and detailed, of the fisherman 's world, which Junger develops naturally in recording this event. And he gives us a look at those in the Coast Guard and air rescue service who risked their lives to save other mariners caught up in the deadly nor ' easter of 1991. The author, however, clearly bit off a little more than he should have when he ventured into science. As both a trained physici st and a professional fisherman with years at sea, I found serious flaw s in his descriptions of a vessel's behavior at sea, the formation of storm systems, and the complex interplay between wind, current, the sea bottom and the things that happen on the surface. This is understandable, as the author is not a fisherm an. It would have been better if he had given these areas a lighter touch . But, in theend he gives us a solid piece of work, and we are grateful for a hard, realistic and thoughtful look at a group of men from a little-understood community otherwise unnoticed by the main stream. It is wel I worth a read. ROBERT T. STANFORD F/V Ida , Ft. Bragg CA Clipper Ship Captain, by Michael Jay Mjelde (The Glencannon Press, Palo Alto CA, 1997, 266pp, illus, notes, plans, biblio, index , ISBN 1-889901-05-9; $39.95hc) The ship Glory of the Seas, built by Donald McKay in East Boston in 1869, was the last and longest-lived of all the vessels from that famous shipyard. Her long career ended in 1923 on a beach near Seattle where she was burned to recover the metals used in her construction. Michael Jay Mjelde wrote her history in his book Glory of the Seas , published in 1970; his present work is a biography of her third master, Daniel McLaughlin. A native of Grand Manaan, New Brunswick, he went to sea as a boy and progressed rap idl y in his profess ion, becoming an American citizen and attaining the command of some well-known vessels before he was asked to take the Glory of the Seas in 1876. Much new material has turned up since the first book came out and the author makes good use of it. The book is as much about the ship as it is about her master, who commanded her for only eight years. The Glory, whose fi gurehead is one of the treasures at India House, a private club in Lower Manhattan, and whose half model is at The Mariners' Museum , was one of the SEA HISTORY 84, SPRING 1998
famous ships of her time and Mjelde in his two books has done full justice to her. He conveys well the stiffing competition of the grain trade , which attracted so many fine sailing ships to San Francisco for over 40 years . The research as expressed in the extensive notes is irnpressi ve, and the ship 's plans that appeared in the previous book have been added to and will be of interest to ship modelers and anyone interested in sh ip construction. ANDREW J. NESDALL Waban, Massachusetts The Lightships of Cape Cod , by Frederic L. Thompson (Congress Square Press , Portland ME, orig 1983, repr 1996, l 12pp, illus , biblio, ISBN 0-9611320-00; $21.95pb) Distributed by Kenrick A. Claflin & Son, 30 Hudson Street, Northborough MA 01532-1922. The recent revived interest in the American lightship has resulted in a notable movement to save these beacons of the sea and tell their stories as the last sh ips have now gone out of service, replaced by deepwater towers or buoys. Anyone who thinks of lightship duty as a sinecure will learn quite a different story in the pages of this book, first issued in 1983, which includes the story of the Nantucket lightship in one of the most exposed lightship stations in the world. The opening chapters cover the general hi story of the American lightship, richly illustrated with period photographs and with such tragic vignettes as those found carved on a cabin door of a Great Lakes lightship when she was raised after being overwhelmed in a huITicane: "Goodbye Nellie, ship is breaking up fast. " There were no surv ivors from that misadventure, only this message from PS the captain to hi s wife. Oxford Atlas of Exploration (Oxford University Press , Inc. , New York NY, 1997 , 248pp, illus, index , ISBN 0-19521353-X; $40hc) In his foreword to this volume, John Hemming, director of The Royal Geographical Society, says that what sets us apart from other animals who migrate and travel "is our ability to comm unicate our discoveries to others and to develop a collective awareness of the known world." This atlas distills our collective awareness into chapters that take today's readers from the ancient world to the great European exp lorations of the last six centuries and to
BOATS &SHIPS THROUGH TIME JULY 9 - 30, 1998 Study boot and ship desig1i!lrofuilncient tifues through nineteenth century · .materials and tools .used in their construct.ion long and round ships, and· s and cultures. U under· with ental
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