BOOKS
Meet Sumner and Alice Drinkwater. The only thing they loved more than the sea ~ ...was each other. Structured around the recently discovered letters, diaries, photographs, and memorabilia of a Yarmouth, Maine sea captain and his wife, this book is " the closest any of us are likely to get to walking the decks of an American Downeaster and living the lives of the people on board. A vivid, - PETER STANFORD, faithful experience: · National Maritime Historical Society
by Julianna FreeHand 1llus. with photos and drawings. Size 11 "x8 Y2."
$18.50, now at your bookstore:
...- - - --RANDOM HOUSE
tfi _ _____.
WINDJAMMER VACATION The 3 Masted Schooner
VICTORY CHIMES Largest Passenger Windjammer Under The U.S. Flag Sa ils weekl y from Rock land, Maine. Coast Gua rd inspected.
We invite comparison.
For FREE color broch ure call 207-596-6060 o r wr ite:
Capt. Frederick B. Guild Box 368, Rockland, Maine, 04841
NAUTICAL BOOKS Sai l • Steam • Liners • Yachts • Clippers • Schooners • Naval New • Old • Scarce • Rare Periodic Catalogues, $4 a year
SEAWAYS BOOKS RD#1, Box 27 4, Rte. 94 Sa lisbury Mills, NY 12577
44
judge on the basis of existing published material one would come to the conclusion that except for the abortive effort of the Collins Line and the odd river steamer that strayed into coastal traffic, America left the Atlantic to the sailing ship. This was of course manifestly untrue and at last a work has arrived which corrects this serious gap . This prodigious book will certainly be the definitive volume on this subject for many years to come. Many books have gone to great length in describing the cut glass chandeliers or other elegant furnishings of early steamers but passed over mechanical details with a simple "She was propelled by the usual beam /crosshead / sidelever engine" ... without giving any hint of what the "usual" engine actually was or how it ran. Tales of navigational details abound, but what of the engines "that made ships go"? How were broken shafts repaired or for that matter how often did they break and why? How did iron plate manuracturers influence boiler construction and therefore engine efficiencies? These are among the myriad technical facts one can find mixed in amongst the commercial lives of the vessels described in the book . The author, a professor of naval architecture at Webb Institute, has a bias for the mechanical side of history, and this is one of the book's most valuable points . The mechanical details, repairs and alterations to vessels during their life which he mentions, speak of countless hours of research through mechanical journals and papers and these are duly noted for each chapter. The volume is illustrated with a collection of woodcuts, photos, hull lines and engine drawings. The hull lines show the steady refinement from the earlier sailing ship hulls to those of the later steamers. The engine drawings are of special interest and are in general of sufficient detail to give an indication of their slow but steady growth. The exception to this, and the only point on which fault can be found, is the diagrammatic arrangement drawings used to introduce new engine types as they are mentioned in the text. These are far too simple for the general level of the book and the reader which it will attract. CONRAD MILSTER
Mr. Milster, who makes Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, run by firing up its steam plant each day, is an advisor to the National Society. Still More Good Boats, by Roger C. Taylor (Internattional Marine Publishing Co., Camden,, ME, 1981, 288 pp., illus., $30.00). While most sailboats are rated only informally or not at all, the rating or measurerment rule in force at the time of SEA HISTORY, FALL 1981