Thomas Lochhaas is ideally qualified to serve as series editor for Epics of the Sea having worked in publishing for 15 years. In this time he has been an acquisitions editor (for C.V. Mosby Company), a freelance writer, and a developmental editor for major publishers such as Addison-Wesley, Jones & Bartlett, Simon & Schuster, and Little, Brown. He is an avid reader of the literature of the sea and has published short fiction, critical essays, and a number of articles on boating topics appearing in magazines such as SAIL, Maine Boats and Harbors, and Good Old Boat. Lochhaas earned an M.F.A. in fiction writing from the University of Arizona, Tucson, and was a Ph.D. candidate (all but dissertation) in modern literature at Washington University, St. Louis. He has also taught writing at college level as a lecturer at UCLA and the University of Arizona, Tucson. An experienced sailor, he is currently preparing his boat for a trans-Atlantic cruise.

Introduction Storms Richard Maury. The Saga of Cimba "We now sailed a ship that knew of defeat--a ship we had imagined undefeatable. We stood there ... knowing ... how much more courage is needed by the once defeated." Webb Chiles. The Open Boat "The sea is not cruel or angry or kind. The sea is insensate, a blind fragment of the universe, and kills us not in rage, but with indifference ..." Marlin Bree. Wake of the Green Storm "'This is it, my brain warned. 'We're going over.'" Kim Leighton. A Hard Chance "'I opened my eyes and I could see the deck underneath the water and a few bodies floating around. When I surfaced, the boat seemed like it was a mile away ...'" Cape Horn John Guzzwell. Trekka Round the World "I looked up and saw another monster of a sea approaching and I thought, 'What a bloody shame! No one will ever know what happened to us.'" Reanne Hemingway-Douglass. Cape Horn: One Man's Dream, One Woman's Nightmare "We're spiraling to the bottom of the sea. I don't want to die this way." Lisa Clayton. At the Mercy of the Sea "If i get htrough this I shan't care about carring on I shall just be glad to e alive." Dangerous Shores Ann Davison. Last Voyage "I heard Frank saying, what a shame, what a shame, as the ship rent beneath our feet. Then the tall cliff face was upon us with a tremendous splintering crash." John Caldwell. Desperate Voyage "'What the devil do you do next?'" I thought, and went below." Gordon Chaplin. Dark Wind: A Survivor's Tale of Love and Loss "We were underwater again. I opened my eyes and saw her clearly, as if she were outlined in black fire." Gilbert C. Klingel. Inagua "... the sea is a savage place, she sends the gale screaming from the four corners of the world to remind men that their proper habitat is the land." Jonathan Hall. Night Sail "I saw my boat filling and breaking up and me trying to maintain a footing on jagged slippery rocks with freezing water breaking around me." Polar Waters Deborah Shapiro and Rolf Bjelke. Time on Ice "Every minute of heavy weather experience is worth its weight in gold, because for every knot of higher managed, there is one less to worry about." Tristan Jones. Ice! "As I turned to go below, I saw the bear. Twelve feet long, padding silently ... coming straight at the boat!" Tim Severin. The Brendan Voyage "All around us floated chunks and lumps and jagged monsters of ice." Tragedy Dougal Robertson. Survive the Savage Sea "... I dropped to my knees and tore up the floorboards to gaze in horror at the blue Pacific through the large splintered hole punched up through the hull ..." John Rousmaniere. After the Storm "Out of the corner of his eye Robert Ames spies a white wall advancing from astern. He cries out--too late." Tami Oldham Ashcraft (with Susea McGearhart). Red Sky in Mourning "... I threw cushions, anything that would float, overboard. He's out there somewhere. Maybe he's alive. Oh God, please." Louise Longo. Let Me Survive "The sea is merciless in its revelations. It knows how to punish human error." Jim Carrier. The Ship and the Storm "A lesser sailor might have panicked by now. A Category 4 hurricane was bearing down on him." Appendix 1. Bibliography Appendix 2. Sources