BOOKS
BIACK
1'lmsEA Michael Cohn and Michael K. H. Platzer
From African fishing rituals to 20th century sailors, an important, fascinating and vivid chapter of nautical history. Photos. $8,95
And in response to a letter from the marine sales manager of General Motors Detroit Diesel Division proclaiming that more millions of dollars have been spent on the development of lightweight , highspeed diesels than have been spent in a half century by the entire marine industry on hull development, Herreshoff snorts: "I would point out that, while the business of manufacturing small diesel engines is a very young one, the science of naval architecture had been developing for the last 5000 years, and when the end of the world comes and the final history of naval or marine achievement is written up, the contributions of the General Motors Corporation will be so infinitesimal that they probably will not be mentioned ." Some of the chapters in this book were published 30 to 40 years ago in The Rudder, and some were included in the now out-of-print "the Writings of L. Francis Herreshoff." The remainder have not heretofore been published. DICK RATH Mr. Rath , Chairman of the Pioneer Marine School at South Street Seaport Museum, is editor of Boating magazine.
The Dory Book, by John Gardner, illus-
A sea
classic and a fine gift!
Capt. Irving Johnson's
The Peking Battles Cape Horn This is Irving Johnson's classic narrative of a passage round Cape Horn in 1929 in the steel bark Peking. A new foreword and appendix provide background on the author and the ship. In the new afterword the author looks back, after 48 years of seafaring, to his experiences aboard the Peking. 10% discount to National Society members.
To: SEA HISTORY PRESS, National Maritime Historical Society, 2 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 (212) 858-1348 Please send me_ hardcover copies of "Peking" at $11.95;_ paper cover copies at $5.95 each. My check for $_ _ _ is enclosed. NAME - - - - - - - - - - - ADDRESS _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Z IP
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trated by Samuel F. Manning (Camden ME, International Marine Publishing Co., 1978, 288 pp., illus., $20.00). The publisher states that fifteen years of research preceded this fine companion to Mr. Gardner's Building Classic Small Craft. One might say "fifteen years, coupled with a lifetime of careful observation, building and appreciation of dories in particular and small craft in general." Best known to readers of the National Fisherman and as the guiding force behind Mystic Seaport's Small Craft Workshop, Mr. Gardner has, in a quiet matter-of-fact manner written what must become the standard reference work on the dory . The book is divided into three principal sections. The first is a history of the dory type and its origins. Mr. Gardner's careful, well documented and annotated research indicates the existence of this type of boat, described as a "dory flat" as early as 1498 in western Europe. In North America the French and British colonists employed dories as they were relatively quick and economical to bui ld wherever sawn planks and copper or iron fasteners were available. During the French and Indian Wars a large production facility in Schenectady produced dories in quantity for military and commercial lake and river use. This predates
the dory "factories" of New England by almost 150 years. The second section deals with small craft construction as it specifically applies to the dory. Mr. Gardner's background as a professional boat builder is evident in his descriptions of many detail aspects of small craft construction like spiling plank s, fairing the frames or obtaining a correct stem bevel. While most of Samuel F. Manning's illustrations for the first section of the book may be appreciated as the work of a man with an eye for fine representational illustration, the drawings coordinated to the text on construction are those of an experienced boat builder gifted with the rare ability to capture each operation in complete and accurate detail with no possibility for misinterpretation. The remaining section gives tables of offsets, line drawings (where applicable) and a wealth of specific detail for the construction of 25 different dories. In size these range from a IO ' dory tender to a 32 ' Maine Log Driving Bateau, while hull shapes vary from the familiar straight-sided Banks dory to the graceful Swampscott gunning and sailing types. St. Pierre types are very comprehensively covered and a wealth of details given on features like outboard motor-wells, centerboard trunks, transom sterns and haul-up propeller arrangements. Most of the detail drawings and many of the designs are Mr. Gardner's own or adaptations from earlier models. They are clear, concise and very complete, as one who knows his work as technical editor of the National Fisherman would expect and appreciate. International Marine Publishing Company deserves compliments for reproducing all this material in a very clear and convenient scale-this reviewer did not have to resort to a magnifier to read a drawing in this very handsome book. Mr. Gardner and Mr. Manning will have the thanks and appreciation of amateur boat builders and students of small craft design for many years to come for this most complete and definitive book. DON MEISNER Mr. Meisner has done much waterfront
design work for South Street Seaport Museum in New York and is a leading light of that institution and of the National Society. The Proper Yacht, 2nd Ed., by Arthur Beiser (Camden, ME, International Marine Publishing Co., 1978, 364 pp., illus., $25.00). Dr. Beiser opens this classic work with SEA HISTORY, FALL 1978