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larities in the sweeping curves and concentric circles used by Eskimo, Maori and other early carvers, and suggests that the whalers learned their techniques from these peoples, wedding them to scenes from their own lives. The book is rich with quotes from Melville and contemporary newspaper accounts, which beautifully illustrate the bravery as well as the gruesome cruelty of the whaling experience. Meyer, searching out the beauty of a stern and difficult way of life, makes a fervent plea for the survival of the whale today, hunted by means that virtually assure the death of any cetacean that inadvertently exites a blip on the little screen. DAVID 0. DURRELL The Scrimshander, by William Gilkerson (San Francisco, Troubador Press, 1975. 119 pp., illus., $6.95 paper). "The old scrimshaw was an escape from the sea-from too much sea-back towards the land. The new scrimshaw moves in the opposite direction." So says Karl Kortum in the introduction to this lovingly illustrated review of contemporary scrimshaw finding its way back to sea, in perspective of the old, which dealt much with landbound topics. PS Death Raft, by Alexander McKee (New York, Scribner's, 1976. 288 pp. Illus. $8.95). On June 17, 1861, the French naval frigate Medusa, her gundeck cleared of armament to facilitate her use as a transport, set sail with 367 souls aboard for St. Louis, Senegal. An incompetent master ran the Medusa onto a reef 100 miles off the African coast, however. Seventeen men, convinced that the Medusa was safer than the open sea, remained aboard (one survived). Two hundred took to the boats, and the remaining 150 were consigned to a large, ill-constructed and partially submerged raft. The boats that were supposed to tow the raft abandoned it. Of the 150 aboard, only 17 were left alive when rescue arrived after twelve days in which men fought for life in water up to their waists, without food, water, or shade from the brutal sun; more than half died by violence, and men were driven to cannibalism in frantic struggle for survival. A major political scandal arose as the brutal facts came out. McKee traces two other survival stories (a 1941 shipwreck closely paralleling the Medusa's, and the crash of an airborne football team in the Andes in 1972) to show that mankind still has much to learn from the Medusa. DOD
The Tall Ships: A Sailing Celebration, by Hyla M. Clark, Frank 0. Braynard and Tony Gibbs (New York, Two Continents, 1976. 128 pp., illus. $12.95 & $7.95 paperback). Frank 0. Braynard, General Manager of Operation Sail, introduces this book of over 100 photographs, in color and black-and-white, as a record of "Operation Sail's growth from the Bicentennial's 'best kept secret,' which is what it was for four and a half years, to the number one event of the Bicentennial." Tony Gibbs, Associate Editor of Yachting, gives his impressions of The Day and Hyla M. Clark writes a short history of sailing ships, in a handsome, well designed volume that includes some movingly beautiful photographs of ships and people. PS An Evolution of Singlehanders, by D.H. Clarke (New York, David McKay, 1976. 206 pp. Illus. $9.95). A survey of lone voyages from early times, with rambling asides into maritime history (how Cape Horn got its name, how yachts preceded working boats as foreand-afters), this informative volume is packed with records, dates, outstanding feats of seamanship ... probably a must for those who think, or dream, of doing such voyaging themselves. DOD Motor Sailers, by Dag Pike (New York, McKay, 1976. 224 pp., illus., $12.50) . • From the introduction of the internal combustion engine to yachting around 1900, people have sought to get the best of both worlds by designing motor boats that can sail, and sailing craft that perform well under power. Here Pike provides a guide to the almost infinite variety of the type that flourishes today, with plans, photos, and discussion. DOD The Delaware and Raritan Canal: a Pictorial History, by William J . McKelvey, Jr. (York, Pa., Canal Press, 1975 . 128 pp ., illus., $14.00). Formally opened in 1834, closed in 1933, the Delaware and Raritan Canal connected New York and Philadelphia waters for a vital century. McKelvey, who became fascinated with the bankside and floating life of the canal, its tugs and cargo boats, canoes and passing yachts, bathing kids and fishermen, brings it all to life for us in this admirably annotated collection of first-class photographs. TED MILES
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