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The First Book, Entitled CLIO THESE are the researches of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, which he publishes, in the hope of thereby preserving from decay the remembrance of what men have done, and of preventing the great and wonderful actions of the Greeks and the Barbarians from losing their due meed of glory; and withal to put on record what were their grounds of feuds. According to the Persians best informed in history, the Phoenicians began to quarrel. This people, who had formerly dwelt on the shores of the Erythraean Sea, having migrated to the Mediterranean and settled in the parts...

There is a great river in Arabia, called the Corys, which empties itself into the Erythraean sea. The Arabian king, they say, made a pipe of the skins of oxen and other beasts, reaching from this river all the way to the desert, and so brought the water to certain cisterns which he had dug in the desert to receive it. It is a twelve days' journey from the river to this desert tract. And the water, they say, was brought through three different pipes to three separate places.

You can probably imagine the kinds of nightmares a teenager on a solo voyage round the world might suffer from: pirate kidnappings, treacherous coral reefs or perhaps scary encounters with mysterious sea creatures. But not Laura Dekker. The 16-year-old schoolgirl's sleep is haunted by memories of the traumatic experiences she suffered at the hands of the Dutch authorities. And ever since she set her sights on sailing round the world she says Dutch social services have done their best to stop her from pursuing her dream. ~~~~ Earlier this month truancy officers issued her father with a summons claiming that...

A 14-year-old Dutch sailor departed in secrecy from Portugal Saturday on her quest to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world, avoiding the media because her manager said she didn't want the attention. Laura Dekker said goodbye to her father and friends at an undisclosed Portuguese port enroute to Spain's Canary Islands or Portugal's Madeira Island despite almost windless conditions in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Portugal, according to manager Peter Klarenbeek. (...) The attempt has been criticized by Dutch child protection authorities who questioned the wisdom of a child risking the world's oceans alone....

FOR a 16-year-old sailor planning a solo voyage around the world, Jessica Watson's first night at sea delivered a stern warning of the dangers she faces. In the dead of night, just hours after Jessica set sail from Queensland's Sunshine Coast on a 10-day trial voyage to Sydney, her 10.4m sloop Ella's Pink Lady collided with a big cargo ship. But despite the collision, which left her yacht badly damaged, an uninjured Jessica says she will not be deterred from becoming the youngest person to sail solo, non-stop and independently around the world. ...

As the morning fog lifted this morning off Harbor Mouth at Marina del Rey, it revealed a sailboat piloted by a 17-year-old boy from Thousand Oaks who had just become the youngest to sail around the world alone.