REVIEWS the amhropomorphic aspecrs of rheir consrrucrion and use. The inclusion of a general and abridged hisrory of rhe rechnological change ro ships and seafaring makes chis work access ible ro all and explains ramificarions of economic and rechnological change-the conceptual boundaries within which discussions of obsolescence and rhe deliberate abandonment of watercraft make most sense. While the book does nor have an exrensive bibliography, it is replete with a surprisingly large number of beautiful , high-quality phorographs and illumarions. Well worth a read.
Sea Struck, by W H. Bunring (Tilbury House, Publishing, Gardin er, ME, 2004, 365pp, notes, illus, appen, index, ISBN 088448-265-0; $30hc) Sea Struck is a remarkable book which is difficult, if nor impossible, ro pll( down . Ir concerns an era in the story of American m aritime inreresr which is often neglected as being less imporranr, perhaps, than , shall we say, rhe clipper ship era or the War of 181 2. The period from the end of rhe
NATHAN RI CHARDS
Greenville, North Carolina
Around Cape Horn: A Maritime Artist! Historian's Account of His 1892 Voyage, edited by Cape. Neal Parker (Down East Books, Camden, Maine, 2004, 216pp, illus, ISBN 0-89272-646-6; $ l 4.95 pb) Go ing to sea ro cure failing eyesight has ro be one of the oddest of medical prescriptions, bur char is exactly what Charles G . D avis did: shipped our as crew on the square ri gger f ames A. Wright. Fortuna rely, the yo ung Davis, inexperienced bur enthusiastic, kept a journal, recording his 29 1-day trip ro Chile and back-and we have Around Cape Ho rn: A Maritime Artist/Historian's Account ofhis 1892 Voyage. "Ir was a grand sight ro look around from the height of rhe yard we were on and see the wild play of rhose Cape Horn seas all around us." The green, bur irrepressibly enrhusiasric, yo ung Davis must have annoyed rhe mares and perplexed the capta in , bur clearly he go r along fine with his fellow hands. Much of rhe book's charm is rhe rendering of daily life ar sea, with all irs inrricare balances of seamans hip, personalities, and ship's busi ness. Advenrure awaits in C hile as well: plors, chases, near escapes. The mas rerful lirtle sketches ar rhe chapter headings zoom to rhe heart of rhe action-sailors at work. If we need justification for sail trai ning, this is ir. Ah, and yes, in what has ro be an ophthalmologic first, Davis returns ro Brooklyn: "My eyes were enrirely cured of rheir weakness and I felr strong eno ugh to knock over a bull." ARDEN SCOTT
Greenport, New York
44
C ivil War to the early days of rhe 20rh century was a period of marked technological and social change in maritime commerce. In shipbuilding, wood gave way to iron, sail gave way ro steam, and bulky paddle wheels gave way ro screw propellers . The size of ships grew subsranrially, yet crew sizes diminished with rhe inrroducrion of donkey engines which could rake rhe place of m any men, especially raising and lowering huge sails. Whaling, especially in Nantucket and New Bedford, becam e less rhe exclusive preoccupation of captains and merchants, while worldwide commerce in the raw materials of manu fact uring such as corron, lumber, coal, oil and petroleum became increasingly important. Yer, this era has had far less artenrion than rhe more romanric days of frigates and whalers. Mr. William Bunring has restored rhe balance in our maritim e pasr in Sea Struck. (H e was rhe all(hor of Portrait ofa Port, Boston 1852-1914, a book whi ch has become a classic bur is no longer in print.) After inrroducing readers ro rhe conrexr of rhar era and the ships it spawned, Bunring acquainrs us to the New Bedford and Namucker families who owned and
sailed these ships-the Swifo, Roches, Rodmans, a nd others. He tells us of two you ng fo'c'sle hands, Captain Besse's 1883 fleer, and Ca ptain Frank Stone. Th e main body of rhe book examines individual captains, their Beers, and voyages around rhe globe. A final section, and perhaps rhe mosr intriguing, tells of a young Tod Swift who shipped our as a deck hand on the barque Astral, bound for Japan, in November 1904. Ar that rime, petroleum prod ucts were shipped in rectangular tin can s that held about 10 gallons each, called "case oil." These cans were rightly packed- thousands and rhousands of them- aboard huge ships or barques . Swift kept a secret journal and wrote candidly abo ut the voyage. Ir would nor have gone over well , either with his shipmates or wirh rhe captai n, had rhey been aware that every aspect of their voyage was being carefully recorded . Swift wrote exceedingly well, and his journal, with Bunring's footnotes, gives us a wonderful understandin g of what a passage under sail was like 100 years ago. A helpful feature of this book, especially co nsidering the enormous amounr of research co nducted, is thar the notes follow each chapter immediately, rather rhan at rhe back of rhe book. Ir makes it much easier to cross reference a foornore without hav ing to turn the who le book around and go through pages and pages of other material ro find the note. Finally, rhe many photographs are simply remarkable and worrh the price of rh e book themselves. ToM H ALE
Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts
Writing Geographical Exploration: fames and the Northwest Passage 163133, by Wayne K. D. Davies (Univ. of Calgary Press a nd Arctic Institute of North America, C algary, Alberta, 2003, 3 l 8pp, figures, rabies, biblio, index, ISB N 155238-062-9; $49.95) The du al inrenrions of this book are ro reassess rhe explorarory voyage of Captain Th omas James, who departed Bristol in 1631 to search for rhe fa bled Northwest Passage, and to examine the means by which he communi cared his experiences and descriptions of northern No rth America SEA HISTORY l 10, SPRfNG 2005