Read any good (sailing) books lately?

[Christian Williams]

Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis.

I was probably the last human to read this story, only two weeks ago, but it is famously on the shelf of nearly every sailor and has lent its name to many a yacht large and small. Would be just grand to read aloud to children, as no doubt many of us did or are. Lewis, among his other remarkable attributes, is awful good on nautical stuff, and never gets a term or a sensation wrong.

 

[nquigley]

Here's the leftmost end of my sailing voyages bookshelf ... ranked l to r by initial publishing date - these volumes range from 1948 to 1981. For most, I've been able to find first editions, which seem to have a little extra (imagined) heft when reading them as they were there at the time when their story was introduced to the world. They're all good reads, and some are foundational in this literature genre.

 

[Rosco]

'The Curve of Time' by Muriel Capi Blanchet. The ultimate Westcoast British Columbia must have (onboard) about a widow and 4 children who explore the coast for 15 years during the 1920s and 30s. All the place names now frequented and well known but her adventures were done using Capt. James Vancouver's log and the charts of the day. 6 of them plus a dog in a 25' motor sailor with its tender 6' beam. Also on audible now. Desolation Sound, Jervis Inlet, Thormanby Islands, The Broughtons and all those point between.

 

[windblown]

I just finished 'A sailor, a chicken, an incredible voyage' (Guirec Soudee). Writing style is a little odd (partly a 'lost in translation' thing, I think) but huge respect for the sailing he (and Momo) did! .. at only ~19-20 years old. There's something impressive (odd??) about Frenchmen and epic solo sailing ;-)

I just started Ann Davidson's 'My Ship is So Small' - solo transAt in the early 1950s (first woman, I think)- only one chapter in - interesting (old fashioned and self-effacing) writing style, but enjoyable so far.

I loved Guirec Soudee's "A sailor, a Chicken, and Incredile Voyage."

 

[nquigley]

I just finished, Cruise to a Cruel Shore, by Henri Bourdens (1969). It was referenced in another book I was reading recently.
It's a really well written true story about a commercial international pilot who, after early childhood in SE Asia, grew in France where he did a lot of small-boat sailing and developed life-long dream to circumnavigate. He retired early, moved to Malaysia and had a 45' boat built there (interesting design) in the mid-late 1950s. He and his wife then set off toward the SE, having all sorts of challenges right from the start - new-boat troubles (builder shortcuts), navigation (the needed charts were poor or not available), cultural (bureaucracy at some stops), etc. It's a very interesting sailing story, culminating in being driven ashore in very isolated NW Australia by a cyclone ... then the story takes an entirely different and equally engaging tack. At this point, we're only slightly past the middle of the book, so you can imagine all the possible challenges they encountered ... no spoilers provided ...

 

[Alan Gomes]

I loved Guirec Soudee's "A sailor, a Chicken, and Incredile Voyage."

And he has some amazing YouTube videos of him with his chicken crew! Unbelievable!

 

[Roger Janeway]

The Wager, by David Grann. True story, mid 18th century British navy. More about being shipwrecked than sailing.

 

[bsangs]

The Wager, by David Grann. True story, mid 18th century British navy. More about being shipwrecked than sailing.

Plowed through that in two days a few weeks ago. What a fantastic book.

 

[Tooluser]

Here's a database of what I'm reading/have read in the sailing domain recently. Idiomatically ranked, sparsely commented, opinions my own, etc.

 

[nquigley]

Just finished a real page-turner - Erebus by Michael Palin.
I started it at an airport on Friday afternoon on my way home from a work trip and finished it last night.
It's the story of the high-latitude voyages, scientific and navigational discovery goals, officers and crew of a pair of Royal Navy ships (Erebus and Terror) in the 1820s-1840s. Palin provides lots of fascinating well-researched context of the who, what, why, and how of these voyages: e.g., the RN had just dramatically down-sized following the end of the Napoleonic Wars and there were new ships and lots of able seamen with nothing to do so scientific exploration to far-off places resumed; Charles Darwin's Beagle had come back only ~10 years before and several of those crew were on these new voyages; the race to map the north and south magnetic pole (and claim associated lands) was in full swing; photography was invented just a couple years before the last (fateful) voyage in this book and photos were taken of the officers - first time photography had been used for this sort of collective record - reproduced in this book; and, and, ...

 

[CTOlsen]

White Slave, by David Maislish (Australian) . An American merchant ship runs aground on the west coast of Africa, and the seamen are taken as slaves. An incredible non-fiction story of survival. Available on Kindle and print. I read it in 2010 and am re-reading it.

 

[Prairie Schooner]

The Raft Book by Harold Gatty ???????

John Kretschmer speaks highly of this book. They're going for about $100+ on eBay, with charts, tape, sleeve. I don't have one and haven't seen one IRL. If you've seen it or own it, how useful is it? Financial value is a personal thing, but I'm interested in your assessment of its practical value. Can the info be got, somewhat concisely, in a different form?

 

[jtsai]

Just finished a real page-turner - Erebus by Michael Palin.
I started it at an airport on Friday afternoon on my way home from a work trip and finished it last night.
It's the story of the high-latitude voyages, scientific and navigational discovery goals, officers and crew of a pair of Royal Navy ships (Erebus and Terror) in the 1820s-1840s. Palin provides lots of fascinating well-researched context of the who, what, why, and how of these voyages: e.g., the RN had just dramatically down-sized following the end of the Napoleonic Wars and there were new ships and lots of able seamen with nothing to do so scientific exploration to far-off places resumed; Charles Darwin's Beagle had come back only ~10 years before and several of those crew were on these new voyages; the race to map the north and south magnetic pole (and claim associated lands) was in full swing; photography was invented just a couple years before the last (fateful) voyage in this book and photos were taken of the officers - first time photography had been used for this sort of collective record - reproduced in this book; and, and, ...

Just happen my daughter spent 3 months last year in Antarctic worked as a research scientist and here is one of the pictures she sent: Mt Erebus in the distance and the New Zealand's Antarctic research base on top of Mt Terror.

 

[Gaviate]

"Left For Dead" by NIck Ward and Sinead O'Brien. A riveting personal account of surviving the deadliest storm during the 1979 Fastnet race.
On a lighter note, I've not quite finished, but am enjoying, "Swallows and Amazons" by Arthur Ransome. A tale of 4 children (siblings) and their adventure with a sailing dingy, very entertaining and spot on with proper sailing nomenclature (our secret language)!
Cheers!

 

[Loren Beach]

On a lighter note, I've not quite finished, but am enjoying, "Swallows and Amazons" by Arthur Ransome. A tale of 4 children (siblings) and their adventure with a sailing dingy, very entertaining and spot on with proper sailing nomenclature (our secret language)!

I have nearly all of Ransome's books on my shelf, including some non fiction.
They are a (fictional) spot light into an era from way before our time. Of all the titles, I really like "We didn't mean to go to sea", "Missy Lee" and perhaps most of all, "Secret Water".

 

[Bepi]

A great free audiobook listen, Sailing Alone Around the World: https://librivox.org/sailing-alone-around-the-world-by-joshua-slocum/

The reader is phenomenal. Like listening to the man himself. Multiple listenings and it never gets old.

 

[southofvictor]

Just finished “We the Drowned” by Karsten Jensen. Epic historical tale of a multiple generations of a town in Denmark from the tall ship days through WWII. It took a while to read but I definitely enjoyed it.

 

[Gaviate]

I have nearly all of Ransome's books

The book was a 'hmm, wonder what this is about' discovery whilst browsing the shelves at local library. A wonderful find and after finishing the book, and reading you're comments, I've learned that it is actually the beginning of a 12 book series!! Since it is the only title at library, I now find myself considering a new quest...

 

[Kif]

The Outlaw Ocean – Journeys Across The Last Untamed Frontier
Ian Urbina
Alfred A. Knopf 2021

(From the book cover) “There are few remaining frontiers on our planet. Perhaps the wildest, and least understood, are the world’s oceans: too big to police, and under no clear international authority, these immense regions of treacherous water play host to rampant criminality and exploitation. Traffickers and smugglers, pirates and mercenaries, wreck thieves and repo men, vigilante conservationists and elusive poachers, sea bound abortion providers, clandestine oil dumpers, shackled slaves and cast adrift stowaways – drawing on five years of perilous and intrepid reporting, often hundreds of miles from shore, Ian Urbina introduces us to the inhabitants of this hidden world.”

I really liked Outlaw Ocean too.

 

[julibell]

GOD FORSAKEN SEA - Derek Lundy