REVIEWS
CLASSIFIED ADS Art Prints. NYC Fireboars 16 x20", $18 each. Also available for commissioned work. Cal l Steve White at 718-31 7-5025, E-mail: fdn yanist @aol.com
Marine Paintings by Robert W. Young. 411 EUiorr Sr. , Beverly MA 01915-2353. Free brochure. Websire: htrp://shop.townonline.com/ marinepaintings. Tel: 978-922-7469, E-mail : RY192l @aol.com Model Restoration/Construction, Captain Norman Smith, Great Island Model Shipyard, I 06 Lombos Hole Road, Harpswell, ME 04079, 207-833-6670, E-mail: dysmirh@gwi.net Peter Williams I Museum Services. New England's premier resource for the restorarion of maririme paintings. 30 Ipswich St., Boston, MA02215. Byapp't: 61 7-536-4092. See our website: www.peterwilliam s.org Custom Ship Models Free Catalog. Spencer, Box 1034, Quakertown, PA 18951 To place your classified ad at $1.60 per word, mail your message and paymem to Sea History, Arm: Adverrising Desk, PO Box 68 , Peekskill NY 10566.
ROAMING THE WORLD IN CARGO SHIPS A Marine Artist's Journal If you have ever dreamt of seeing the world from the deck of a cargo ship, you will find this book interesting, informative & appealing. Visit exotic ports on both coasts of South America, the Panama & Suez Canals, the Mediterranean, the Middle East & the far flung ports of the Pacific Rim. There are many adventures & humorous incidents. Embark on the voyage of a lifetime! The book will inform you how to do so, the cost and what to expect in terms of food & accommodation. Illustrated, maps, 140 Pages, 8 'h" x 11". Price $24.95 + $5 s/h. $Back Guarantee. Direct from the author:
GEORGE H. ARCHER 3186 B. Bear Mountain Rd.,
. Troy, VT, 05859
A new book entitled
We Were There The USS Indianapolis Tragedy By L. Peter Wre n, a rescue offi cer who pulled the men from the sea. This is the res t of the story-a compil ation of never before told oral histories-as told by airmen. sailors, and others who were there. Soft Cover: $ 15.95 Hard Cover: $25.95 Make Checks or money orders payable to:
WREN ENTERPRIZES 10 11 Ridge1op Road. Richmond. VA 23229-6733
46
efforr which fills a gap in rhe historiography of rhis narion and records rhe decline of wooden commercial shipbuilding. CAPT. HAROLD HUYCKE Edmonds, Washington A Voyage for Madmen, by Peter Nichols (HarperCollins, New York NY, 2001, 296pp, illus, ISBN 0-06-019764-1; $26hc) This is an account of the Golden Globe Race of 1969, the first solo circumnavigation event. Of the nine participants, only one (Robin Knox-Johnston) completed the course. Six withdrew as a result of boat or equipment failure, one (BernardMoitessier) opted not to return to the urban culture of Europe and continued halfway around rhe world again to Tahiti, and one (the brilliant but tragic Donald Crowhurst) lost his grip on reality and committed suicide after trying to fake his circumnavigation. Although the author is an accomplished mariner, he seems uncertain of his audience's understanding of things maritime. At one point the book is so elementary as to define "port tack," yet at others it launches into discussions of the origin and development of pilot charts and the hazards oflying ahull as a storm tactic. While in general iris a relatively shallow book that pays more attention to rhe sailors' motives and motivation than to their seamanship techniques, the last half-dozen chapters are a well-written and exciting read. This book is a good starting point that will motivate the curious reader to seek out rhe much better accounts written by or about rhe individual participants. CAPT. HAROLD SUTPHEN Kilmarnock, Virginia
way. Describing the process by which bl ubber was rendered into oil, the reader is told: "although a whale weighed tons, a dead whale floated, making it possible for the crew to handle it easily.... Rendering the whale began when the men hoisted it onto a platform that hung over the side of the main ship " (p 102). In reality, the relatively fragile stage bore the weight of crew members who stood on it above the whale while they cur away strips of blubber with longhandled cutting spades. "Ir wasn't a crime to 'jump ship' on a whaler," the authors claim (p92) . Prior to departure, however, whalemen signed a contract, or ship's articles. As Mawer points out in his 1997 Ahab's Trade, "The ship's articles chained master and man together for a sentence of years, from which only death , incapacity or desertion offered escape. " Jumping ship, while a widely practiced form of desertion, constituted an illegal breach of contract. T he book's African-American history seems right; the whaling research seems shaky. Such statements give a reader pause both in the reading process and in questioning what else might not be quite as stated. The topic, audience and long-gone African-American whalers deserve a revised second edition. PETER SORENSEN Old Mystic, Connecticut
NEW&NOTED Collect Ships on Stamps, 3rd ed., by Peter Bolton (Stanley Gibbons Publications, Ringwood, Hampshire UK, 2001, 422pp, illus , ISBN 0-85259-486-06; ÂŁ22 .95) Available from sales@sran ley gibbons.co. uk or 5 Parkside, Chrisrchurch Black Hands, White Sails: The Story of Road, Ringwood, Hants, BH24 3SH, UK. African-American Whalers, by Frank L. This black-and white caralog of 14,250 and Patricia C. McK.issack (Scholastic Press, scamps is valuable and fascinating even if New York NY, 1999, l 52pp, illus, biblio, you are not in the marker to buy. Archaeology at La lsabela: America's First ISBN 0-590-48313-7; $15.95hc) The authors tackle a maritime history European Town, by Kathleen Deagan and story for "young readers." Thar history, as Jose Marfa Cruxent (Yale University Press, the dusr jacket further notes, is: "the dra- New Haven CT &London UK, 2002, 368pp, matic, little-known story of the role Afri- illus, ref, index, ISBN 0-300-09041-2; $60hc) can Americans played in rhe east coasr Columbus's Outpost among the T ainos: whaling industry. " The book is long over- Spain and America at La lsabela, 1493due in terms ofits subject and audience and 1498, by Karhleen Deagan and Jose Mada garnered the Coretta Scott King Award. Cruxent (Yale University Press, New HaWhile topic, scope and delivery make this ven CT & London UK, 2002, 294pp, ill us, a book for all ages, the devil is in rhe details. appen, notes, ref, index, ISBN 0-300-09040There are stumbling blocks along the 4: $35hc) SEA HISTORY 101 , SUMMER 2002