BOOKS deed dismissed, in a single three-page chapter, as a pack of cranks peddling folding boats, paper boats, variants on the St. Lawrence skiff, and other curios. The Durants never say whether any of these non-guides ever built a real guideboat! One of them demonstrably did so. J . Henry Rushton, a contemporary of guide/ builder H. Dwight Grant, who looms so large in the Druants' view, introduced his "Saranac Laker," a stock 16-foot guide-boat, in 1888. Substantial construction data, a mediocre drawing, and three photographs (credited to Helen Durant!) were published by the Adirondack Museum in Atwood Manley's Rush-
materials, and their relationship to the resurgent interest in classic small boats. While not a "how to" book, there is much here to inspire the craftsman who would build a guide-boat without benefit of natural spruce crooks and traditional planking skills. For further inspiration, there is Gardner's splendid set of 16 plates taken from a 1905 Grant boat. They cover everything, from lines and offsets of every frame to fastenings, hardware, seats, oars, paddle and yoke. If more inspiration to use modern methods is needed, consider that an average 16-foot Grant boat has 4,200 screws and 2, 185 tacks, all driven by hand . ALAND. FRAZER
ton and His Times in American Canoeing. This material, and two examples at the Adirondack and Thousand Islands Shipyard Museums, prove beyond question that the "Saranac Laker" meets every specification of the Durant's self-imposed definition of a guide-boat. Its quality is here of less importance than its existence, yet neither it nor Manley rate so much as a footnote, and when Rushton appears it is to be put down, usually on the basis of material irrelevant to guide-boats. With this aberration noted , this remains a comprehensive and enjoyable work. In two major divisions and 23 chapters, the Durants examine the guide-boat in " Its Time and Place" and " Its Construction and Handling." Careful reading will be repaid with understanding and respect for the men-often the same men-who built and used these craft. One may learn that the guide-boat is related to the Maine wherry, the bateau and the Banks dory ratheF than to the bark canoe whose form it superficially resembles. The problems of finding materials and shaping them into a strong, light boat are carefully explored, as are the techniques of getting into a guideboat with dry feet-and staying in. Only the chapter on planking leaves about as much mystery as it solves. The reader is left in awe of, without understanding, the complexity of planing a 3/ 16-inch plank hollow on one side and round on the other to match the curves of ribs, while simultaneously cutting it to fit when bent and twisted to the longitudinal curves of the boat and beveling or even half-lapping its edge to meet the next plank! This lack is no fault of the authors, who note that "the process of planking remains, to some extent, the last secret in the boatbuilding trade .. . plankers do not write books." The superb contributions of John Gardner to this work cannot be ignored. Aside from years of advice and encouragement to the Durants, and his foreword, he has written the chapter on modern tools and 52
A Dream of Islands-Voyages of Self Discovery in the South Seas, by Gavan Daws (W.W. Norton, New York, 1980, 289 pp., illus., $14.95) . Five men of the 19th century discover their destinies in the South Pacific. All of them are tireless and proli fie under the spell of Oceania. Four of them die still wrapped in their dream of paradise. The fifth lives on to die a moody customs inspector in New York City. The lives of John Williams, relentless crusader of the London Missionary Society; Herman Melville; Walter Murray Gibson, a fran tic and often preposterous political adventurer; Robert Louis Stevenson; and lastly, Paul Gauguin comprise five separate essays in which with extraordinary insight Gavan Daws examines a cruel enchantment-five brilliant Western minds which try, each by its own brittle methods, to seize the fragile, Edenic blossom of Polynesia. GEORGE MATTESON Down Below: Aboard the World's Classic Yachts, by Matthew Walker (Chronicle Books, 870 Market St., San Francisco, CA 94102, 1980, 136 pp., illus., $16.95). Matthew Walker (yes, a pseudonym) is a young boatbuilder/ sailor/ writer/ photographer whose interest in fine wooden yachts has led him to some 46 vessels, new and old, power and sai l, American and European-or even Asian. Most of the boats he portrays are shown with a small exterior shot and several larger interior views, the latter rich in polished brass, brightwork, and superior joinery. Also included are a short and invariably fascinating history of the yacht and her owners, and a detailed specifications column on each vessel. The dean of American nautical photographers, Stanley Rosenfeld, remarks in his Introduction that Walker photographs his subjects with an "invisible
caress. " That ' s high praise from Rosenfeld, and its substantiated on every page of this book. Those of us who haven't been below on Dorade, Ticonderoga,
Blue Peter, Unicorn, Roseway, Black Pearl, or Sea Cloud will find this a rich browsing ground.
DICK RATH
On tile Hawser: A Tugboat Album, by Steven Lang and Peter Spectre (Down East Books; Camden, Me., 1980, 506 pages, illus., $30.00). Steven Lang and Peter Spectre have collaborated on a book that is every harbor watcher's dream. On the Hawser: A Tugboat Album contains close to 500 pages of fascinat ing and often very beautiful photographs of tugs doing what they do best, working hard and looking handsome. The bulk of the pictures come from Mr. Lang's own exceUent collection, then there are many others lovingly gathered from private individuals, towing firms, and museum archives, particularly that of The Mariners Museum at Newport News. The volume contains images and information on tugs built from the year 1836 to the present. Emphasis is on harbor and coastwise towing along the East Coast around the turn of the century, but Great Lakes, Pacific Northwest and even a number of foreign vessels are documented. The format of the book is generally that of a full page photograph facing a full page reserved for caption. This method has been used to tremendous effect by a number of writers, particularly by William H. Bunting in his superb Portrait of a Port: Boston 1852-1914 (Belknap Press, 1971). The captioning of the present volume is by comparison rather flat and lack ing in both detail and accuracy. In his preface to the work Mr. Spectre takes credit for the text of the book but freely admits to no great interest in his subject. Unfortunately, it shows. GEORGE MATTESO
George Matteson operates the dieselised steam tug W.O. Decker ex-Russell I in New York Harbor. Naked and a Prisoner: Capt. Edward C. Barnard 's Narrating of Shipwreck in Palau 1832-1833, edited by Kenneth R. Martin (The Kendall Whaling Museum, Sharon, Ma., 1980, 60 pages, illus., paperback, $7. 75 including handling). This account by the Captain of the New Bedford whaler Mentor, is another piece in the mosaic of journals and manuscripts that provide the bulk of our knowledge of the Micronesian archipelago and its peoples during the late 18th and early 19th centuries . Previously unpublished , this account was apparently a rebuttal to one by SEA HISTORY, SPRING 198 1