REVIEWS A Great Book . Forever Useful
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International Register of Historic Ships, by Norman J . Brouwer (Naval Institute 975 Bryant Streer San Francisco, California 94103 (415) 621-7400
Edward G . Zdin >ky Chairman
Chris Manin Vice Clwirman
To return to San Frandsrn the on ly ship surviving on the face of the earth from the California Gold Rush, join with us today.
Island of the Bounty~ \(>~agt:
to Pitcaim: Tht: last chaptt:r in tht: How1~1 ¡ saga
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Now Available on Video! Award Winning Film by Ted Cochran . A tall ship sailing adven ture tracing the route of the H.M.S. Bounty to Pitcairn , the world 's most remote inhabited island and currentl y home of the descendants of the mutineers . CINE Golden Eag l e award for excellence. Selected by BBC-TV for " World About Us.""A fin e film ... with deep affection for the people of Pitcairn ." Luis ~larden , National Geographic Society "The best film ever on the Bounty and mutineer 's descendants ." Capt. Irvi ng M. Johnson , Yankee 59 min . color. Specify VHS or Beta . S49.95. Add S3.00 shipping/handling. CA residents add S3.00 sales tax . Send check/money order or charge. VISA and M/C orders send card# and expiration date. Exclusively available from: Compass Rose, Ltd . 110 Tiburon Blvd. Mill Valley, CA 94941 or phone order, (4t5) 388-2371
The War against the
SE AL S A HISTORY OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SEAL FISHERY
Briton Cooper Busch "Superbly crafted ... portrays the entire 150 years of our sealing history with dispassionate vision.''
Kingston Whig-Standard 40 illus. $29. 95
McGill-Queen 's University Press 33 East Tupper Street, Buffalo, New York 14203
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Press, Sea History Press, in assoc. with World Ship Trust, London, New York, Annapolis, 1985 , 32lpp, illus, $28.95; by mail from NMHS , $31. 70 ppd domestic, $32.45 foreign) . Here they all are-gathered together for the first time . An array of ghosts that never quite became ghosts; not ectoplasm but wood and iron (a few with their ribs s howing , however) . What a directory Norman Brouwer has assembled for us--every historic ship, big and small , steam and sail, on the face of the earth! More than 700 vessels. I shake my head in wonder. Preserving actual vessels has achieved respectability . I remember clearly when such giants in our field as Alan Villiers and Howard Chapelle (men to venerate) weren't quite sure that sav ing ships was the best way to approach the subject . To their credit, they came around. Another scholar , a formidable name on the East Coast, said that the way to handle the cruiser Olympia was to take off a complete set of plans of the vessel and then take her out and sink her. The learned institution to which he was attached, more than admirable in every other way, continued to discourage the preservation of vessels. I have attached to it the name of a perfectly respectable mid-West philatelic organization to make a joke: '' The Universal Ship Cancellation Society. " But the wind is now blowing from a different direction . " The love that is given to ships is profoundly different from the love men feel for every other work of their hands ." - Joseph Conrad I think we start with that. The process is akin to man responding to woman . He sees grace there (or if it isn ' t there he thinks he sees it). He sees romance-that tangled work conveying attachment, kaleidoscopic scenes of involvement, a rushing sense of history in which the race and its good works must be preserved, an instinct to aid, an instinct to venerate, an instinct to belong . As for the female ship-savers I can only tum to Voltaire: '' All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women. '' What a force to unleash on behalf of our subject! We need those forces . We' ll need every bit, because the truth of the matter is that saving old ships is not, on the surface, a very practical proposition . The SEA HISTORY , SPRING 1986