Reviews Tugboats of New York: An Illustrated History by George Matteson (New York
genealogies with a raco nteur's grace that only comes from having been an avid listener-all those hours in the wheelhouse with an empty run home. From here it is an easy segue to the lmottier sto ry of labor relations in New York harbor. 111e compassio nate rendering of the seemingly endless and contentious labor-management wrangling is succinctly summed up as "two bald men arguing over a comb." This is the heart of the book, for it also tracks the rise and fal l of tugboats in the harbor- there is simply not much work
Universiry Press, October 2005, 272pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, I SBN: 0-81 475708-1; $39.95 hc) The seducti ve promise of the fogdrenched images on the dust jacket of Tugboats of New York is more than fulfilled in the comprehensive contents. George Matteson has written a history of tugboats and the harbor "through the hawse." His twenty-so me years of experience on w gs, from deck to wheelhouse, inform the eloquent text and subtle selection of photographs (which could make a fine art book in themselves). C~oaG E MATTE SO S Ir is nigh impossible not to open a book like this and peruse at random- the quality of the photographs is topnotch and th e captions provide a derailed history. Rewards are greater, though, when yo u actually read the book from beginning to end. The author is a captain, mind you, used to keeping immense Roaring ton- left for them to do. Condominiums have nages under co ntrol, working with rides, replaced factories along the waterfront; piers currents, weather and rhe vagaries of hu- now host sports complexes instead of ocean m an behavior, to complete the voyage. We liners. The sto ry now begins to reAect the can certainly trust him to keep the narrative elegiac tone of the dust jacket-the sum of under control. the parts give tribute to tl1e "ancient unruly There is th e more or less chronological traditions of the harbor," echoed in the fine history of the development o f towing ves- li ttle epilogue: " ... and his answer made me sels and propulsion, but then he delicately doubt that he wou ld go back on the boats weaves in the social and political currents again." Perhaps, but we will go back time swirling about the industry. Matteson man- and again to the stories. ARDEN SCOTT ages to keep the flow of information runGreenport, New York ning smoothly between fact, anecdote, surmise, and story. Just when you think you are getting bogged down in C ivil War towTemple to the Wind: The Story of ing finan ces, there is a brilliant exposition America's Greatest Naval Architect and o n the shifting of barges. Who wouldn't His Masterpiece, Reliance by C hristopher read carefully to find out the derails about Pastore (Lyo ns Press, Guilford, CT, 2005 , the "Sing Sing Stampede"? 304 pp, photo , illus, gloss, notes, biblio, The postwar industrial exuberance of ISBN: 1-59228-557-0; $22.95hc) the nineteenth century is refl ected in the Traditional maritime historians and design of tugs-single screw propulsion, historians of yachting sometimes seem richly paneled wheelhouses-and in the poised on either side of a concepwal G rand rise of dynastic towing companies (Mo- Canyo n so broad that understanding, even ran and McAl lister are still fami liar names empathy, is impossible. From the yachting in the port). Matteson eases through the side of the chas m, I hope that my friends
SEA HISTORY 114, SPRlNG 2006
o n the commercial and naval side can open themselves to the notion that pleasure boating is in co ntinui ty with, not a disruption against, the histo ry of human engagement with the sea. The story does not begin or end with d1e yacht America. For example, the constructi on of the yawl Bolero by rh e H enry B. Nevins Shipyard in 1949 was as co mplex and, in its own milieu, as consequential as that of a clipper ship a century earlier. As confirmed by the late Nicholas D ean in Snow Squall: The Last American Clipper Ship (Maine M aritime Museum, 2001) , each vessel began with a dream, each presenred asto unding technical and economic challenges, and each embodied the labor and hopes of wo rking class co mmunities of C ity Island, New York, and Cape Elizabeth, M aine. Once launched, each vessel went off to a long, successful , and by no means easy career. This compariso n suggests that one foundation on which to build a span across our unfortunate canyo n is with the stories of vessels and their creators. An excellent starting point is die autobiograp hy of d1e dominant yacht designer from 1930- 1980, Olin Stephens's ALL This and Sailing, Too (Mys tic Seaport, 1999). Next on the list of required reading is the sto ry of d1e greatest of al l single- masted racing yachts and of its designer and builder, Nathanael G reene H erreshoff, in Temple to the Wind by C hristopher Pas tore. In addition to provid ing a derailed history of one of the most important America's C up matches, Pastore offers rhe best representatio n I have read of the complex wo rld of building and sai ling a vessel at the very highest level. Using the fruits of his resea rch in America and Britain, he has recounted the story of 1903 Cup defender Reliance, one even more remarkable and strange than I ever anricipared. One of the few boats that really deserves the label "icon," at 143'8" from stem to stern, Reliance was, until recently, the largest racing sloop ever built. Financed by anon ymous millionai res, created by the sometim es-perverse Herreshoff, co mmanded by the ruthless and brilliant
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