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Wake of the Wirelessman by B,J.Cle111011s. Based 011a1917 sea diary. An 1875 freigh1er am1ed with borrowed guns, a radio and a self-suffi cient crew de fies submarines and surface raiders. "Well documemed, powerfu l human story." 288 pp, pho1os, biblio., index, $16.95. Order:
Glencannon Press. PO Box 633, Benecia, CA 94510 or phone 1-707-745-3933
TALL SHIPS BOOKS Historical fiction from the age of fighting sail to WWI, WWII and modem times. Hardcover and paperback books, new and used. $3 for catalog, refundable with first order. Tall Ships Books, PO Box 8027B Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52408-8027
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The Nautical Seaway Trail CHARTBOOK & WATERFRO T GUIDE
A TERRIFIC GIFT TO GIVE OR GET! "Boater's Atlas" to NYS' Lake Erie, Niagara Ri ver, Lake Ontario & St. Lawrence River; 52 NOAA charts, 600+ waterfront services Listings: marinas, repairs, camping, Loran C, fi shing, 120 pgs, 70+ photos, 17" x 11 " spiral-bound in plastic bag. $32.95 + $4.43 postage (NYS add $2.62 tax) to: NYS Seaway Trail, Inc, 109 Barracks Dr, Sackets Harbor, NY 13685 Visa/MC: 1-800-SEAWAY-T SEAWAYTRAILLIGHTHOUSES ' Guidebook to 20+ historic beacons on f., 1YS' Seaway Trail Scenic Byway. Pen I & ink illus., 46 p, $2.95 + $1 postage (NYS add $.28 tax) to: Seaway Trail ~ 109 Barracks Dr, Sackets HarbO!i, Y ~ L 13685, Visa/MC 1-800-SEAWAY-t ~
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Author Andrew David, himself an experienced hydrographer, provides the first thorough account of this nearly decade-long expedition which produced the first accurate charts of wide areas of the Southwest Pacific. His well researched account, based on the journals of Captain Denham and his officers, gives a detailed and authentic picture of the techniques of precision hydrographic surveying at the time, involving laborious processes that can hardly be imagined by today ' s navigators. The author also makes extensive use of the journals of the indefatigable naturalists aboard Herald whose observations and collecting trips on remote islands give a rare view of plant and animal populations and of native cultures before the overwhelming changes of the later nineteenth century. The book is particularly enriched with illustrations, many in color, of paintings made by James Glen Wilson, the expedition artist, which augment, with great effect, the acco unts of Herald' s contact with the native peoples at the dawn of the colonial period. Written between the lines of this dayto-day account is a story of skilled and dedicated navigators serving in a desolate corner of the world yet producing charts of such exactitude that some are still in use today. The author makes no attempt, however, to bring the men of HMS Herald to life. Little is said about how the officers and men, who served so long together, got along, nor how they felt about their captain. The reader is never told whether Captain Denham , away from home for nine years, ever missed his wife. The author gives a full account of a li ttle known Victorian expedition whose results had an important impact on the maritime history of the Southwest Pacific. He accomplishes this goal with scholarly precision, but the general reader may wonder wistfu ll y what Patrick O ' Brian would have made of this material. SAM GERARD
Palisades, New York A Celebration of Marine Art: Fifty Years of the Royal Society of Marine Artists (Blandford Press, London UK, 1996, l 76pp, illus, appen, ISBN0-71372564-8; $50hc) Available from Sterling Publishing Co. , Inc. , 387 Park A venue South, New York NY 10016. The Royal Society of Marine Artists
offers us this glorious selection of marine art by their members as a way of marking the fiftieth RSMA exhibition . Although founded in 1939, plans for their first exhibition were interrupted by the outbreak of war and postponed until 1946 , when their first show opened at the G uildhall Art Gallery , London . The paintings-all 153 of them- are beautifully reproduced in full color and their assembly in this volume illustrates the immense variety and vital ity of marine art. The works are grouped in fo ur themes, each preceded by a descriptive introduction: sail; war and naval ; river, coast and estuary; and the steam era. Every mood of water and sky is masterfully captured, from wind whipped seas in Dery ck Foster' s "Offshore Racers" to the muddy moorings in Sydney Foley' s " Yellow Buoys, River Medway ." You will find tea clippers, trawlers, children on the sand, sleepy harbors and naval engagements-all superbly recreated by masters of marine art and beautifully reproduced for us in thi s volume. NS Visions of New York State: The Historical Paintings of L. F. Tantillo (The Shawangunk Press, 8 Laurel Park, Wappingers Falls NY 12590, 1996, 150pp, illus, index, ISBN 1-885482-05-1; $37 .50pb) History buffs and art lovers wi ll revel in this elegant publication which accompanied an exhibition of artist Len Tantillo' s work at the University Art Museum at the State University in Albany. Visions of New York State gives us a vivid glimpse of many places and moments in the history of New York, from depictions of l 7thcentury life in the forts along the Hudson to 20th-century images of bootleggers making a midnight run on a small river, or a steam engine forging its way down Washington Street in downtown Syracuse. The dramatic story each painting tells enlivens history . Meticulous research into early city maps is followed by the construction of models that allow the artist to vi sualize the buildings and landscape of the historical period. The result is a painting that immerses the viewer in that moment in history with penetrating effect. Warren Roberts's introduction and the essays by Stefan Bielinski, Shirley W. Dunn, Charles T. Gehring and Wendell Tripp contribute to one ' s appreciation of the moments in history Tantillo depicts. The presentation of Tantillo ' s dramatic paintings coupled with early sketches and photographs of his models take readers on SEA HISTORY 80, WINTER 1996-97