Books published by Porto Press Ltd

The diary that reveals the light and shade of daily life, punctuated by terrifying moments. This was the real stuff of the war at sea and it has been tellingly captured here'

A skilfully selected collection of Seton Gordon's inimitable writings on his first love, the Cairngorms complemented with original archive photographs

Insight into the life of a working lighthouse keeper

Darwin's key time in Scotland and subsequent impact on modern day biologists

The story of building his food empire, the cash for honours scandal and association with Tony Blair and other key figures

This is an account of one man's 30-year involvement with England's rarest bird, the golden eagle. Initially employed by the RSPB as a senior species protection warden at a secret location in Cumbria, the author describes the intricacies of establishing a protection regime by wardens that would operate for the next 26 years and his efforts to protect and study this iconic species. The Lakeland eagles were at their most productive during his tenure, rearing six eaglets in the six years before he widened his interest to study eagles in Scotland as well as England. The author discovered and recorded many previously unknown facts about golden eagles. He began to plan and implement projects which would expand knowledge of the species as well as helping to secure their foothold in England. His project is the most detailed and complete study of a pair of golden eagles with, at its heart, the life and times of an eagle he followed from its arrival in 1982 until its death, 22 years later. A bird that would eventually show little fear of him and accept his presence rather than flee. The author recounts the hardships experienced by the eagle and eagle-watcher alike, and his record of behaviour at the nest is unparalleled. However, working with golden eagles is not without difficulties and the author's encounters with unsympathetic shepherds and poor decision-making are also described, as are his dealings with egg collectors who craved to add the rare English eagle eggs to their collections. His efforts to counter their intrusions even saw him rebuilding eagle eyries that had been so dispassionately destroyed! However, Call of the Eagle amply illustrates the close attachment and passion that drove the author to devote so much of his life to this magnificent raptor, famed as the King of Birds.

First-hand account of survival of an orphan boy providing a vivid picture of life under sail

In his introduction, Don MacCaskill wrote modestly, 'I think I became a naturalist'. He was, in fact, one of Scotland's foremost naturalists and a remarkable wildlife photographer as well. In a flashback to his early years in Kilmartin, a village in Argyllshire, we learn of his awakening interest in man's relationship with the wildlife all around him - why was it necessary to kill it? And when accident, or fate, took him into a career in forestry, an inborn love of trees, both in woodland and forest, flourished and became his life. Photography came a little later, mostly as a record of what he was discovering in the natural world, but is of a remarkable quality in a time when modern aids to getting that special photograph of mammal or bird did not exist. This book is an account of his first year at Ardgarten, as a young forester newly out of college. Full of enthusiasm and confidence, he thought he knew everything and there was many an occasion when he had to discover that he didn't! It is an honest and often humorous account of forestry in the days after the Second World War when the forest folk of that time, who often lived in isolated communities 'far from the madding crowd', were genuinely interested in the work they were doing. There were some fascinating characters too!Trees are surely the supreme example of a life force stronger than our own, wrote Don. Some, like the giant redwoods of North America, live for thousands of years. Some, like our own oaks and pines, may live for centuries. All, given the right conditions, will regenerate their species and survive long into the future. Don wrote, 'I love trees'. It was true - he couldn't help it.

Details the developments with regard to numerous aspects of advanced micro technologies with respect to metals, polymers, and ceramics, and the development of new production platforms for micro systems-based products. This volume contains almost 100 papers and six keynote contributions.

Covers PROMS 2007, which is the third online, web-based conference on Innovative Production Machines and Systems organised by the EU-funded I*PROMS Network of Excellence.

Seton Gordon was only a boy when he began exploring the Cairngorms, fascinated by its wildlife and seeking to photograph all he saw - he later became a pioneer naturalist, photographer and folklorist. He wrote about the land that is Scotland, her flora and fauna, her people, her spirits, her often violent past. He took the earliest pictures of golden eagles at their eyries and throughout the first half of the 20th century came to know Scotland's remotest corners, amassing a unique photographic record, recording the changing social life of the islands, collecting a mass of folklore and historical stories, lecturing and writing both for regular publications and in 27 books. Like John Muir, he was a wanderer and a guide. We walk with him through pinewoods, to eyries, to the corries of the Cairngorms, we follow him trying to recreate the greenshank's song on his bagpipe chanter; and see him holding a snowball windward of a nesting dotterel to cool its panting. Welcomed in croft or palace, a keen piper, inevitably dressed in kilt and bunnet, Seton Gordon was one of the age's great characters. This selection from his writings gives a fascinating insight of the man and his great versatility. The author, himself a Scottish outdoors enthusiast and well-known author, has been a lifelong admirer of Seton Gordon and his books and has created a book to treasure.

A thorough international review of all aspects of lignites. Includes the essential topics of CO2 emissions and carbon capture and storage. A vital resource for scientists and engineers in this area and also those involved in energy policy making.

This comprehensive new dictionary comprises over 1300 definitions and brief articles to provide an extremely useful ready-reference work on solid, liquid and gaseous fuels, including information on the scenes of production of many fuels, such as major coal reserves and large oil and gas fields. Economics are addressed with entries included for all the major indices for oil, coal and natural gas pricing. The political perspective is also dealt with, covering the oil-producing countries and OPEC; environmental issues also feature, as do entries on chemical compounds, trade names, industrial processes and much more. The book carefully traces fuel usage since industrialisation with information provided on some 19th century events such as the Drake well. However, there is a correct balance of entries in terms of the periods to which they relate and thoroughly modern topics such as enhanced oil recovery are featured. Users of the Dictionary will gain an appreciation of the development of fuel and energy technology and sense the continuity or, in some cases, revival of ideas. As an example, what is now known as 'BTU conversion' and often treated as if it were novel is, in fact, a return to gasification technologies that were used a century or more ago!The Dictionary of Energy and Fuels is a reliable reference work on fuel and energy which will remain of great usefulness despite any future changes and trends in related technologies.

The Lost Glen vividly portrays a clash of cultures and personalities against a background of a landscape in visible decay. The cultural collision and its effects are explored through Ewan, a young local man recently returned from university in disgrace, and a retired English colonel staying at the village hotel. Both men in a sense are alienated from the community, the younger because of a haunting sense of failure, and the older through an unwillingness to understand the local culture. They have a mutual antipathy. The Colonel's self-imposed cultural isolation leads to aggressive bullying and an openly lascivious attitude towards local young women. His unworthiness as a representative of Anglo-Saxon culture is largely compensated for by his young niece, who behaves with sensitivity and integrity. She is clearly attracted to Ewan whose sense of failure is complex and does not only concern his enforced withdrawal from university and his involvement in an incident at sea that cost his father his life; it concerns the feeling he has of himself as a spiritual exile - a man who had intended to emigrate but who had remained as an outsider in the land that meant so much to him. The antipathy between the two main protagonists leads to a physical struggle between them that brings to an end a novel, layered with meanings, that is more a symbolic drama than a novel of realism. One of the earliest novels to appear in the Scottish Literary Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, The Lost Glen turns its back on the form of writing that had depicted Scotland as a rural paradise in favour of describing Highland life as it really was at that time.

Autobiography of a shipmaster during the 19th century

Although much has changed in the profession of geospatial surveying, the basic geometrical principles still apply - as does the need for instrumental calibration, its proper application, the analysis of data and the presentation of results to users. This book presents an understanding of the principles of modern geospatial surveying techniques.

An analytical and descriptive account of procedures on these vessels to ensure safety at sea

Provides practical guidance to engineers, regulators and designers about assessing ground gas risk and the design of appropriate protection measures. This book discusses the assessment of ground gas for Part II A sites and also includes information on the assessment of vapours.

The trials and tribulations experienced while sailing two old and tired American tugboats halfway around the world. An entertaining and greatly enjoyable read.

Second part of Mariner's trilogy - as a young deck officer in the 1960s and 1970s

A guide to the complex problems of investigation and remediation of degraded land. This book addresses the fundamental science and engineering of land degradation and rehabilitation from a multi-disciplinary perspective. It provides an introduction for those in the area of land remediation.

Timber is probably man's oldest building material, with a huge variety of form, and it remains an important material both in domestic and commercial construction. This manual provides a step-by-step approach to the detailing of timber, and deals with codes of practice from the UK, Europe, America and Russia.

Set atop the rocky plateau of Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel, the Old Light stands proudly - a monument to the skill of its builder, Joseph Nelson. It is of a pleasing construction, both solid and graceful, and when built in 1820 it had two lights - an upper and a lower, and was the highest lighthouse in the country. In this fascinating history of the old lighthouse and the fog signal station, the author has combined her wide knowledge of the island's history with information gleaned from extensive research into Trinity House's archives. Some tantalising insights into the life of the keepers and their families have emerged - the keeper who was too tall for the lantern room; the keeper's wife who tragically died of water contamination, and the gunners who poached their dinners and hid their numerous children when the Elder Brethren came to inspect the cottages! Interwoven throughout the story are details of the numerous wrecks from the 15th century until 1897. Accounts from newspapers are often included, and the wrecks are linked to the lighthouse keepers of the time and the heroic rescues performed by the lighthouse staff. There are also some wonderful snippets of island history - one owner regarded Lundy as independent of mainland authorities and issued his own 'puffin' coins and stamps - the latter are still in use to cover postage to the mainland although the coins are now collectors' items. The height of the Old Light soon proved to be its downfall and eventually the reason why it was extinguished. Due to Lundy's plateau-top fogs which completely obscured the lantern, although there was clear visibility at ground level, a programme of alterations and intensifications took place under the advice of Professor Faraday. In 1862 a fog signal station was built on the west coast, providing shipping with another warning. This was not wholly successful either and it was not until 1897 that the Old Light was replaced by new lights on lower levels at the north and south ends of the island. Since the light was extinguished, the Old Light and the fog signal station reverted to the owners. The Landmark Trust restored the lighthouse and holiday-makers can now stay in the keepers' quarters, climb the 147 steps to the lantern room, and enjoy the breathtaking views across the whole island to the coasts of Wales and Cornwall. Owned by the National Trust, Lundy Island is an outstanding area of great natural beauty which attracts many visitors, who frequently return year after year to enjoy this special place.

An epic drama of the Highland clearances by an expert

Archibald Menzies was one of a legion of intrepid Scots plant collectors in the 18th and 19th centuries who roamed the world and, by a combination of toughness and knowledge, established the foundations of the botany of the British Empire. This is a fascinating tale of how he brought the monkey puzzle to England for the first time and provides an insight to international plant collecting in the 18th century. Based on his diaries, the author recounts how Menzies, whilst on a classic voyage of exploration in which he circumnavigated the world twice, is the only naval surgeon to be placed under arrest for insubordination - and all because his precious plants were washed away! He is also the only man to have pocketed his dessert at a foreign presidential banquet, which subsequently resulted in the introduction of one of the most curious trees to Britain's parks and estates. The Author tells a tale of high adventure on land and sea in the latter part of the 18th century, from a surgeon's grisly work at the Battle of the Saints in the West Indies to the seductive allure of Tahitian maidens and plant collecting in freezing Alaska. Menzies was the first to ascend the fiery volcano of Mauna Loa in Hawaii, where the natives aptly descibed him as 'the red-faced man who gathered grass and cut off men's limbs'. An acclaimed naturalist, Menzies made major botanical dicoveries during the epic journey of HMS Discovery under Captain George Vancouver along the north-west coast of America in the early 1790s, discovering many plants which now adorn British and continental gardens. He also described the Californian condor and made important early anthropological observations on the native peoples of North America. In this highly readable book, the author recounts the story of how a young Scots gardener from humble origins became a distinguished plant pioneer who changed the face of gardens throughout Europe by his botanical discoveries.