REVIEWS sonal life, yet he delivered to G reat Britain as tonishing victori es at critical m oments, and m ore importantly, left the Royal N avy with an indelible aura which still inspires his co untrym en to this day. In his own words, "Thank God I have done my du ty." If yo u know anyone who doesn't know this m an, or perhaps has shied away from more lengthy and daunting biographies, give them this book. Brian Lavery's credentials as C urator of Naval History at Britain's Na tional Maritime Museum, Greenwich , speak fo r themselves, and his book speaks well fo r Nelson , the sailor, the romantic, the hero, the human being. ] ERRY ROB ERTS New Yo rk, New Yo rk
The Story of Sail, by Veres Laszlo and Richard Woodman (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 1999, 360pp, illus, biblio, index, ISBN 1-5575 0-896-8; $57. 50hc) Rarely do we open a book and feel compelled to look at every page befo re putting it back on the shelf. Richard Woodman and Veres Laszlo's lhe Story of Sail is one of these books. Within the pages are 1000 extraordinarily detailed scale d rawings and sixteen colo r plates. Organized chronologically and by them e, the authors have covered well 6,000-years of sailing history. Woodman and Laszlo include drawings of the earliest known and most primitive craft. They begin with prehistori c bladder-floats and the earliest craft of ancient M esopotamia and Egypt and advance th ro ugh the entire hisrory of sail to the fin al surviving sailing ships of modern times. The authors have illustrated region-specific types of vessels such as junks, dhows, sampans, tartanes, and shures. There are also illustrations of com m on working vessels, auxiliary craft, ships' boats, catam arans, modern racing yachts, rigged warships, clipper ships and experimental sailing vessels. Laszlo, who has illustrated a number of o ther works, is a skilled illustrator and has meticulously produced his line drawings in m etric and imperial measures for ease of use. Woodm an , a well-known maritime historian, provided the readers with clear, concise and insightful text. M aritime historians, modelers, tea42
chers, and ship enthusias ts will all find this book invaluable. The d rawings of small craft th ro ughout the book are excellent and extremely usefu l because they depict standing and running rigging in fin e detail. Modelers will find the drawings of sh ip's boats particularly interesting because they include the seating arrangem ents.
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THE STORY OF SAIL OOI '><
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1his wo rk is the most detailed and the only general evolutional history of sail in print. 1 h e drawings and the acco mpanying text provide a trem endous level of comparative informatio n for maritime histori ans and enthusiasts alike. Readers will want to pour over these d rawings fo r hours. In short, it is simply delightful to peruse, read and digest. ROBERT M . BROWNING ]R D umfries, Virginia
A Captain from Cape Cod: The Merchant Fleet of Crowell and Thurlow, by Paul C. Morris (Lower Cape Publishing, O rleans, MA, 2002, 192 pp, illus, photos, appen, biblo, ISBN 0-936972-203; $40hc) A Captain ftom Cape Cod is indeed both a biography of Captain Peter Crowell of West Dennis, Massachusetts and a history of his fi rm, C rowell & Thurlow. It is a large-format book, profusely illustrated with photographs of the firm' s schooners, steam vessels, and facilities. Paul M orris writes in a plain, straight-forward style that complements the downto-earth work-a-day people and vessels he describes, just as he has done in his eight previous boo ks. Peter Crowell was born in 183 7, the son of a schooner cap-
tain , went to sea at 13, and at 19 began his career as a coasting captain . H e came ashore in 1887 at age 50 and began acquiring ownership interests and m anagement contracts in a variety of vessels. As his business developed, his daughter persuaded him to take in Lewis Thurlow as a junior partner in the fi rm of Crowell & Thurlow as it was being organized in 1900 . Thurlow was fro m Maine and had some yea rs of experience in the ship brokerage and manage ment business. Started at a time when shipp ing was just emerging from the depress ion of the 1880s and 90s, and coinciding with the industrial expansio n in New England, the firm p ros pered. At its peak, Crowell & Thurlow managed at least 82 vessels, many of them huge multi -m as ted schoo ners. By 19 10 steam was m akin g serious inroads in the coas tal trade, schooners were being cut down into coal barges, and in 1912 the firm' s first steam vessel was launched. World War I bro ugh t high freight rates and the business continued to flourish. W ith Peter C rowell's retirement, the end of the war, and a drop in fre ight rates, cargos became scarce, crews fo r the larger sch ooners were hard to find, and Thurlow was clearly no Crowell. C rowell died in 1923 at 87 and was spared the bankruptcy in 1924 of a major part of his former firm . Thurlow was a survivo r and hung on with a few ships until he died in 1940. Alo ng with the great number of photos mentioned earlier, there are ample descriptions of launchings, strandings, and other happenings-all of which make excellent reading fo r the coastal historian or schooner buff A very wo rkmanlike and interesting book that presents a significant cross section of the coas ting trade, A Captain ftom Cape Cod is also a good read! TOWNSEND HORNOR Os terville, Massachusetts
Exploding Steamboats, Senate Debates, and Technical Reports, The Convergence of Technology, Politics and Rhetoric in the Steamboat Bill of 1838, by R. John Brockmann (Baywood Publishing Com pany, Inc., Ami tyville, NY, 2002, l 56pp, illus, tables, appen, index, notes, ISBN 0895 03-266-X; $34.95hc) Before the mid- l 800s, most peop le
SEA HISTORY 107, SPRING/SUMMER 2004