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CLIPPER CLASSIC AMERICAN CLIPPER SHIPS 1833-58, by Howe and Matthews. 350 clipper histories. TWO VOLUME BOXED SET, 780 PAG ES, 113 PLATES. $45 IMMEDIATE DELIVERY
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"HOW TO BUILD HISTORICAL BOTTLED SHIPS" By BILL LUCAS P.O. Box 10205 Green Bay, Wis. 54307 Tel. 1-414-499-3150 103 pages, 148 sketches $10.00 + $2.00 postage USA Write for foreign postage
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Catalog upon request of out-of-print books on the sea, ship and the sailor. Books bought and sold on all maritime subjects.
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The Magic of the Swatchways is a book whose reading, like the sailing it describes, brings sheer contentment. HAL FESSENDEN Mr . Fessenden has spent many summers sailing in small boats around Cape Cod . The Rigger's Apprentice, Brion Toss, (International Marine Pub . , Camden , ME , 1985 , 195pp, illus, $27 .50hb). The Rigger's Apprentice is a book for the traditionalist , and as such it has long been needed . It is rare in that it conveys much of the author' s experience without being just an amusing storybook . And , it is more than a rigger' s manual, one of those greasy , well-thumbed pages of tables without practical advice for the sailor who has a job to do . The basic chapters on rope and knots have some good insights that are well worth knowing . The design chapter is valuable in that it brings up some vital concepts , but it is too simplified to be of full practical use . The reader will need to refer to other books, such as Skene' s Elements of Yacht Design, to be able to make design decisions with authority. Toss includes the most thorough and best illustrated description of splicing wire rope I have found . There is much here of a more universal usefulness, such as serving, mast-stepping and taking care of little emergencies (such as when your wire eyesplice lets go at sea) . The more sedentary sailor will find interesting material on fancy work , rope tricks and puzzles . There is a brief technical appendix , glossary , annotated bib! iography and index. The Rigger' s Apprentice serves to teach not only how , but also why things are done aloft. The sailor who masters all it contains may righfully consider his apprenticeship well served . ROB ERT CHAPEL Mr. Chapel, proprietor of Bainbridge Blocks , is editor of Lines and Offsets. Ro-Ro to Finland , by Barry Mitchell (Hutton Press , Ltd ., North Humberside, Eng., 1985, 159pp, ÂŁ4.75 pb) . Barry Mitchell offers a penetrating, non-technical picture of the Baltic Enterprise, a ro-ro container ship serving the North Sea-Baltic route between Hull and Helsinki. He packs into a single voyage a richly detailed account of ship-handling, under the relentless pressure of time in a short-sea service. Mitchell skillfully interweaves a fine appreciation of the history and scenic interest of some of the most heavily traveled and storm-wracked sea Janes of Western Europe. Traveling as a reporter-passenger aboard a ship which provides an amalgam
of tourist and commerical services, Mitchell takes us from the monkey island atop the wheelhouse to the cavernous and deafening engine room , from the forepeak to the mammoth stem ramps, in the company of the officers and crew responsible for the ship ' s operation. Photographs, sketches and maps flesh out the portrait of a hard-working ship for the maritime enthusiast, while the tourist will find here an intriguing introduction to the delights of sea travel in Northern Europe . KEARNEY L. JONES Mr . Jones is a member of the Hudson Valley Chapter of the Steamship Historiccd Society of America. The Eagle: America's Sailing SquareRigger, George Putz (Globe Pequot Press, Chester, CT , 1986, 136pp, illus, $16 .95pb) . This book , whose publication coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of the USCG Eagle, is a missed opportunity . The writing weaves between historical narrative, technical digression and nostalgic remiscence without ever finding a center. Despite some inaccuracies, poor editing and the repeated suggestion that Eagle is the only American bark fit for sea- what about Elissa?-Putz does manage to convey some sense of the everyday life of the ship and her crew. The abundant- and on the whole excellent-photographs , plans and diagrams will be especially welcomed by anyone interested in Eagle and her importance in the life of American sail training . LINCOLN P. PAINE
A Chesapeake Sailor's Companion: Four Centuries of Maritime Music on the Chesapeake Bay, by John Townley and the Press Gang (The Mariners Museum, Newport News, YA, 12 " LP & cassette , $9. 98). This rich and entertaining album takes the listener through some 350 years of chanteys and sea songs. From Renaissance airs and catches through eighteenth-century music hall tunes and twentieth-century rags and spirituals , the performances are at once musically engaging and stylistically accurate. A lot of consideration and good taste went into adding variety and constrast to the instrumentation and voicing of the selections. More than twenty instruments from crumhom to clarinet along with five voices are employed at one time or another in the fifteen titles, the one common element being John Townley ' s lovely unaffected tenor leading the Press Gang- so called from their habit of pressing into service "anyone in the vicinity willing to sing." SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1986