 sailors were cast into the Pacific Ocean, where they remained, undetected by the navy, for nearly five days. Battered by a savage sea, they struggled to survive, fighting off hypothermia, sharks, physical and mental exhaustion, and, finally, hallucinatory dementia. By the time rescue -- which was purely accidental -- arrived, all but 321 men had lost their lives; 4 more would die in military hospitals shortly thereafter.

The captain's subsequent and highly un usual court-martial left many questions unanswered: How did the navy fail to realize the Indianapolis was missing? Why was the cruiser traveling unescorted in enemy waters? And perhaps most amazing of all, how did these 317 men manage to survive?

General Information
===================
Title............: In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors
Author...........: Doug Stanton
Read By..........: Grover Gardner
Genre............: History
Publisher........: Chivers Sound Library (Unabridged, October 2001)

Original Media Information
==========================
Media............: 8 CDs
Condition........: Very Good

File Information
================
Number of MP3s...: 8
Total Duration...: 7 hours 26 minutes
Total MP3 Size...: 283 MB
Ripped by........: deandominic
Ripper...........: Exact Audio Copy
Encoder..........: LAME 3.98
Encoder Settings.: ABR 80 kbit/s 44100 Hz Mono
ID3 Tags.........: v1.1, v2.3 (includes embedded album art)

[vedrand]

High Seas, High Stakes: Naval Battles That Changed History
by Professor Timothy B. Shutt


Naval battles have long captured the popular imagination, from confrontations between Athens and Sparta in the ancient world to the epic conflicts that took place during the World Wars and beyond. In this riveting series of lectures, Professor Timothy B. Shutt of Kenyon College explores the naval battles that have helped to establish empires and have changed history.

Throughout the course of world events, as trade and com- merce grew in importance and nations became ever more dependent on the import and export of all manner of goods, control of the world’s waterways and shipping lanes became a key determinant in which nations reigned supreme. As demon- strated so aptly in the World Wars, blockades at sea can strangle a nation as effectively as sieges laid against walled cities of old.

With studied insight into the events that have shaped the world over the millennia, Professor Shutt imparts an under- standing and appreciation for the importance of naval warfare in world history—and of the grandeur and daring that define these awe-inspiring clashes.


01 • Salamis
02 • Arginusae
03 • Ecnomus
04 • Actium
05 • Lepanto
06 • The Spanish Armada
07 • The Downs and the Dutch Wars
08 • Quiberon Bay
09 • Trafalgar
10 • Tsushima
11 • Jutland
12 • The Battles of the Atlantic
13 • The Battle of Midway
14 • Endgame: The Battles of the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf

[Dowly]

Umm... are these.. you know, legal?

[vedrand]

These are not legal of course Deleted the rapidshare links I guess there are other forums for this kind of things

[Dowly]

Yeh, propably better keep these someplace else.

[vedrand]

Fair enough - btw saw the movie Perkele - Images of Finnland just yesterday - funny stuff

[Dowly]

Originally Posted by vedrand

Fair enough - btw saw the movie Perkele - Images of Finnland just yesterday - funny stuff

Cant say I've never seen it. Might have a look see if I can get my hands on it.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by vedrand

Fair enough - btw saw the movie Perkele - Images of Finnland just yesterday - funny stuff

Thanks, mate. Also, these can be picked up very cheap at Half-Price Books, etc.