Highlighting African-American Maritime History with a broad range of books on American History.

From left to right in the image: Robert Smalls (1839-1915), Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), Marcus Garvey (1887-1940), and Matthew Henson (1866-1955) are just four of many, many heroes in history from just before the Civil War into the early twentieth Century. See the Library’s exhibit in the Navy Hall for details about books in our collections that cover this period.

Press release image, dated 1963.

The following is excerpted from the finding aid for the collection.

Title: Charles L. Sauerbier Collection

Dates: 1956-1965

Creator: Charles L. Sauerbier

Extent: less than 1 cu. ft.

Physical characteristics: Photographic prints, printed brochures, presented papers, maps and ephemera.

Abstract: A collection of documents related to Charles Sauerbier’s work with a maritime academy in Indonesia in the 1960s.

Biographical information: Charles Sauerbier is the author of Marine Cargo Operations, published by John Wiley & Sons, 1956. At the time it was published he was chief of the Cargo Section, Department of Nautical Science, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.

Administrative Information:
Repository: Los Angeles Maritime Museum Research Library
Access, Use: Prior arrangement with Librarian, Curator, or Museum Director
Preferred Citation for Reference Requests: Charles L. Sauerbier Collection
Copyright Notice: Copyright restrictions may apply. See the copyright notice here.

Request Library Appointment:
To view the collection, please make an appointment online..

New books in the Library are featured titles. In our collections, other titles on the same subject may be seen at the Library’s online catalog at LibraryThing.com.

More subjects in the Library’s Collection of Books.

New books in the Library’s Collections.

Jack London is the author of stories about the Western frontier of Alaska, as well as the peoples of the Pacific Islands. His best known works described the Alaskan Gold Rush: Call of the Wild, White Fang, and Sea Wolf. Equally compelling but lesser known are his Pacific Island stories: they grew out of his experiences sailing the Ocean between 1908-1916.

New Books in the Library include stories and novels by Jack London:

Selections Novels and Stories. / Jack London. Published by Library of America, 1982.

Selections. Novels and Social Writings. / Jack London. Published by Library of America, 1982.

Tales of the Fish patrol. / Jack London. Published by Forgotten Books, Reprint from the International Fiction Library, 2012, c1918.

Stories of Hawaii. / Jack London. Edited by A. Grove Day. Published by Mutual Publishing, 1986, c1965.

Jack London’s Tales of Cannibals and Headhunters : Nine South Seas Stories by America’s Master of Adventure. / Jack London. Edited and annotated by Gary Riedl and Thomas R. Tietze. Published by University of New Mexico Press, 2006.

Jack London in Aloha-land. / Charmian Kittredge London. Author of “Voyaging in Wild Seas”. Published by Kegan Paul, Distributed by Columbia University Press, New York, 2002.

A powerfully-engaged man, London traveled to Asia as a war correspondent in the Russo-Japanese War, photographing people and conditions there. He also appeared in England where he posed homeless along London’s quays so he could study the struggles of poverty and wrote “The People of the Abyss”, an acknowledged and socially-charged statement of the times (early 1900).

See the Library’s blog posts on Jack London here.

New Books increase collections on the maritime description of the Civil War and studies of maps and charts:

Freedom’s soldiers : the Black military experience in the Civil War / edited by Ira Berlin, Joseph P. Reidy, Leslie S. Rowland.

Giants : the parallel lives of Frederick Douglass & Abraham Lincoln / John Stauffer. Published by Twelve, N.Y., 2008.

Strange maps : an atlas of cartographic curiosities. / Frank Jacobs. Published by Viking Studio Press, New York, 2009.

Special Recent Posts

New in the Library! February – March 2013

February 27th, 2013

 
 
 
 

From left to right in the image: Robert Smalls (1839-1915), Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), Marcus Garvey (1887-1940), and Matthew Henson (1866-1955) are just four of[...]

New in the Library! February 2013

January 18th, 2013

New books in the Library are featured titles. In our collections, other titles on the same subject may be seen at the Library’s online catalog at LibraryThing.com.
More subjects in the Library’s[...]

New in the Library! December 2012

December 14th, 2012

These books represent new purchases and donations of historical fiction and non-fiction for your reading pleasure at home. Borrow a book for up to three weeks with your Museum Membership Card.

&n[...]

Ports and Harbors of the West Coast

November 29th, 2012

Please make an appointment online to view any of the collections below. Please refer to the collection by name, listed below.

Los Angeles Harbor Maps and Charts
Historic, thematic and pilot chart[...]

A new purchase in the Library, “At Drake’s Command: The Adventures of Peregrine James during the Second navigation of the World” by David Wesley Hill, Temurlone Books, 2012.

See a partial listing of our Lending Library at Library Thing.

View the Library Blog Adventures of Maritime History from the Los Angeles Maritime Museum Research Library.

See an exhibit of books and Museum objects from the collections in the Navy Hall. On view until Jan 31st, “To the Poles North and South, Circa 1900!” featuring accounts and illustrations from notebooks and journals of the explorers and the photographs of Frank Hurley.

The Los Angeles Maritime Museum Research Library is located within the Museum. Click here to check the hours and to visit the library. Or call 310-548-7618 Fax: 310-832-6537

Scan of photographic print, “Tugboat Angels Gate” underway in the Main Channel, from Los Angeles Maritime Museum Collections.

The following is excerpted from the finding aid for the collection.

Title: Records of the Tug Angels Gate (ex. L.A.H.D. # 10, ex-ST-695)

Dates: 1942-1992; 1942-1982 bulk

Creator: Los Angeles Harbor Department

Extent: 10 cu. ft. of folders and volumes

Physical characteristics: Paper documents and log books, some hand-drawn diagrams for engine parts

Abstract: The Los Angeles Maritime Museum’s Tug Angels Gate is docked at Berth 84 in San Pedro year round. Tug documentation features the vessel’s history from construction in 1944 as a United States Army Transport Service “small tug” to her purchase by the Port of Los Angeles in 1946 and subsequent donation to the Los Angeles Maritime Museum in 1992.

The documents include vessel certification, repair orders, inventory, correspondence on acquisition between the United States Maritime Commission and Port of Los Angeles, transfer of title, name change, drydock reports, and the tug’s log books for the period from September 1945 to October 1977.

Scope and Content Notes:
Information on tug boats can be found in two books “U.S. Army Ships and Warcraft of World War II” published by Naval Institute Press, and “Ordeal of the Convoy NY 119” published by Ensign Press.

Tug boats at West coast maritime museums include the Hercules, a 151 foot ocean-going historic tug currently at the San Francisco Maritime Museum.

Biographical Notes: The harbor tug Angels Gate was built in 1944 as ST-695 for the United States Army Transport Service. The “ST” designates “small tug”, and this class was designed to support the Normandy Invasion. Built at Decatur Iron and Steel in Decatur, Alabama, ST-695 was accepted by the Army on December 27, 1944. The tug never operated in Europe and was declared surplus at the end of the war. Although records are incomplete for the immediate post war period, existing documentation places ST-695 at the Los Angeles Port of Embarkation at Wilmington as early as August, 1945. The Port of Los Angeles [Harbor Department] formally purchased ST-695 from the United States Maritime Commission in late 1946, renaming her L.A.H.D. #10. The tug was in constant use, helping to transport pile drivers and derrick barges during the post-war building boom. The tug accidentally sank in 1952, as a result of seacocks left open overnight. The July 23, 1952 memorandum in Box 2, Folder 9, is the only documentation associated with this mishap.

L.A.H.D. #10 was also the Port’s goodwill boat, used for harbor tours and as a backdrop for publicity events such as “Fashions Afloat”. Her name was officially changed to Angels Gate in January, 1956 to honor the lighthouse marking the entrance to the Port of Los Angeles.

In 1992, the Port retired Angels Gate and donated her to the Los Angeles Maritime Museum. Records of her donation, subsequent refueling, drydocking, maintenance, volunteer activities, and movie roles are kept in the Curatorial Department’s donor files (2520) and are outside the scope of this collection of papers.

Administrative Information:
Repository: Los Angeles Maritime Museum Research Library
Access, Use: Prior arrangement with Librarian, Curator, or Museum Director
Preferred Citation for Reference Requests: Records of the Tug ANGELS GATE
Copyright Notice: Copyright restrictions may apply. See the copyright notice here.

Request Library Appointment:
To view the collection, please make an appointment online.

Scanned image from the Dwight Long collection depicts Dwight Long editing film.

The following is excerpted from the finding aid for the collection.

Title: Papers of Dwight Stanley Long

Dates: 1934 – 1993 (bulk 1934-1959)

Creator: Dwight Stanley Long

Extent: 1 cu. ft.

Physical characteristics:
Black and white photographs, loose and in scrapbooks, printed programs, books, correspondence

Abstract:
Dwight Stanley Long’s (1915-1993) adventures as a circumnavigator, photographer and film director between 1930 and 1959 are revealed in photograph albums, programs, correspondence, books, articles, and press releases. His 32’ ketch was the IDLE HOUR, subject of a movie entitled “Sailing All Seas”, as well as his numerous articles.

Biographical Notes:
Dwight Long, sailor, lecturer, and documentary filmmaker, was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. In 1934 he left Seattle to sail a 32 ft. ketch, the “IDLE HOUR”, around the world via the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans to the East Coast of the United States when the ketch was destroyed in the hurricane of 1938. Long wrote a book, “Sailing All Seas” documenting his circumnavigation of the globe. He lectured in numerous cities both during and following his journey. During World War II he joined the U.S. Navy and became a documentary film producer. After the War, he continued making films, such as “Tanga Tika”, released in 1954.

Administrative Information:
Repository: Los Angeles Maritime Museum Research Library
Access, Use: Prior arrangement with Librarian or Curator, Museum Director
Preferred Citation:Papers of Dwight Long
Copyright Notice: Copyright restrictions may apply. See the copyright notice here.

Request Library Appointment:
To view the collection, please make an appointment online.

Los Angeles Harbor Maps and Charts
Historic, thematic and pilot charts of the channels in Los Angeles Harbor and San Pedro
Bay date from 1943 through the 1980s; also in the collection are nineteenth-century
surveys of the California coast and islands.

Museum Research Library Special collections
Library Special Collections : 1905 – current
An open collection consisting of news clippings, including scrapbooks of the Harbor
Master, and articles of maritime and Los Angeles Harbor interest.

Library Special collections: Pamphlets or Booklets
Subjects range from local to world maritime history. Most pamphlets or booklets were published between 1920s and 1980s.

Library Special collections: Annual Reports

Annual Reports of the Port of Los Angeles, dated 1912-2000.

Library Special collections: Periodicals

Maritime history as written in articles for journals published nationally or internationally. Most are not indexed.

Request Library Appointment:
To view the collections, please make an appointment using this online form.

If you do not see what you are looking for, please call the Library for more information at 310-548-7618 x 215.

A Bibliography of American Naval history. / Compiled by Paolo E. Coletta, 1981.

Brassey’s Encyclopedia of Military History and Biography. / Franklin D. Margiotta, 1994.

Building American Submarines 1914-1940. / Gary Weir in Contributions to Naval History published by Naval Historical Center Department of the Navy, Washington, D.C., 1991

Combat fleets of the world… : their ships, aircraft, and armament. / Jean Labayle Couhat. Annapolis, Maryland : Naval Institute Press, 1976.

The first English edition of the 1897, French work, “Les flottes de combat”, features navies of the world, and was published in France and the United States. Library has: 1976/77; 1978/79; 1980/81; 1982/83; 1984/85; 1986/87.

Combat fleets of the world 1998/99 : their ships, aricraft and armament. / Compiled by A.D. Baker. Annapolis, Maryland : Naval Institute Press, 1998.

Dictionary of American Naval fighting ships. /Navy Department Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Naval History Division, Washington, D.C., 1959–1981.

History of the United States Naval Operations in World War II. / Samuel Eliot Morison. Boston, Mass. : Little, Brown and Company, 1954. Library has Volumes 1 to 14 (Vols. 5, 7 missing):

A Bibliography of American Naval history. / Compiled by Paolo E. Coletta, 1981.

Brassey’s Encyclopedia of Military History and Biography. / Franklin D. Margiotta, 1994.

Building American Submarines 1914-1940. / Gary Weir in Contributions to Naval History published by Naval Historical Center Department of the Navy, Washington, D.C., 1991

Combat fleets of the world… : their ships, aircraft, and armament. / Jean Labayle Couhat. Annapolis, Maryland : Naval Institute Press, 1976.

The first English edition of the 1897, French work, “Les flottes de combat”, features navies of the world, and was published in France and the United States. Library has: 1976/77; 1978/79; 1980/81; 1982/83; 1984/85; 1986/87.

Combat fleets of the world 1998/99 : their ships, aircraft and armament. / Compiled by A.D. Baker. Annapolis, Maryland : Naval Institute Press, 1998.

Dictionary of American Naval fighting ships. /Navy Department Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Naval History Division, Washington, D.C., 1959–1981.

History of the United States Naval Operations in World War II. / Samuel Eliot Morison. Boston, Mass. : Little, Brown and Company, 1954. Library has Volumes 1 to 14 (Vols. 5, 7 missing):

Jane’s fighting ships 1905/6 : a reprint of the 1905/6 edition of Fighting Ships. / Edited by Fred T. Jane, 1970.

The Ships and aircraft of the United States fleet nineth edition. / John S. Rowe and Samuel L. Morison. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1972.

The Ships and aircraft of the United States fleet. / By James C. Fahey.
Library has 5 volumes: 1939 edition, the War edition, Second War edition, Victory edition, and Two-Ocean fleet edition, published between 1944 and 1978, mostly as reprints of the Ships and Aircraft original publications.

U.S. Warships of World War 2 / Paul H. Silverstone. Annapolis, MD : Naval Institute Press, 1989, c1965.

Warship volume i to volume X / edited by Robert Gardiner, 1980.

Warships and Navies of the world, 1880 / J.W. King, 1982.

Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869 – 1945 / Hansgeorg Jentshura, Dieter Jung and Peter Mickel; Translated by Antony Preston and J.D. Brown, 1970.

If you do not see what you are looking for, please call the Library for more information at 310-548-7618 x 215.

Histories of diving focus on deep diving, ocean engineering, underwater exploration and offshore
oil well drilling. Our collection contains a variety of resources such as books by well-known
authors Torrance Parker, and Jacques Cousteau, with translations from French authors,
symposium proceedings, and technical manuals. Please call the Library for more information at
310-548-7618 x 215.

Deep Diving–History:

20,000 jobs under the sea: a history of diving and underwater engineering. / by Torrance R.
Parker; edited by Don Walsh; foreword by William B. Lee, c1997.

Along the shores of time: submerged historic and indigenous resources in the Pacific Rim
region. / by Roger E. Kelly, 1999.

Archaeology under water. / by George F. Bass, 1966.

Diving manual 1924 Reprint of Chapter 36 of the Manual of the Bureau of Construction
and Repair. / U.S. Department of the Navy, 1925.

A history of seafaring; based on underwater archaeology. / Edited by George F. Bass, 1972.

The history of oilfield diving an industrial adventure. / Christopher Swann, 2007.
Focus is on the history of offshore oil well drilling.

The history of underwater exploration. / by Robert F. Marx, 1990.

Man and the underwater world [by] Pierre de Latil & Jean Rivoire. Translated from the
French by Edward Fitzgerald, 1956.

On the bottom. / by Commander Edward Ellsberg, 1929. (submarines)

A pictorial history of oceanographic submersibles. / by James B. Sweeney, 1970.

Deep diving–United States and other countries.

A biomedical assessment of a one-atmosphere diving system: JIM-4. / by
Arthur Bachrach.

Captain Cousteau’s underwater treasury. Edited by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and James Dugan,
1959.

I dive for treasure. / by Harry E. Rieseberg, 1942.

Islands of angry ghosts. / by Hugh Edwards, 1966. This is the story of the shipwreck and
archaeology of the Dutch East India ship BATAVIA in 1629.

Just lucky. / Kenneth K. Knott, 2009. Autobiography of a deep diver.
Man under the sea. / By James Dugan, 1956. A history of deep diving from ancient times to the
1950s.

Underwater man. / Joe MacInnes [i.e. MacInnis]; foreword by Pierre Elliott Trudeau. 1975,
c1974.

Periodicals and journals:

Historical diving. / Historical Diving Society U.S.A., 2004, 2000

Workshops and Proceedings

Emergency medical Technician. / Diver Workshop held on 8-9 December, 1975.

Medical aspects of small submersible operations. The Seventh Undersea Medical Society
Workshop. Submarine Development Group One, 19-20 November 1974. / Undersea Medical
Society, 1974.

Proceedings: Fifth Annual International Diving Symposium. Morgan City, Louisiana
January 21-22, 1975.

Proceedings. 1973 Divers’ Gas Purity Symposium. November 27 & 28, 1973. Held at Battelle-
Columbus, Sponsored by U.S. Navy Supervisor of Diving. Naval Ship Systems Command, 1976.

Proceedings. International Diving Symposium ’76 Louisiana Superdome January 22-23,
1976. Sponsored by the Association of Diving Contractors; Undersea Medical Society; American
Society of Mechanical Engineers Ocean Engineering Division. 1976.

Proceedings. Twelfth International Diving Symposium Sponsored by the Association of
Diving Contractors. February 1-3, 1982. Hyatt Regency Hotel New Orleans, Louisiana,
1982.

Technical Manuals

These handbooks and manuals cover underwater exploration, marine biology, and underwater
photography.

The complete underwater diving manual. / Compiled and edited by the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Office of Marine Resources [no date].

The physics and engineering of diving. Including diving physics, decompression theory and
practice, buoyancy and propulsion, life support systems and equipment. / By R.S. Dickens,
1975.

The silent world. / by J. Y. Cousteau, with Frederic Dumas, 1953.

Three adventures: Galápagos, Titicaca, the Blue Holes. / [by] Jacques-Yves Cousteau and
Philippe Diolé. Translated from the French by J. F. Bernard, 1973. Marine biology–
Galapagos Islands. Marine biology–Belize. Limnology–Titicaca Lake (Peru and Bolivia)

U. S. Navy diving manual. / United States. Navy. 1963-

If you do not see what you are looking for, please call the Library for more information at 310-548-7618 x 215.

The subject of Fishing and Fisheries is depicted in middle to late 20th century literature at a time when governmental regulation of maritime borders became the means of controlling international fishing of coastal waters. Interest in historical fishing, whaling, fishing techniques of other countries, the lives of fishermen, fishing vessels and equipment was notable from the1930s, with most technical works and conference proceedings published between the 1960s and 1980s. Books from the Library’s collections on Fishing and Fisheries are only partially represented here.

Reference works for Fisheries and Fishing

The American fisheries directory and reference book. / Burton T. Coffey, 1978.
Dictionario de pesca y de marina : Marine and fisheries dictionary. / by Jose Alvarez de Manzana, 1966.

Illustration of Japanese fishing boat and fishing gear. / Nori, 1959.

Industrial fishery technology : a survey of methods for domestic harvesting, preservation, and processing of fish used for food and for industrial products. / by Maurice Stanby, 1963.

Interim hearing on Problems relating to the commercial fishing inductry and economic development in the Los Angeles Harbor area. / California Legislature Senate Committee on Governmental Organization, 1986.

Principals for a Global Fisheries Management Regime : a Report of the Working Group on Living Marine Resources Panel on Law of the Sea. / American Society of International Law, 1974.

San Diego Law Review Law of the Seas. / University of San Diego, 1970.

Fish catching methods of the world. / Andres Von Brand, 1978.

Fishing Boats of the World. / Jan-Olaf Traung, 1966, c1955.

Fishing Boats of the World Part 2. / Jan-Olaf Traung, 1960

Fishing Boats of the World Part 3. / Jan-Olaf Traung, 1960

A Sea of small boats / edited by John Cordell, 1989.

World fisheries policy; multidisciplinary views. / Edited by Brian J. Rothschild, 1972.

Fishing Industry in North America

American Fishermen. / by Albert Cook Church, 1961, c1940.

American fishing schooners 1825-1935. / by Howard I. Chapelle, 1973.

The British fishery at Newfoundland, 1634-1763. / Ralph Greenlee Lounsbury, 1972, c1934.

Proceedings of the national fishing industry safety and health workshop./ Edited by Melvin L. Myers and Michael L. Klatt, 1994.

To Stem the Tide: Effective State Marine Fisheries Management. / by Ralph J. Marcelli, 1975.

Fishing As An Occupation

Bibliography for Fishermen’s training. / compiled by A.V. Brandt, 1978.

Draggermen : Fishing on Georges Bank / by George Matteson, 1979.

Fisheries Mathematics : the Proceedings of a Conference / Organized by the Institute of Mathematics and Its Applications, held 24-26 November, 1975, at the Marine Laboratory, Aberdeen ; edited by J. H. Steele, 1977.

Fishermen and Fishing Ways. / by Peter F. Anson, 1975.

The Quest of the Schooner Argus; a Voyage to the Banks and Greenland. / by Alan Villiers, 1951.

Fishing and Fisheries on the West Coast

The California Abalone Industry : a Pictorial History. / by A.L. “Scrap” Lundy, 1997.

Canfisco from sea to shelf. / Canadian Fishing Company Limited, 1947.

The Fisherman’s Problem : Ecology and Law in the California Fisheries, 1850-1980. / by Arthur F.
McEvoy, 1986.

Fishing, Los Angeles Harbor, Part 1. / Los Angeles City Schools Division of Instructional Services, 1963, c1952.

Fishing, Los Angeles Harbor, Part 2. / Los Angeles City Schools Division of Instructional Services, 1963, c1952.

Fishing Barges of California 1921-1998 / by Ed Ries, 2000.

Game Fish of the Pacific./ by George Clifford Thomas, 1930.

An Historical Review of the Fish and Wildlife Resources of the San Francisco Bay Area. / by John E. Skinner, 1962.

The North Pacific Deckhand’s & Alaska Cannery Worker’s Handbook. / by John Higgins, 1978.

Pacific Troller: Life on the Northwest Fishing Grounds. / by Francis E. Caldwell, 1978.

Hunters, Seamen and Entrepreneurs the Tuna Seinermen of San Diego. / by Michael Orbach, 1977.

Inshore Fishes of California. / by John L. Baxter; State of California Department of Fish and Game, 1960.

Offshore Fish of California. / by John E. Fitch, 1960, c1958.

Tales of the Golden Years of California Ocean Fishing 1900-1950. / by Ed Ries, 1995.

Whaling

Harpooned: the Story of Whaling. / by Bill Spence, 1980.

The Portuguese Shore Whalers of California, 1854 – 1904. / by David E. Bertao, 2006.

Salted Tories: the Story of the Whaling Fleets of San Francisco. / by Lloyd C.M. Hare, 1960.

Sea-Hunters the Great Age of Whaling. / by Edouard A. Stackpole, 1953.

Whale Ships and Whaling: A Pictorial History. / by George Francis Dow, 1985.