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Read any good (sailing) books lately?
- Thread starter Bolo
- Start date
TS Farley
Member II
Oh, and of course, Secret Water by Arthur Ransome, an absolute favourite.
Pete the Cat
Sustaining Member
I just finished "Overboard" by Michael J Tougias. There are a number of books by that title, but this one was a well written story about a group of competent skippers getting into a situation and the extraordinary efforts to survive.
Bepi
E27 Roxanne
A few years ago I reread 20,000 leagues under the sea. It was better than I remembered. I ran some calculations and figured out that 20,000 leagues below the suface of the sea would have you go through the earth and leave you out in deep space. Then it dawned on me, it was the distance travelled to various points on while under water. I imagine the French title "Vingt Mille Lieues sous les mers" might express more clearly what lesser minds stumble upon later.
A nautical series that I read more than any other is the "Hornblower" series. Who hove the line that saved the "Pluto"? Who led the mutany aboard the "Flame"? Who lost their leg at the Battle of Rosas? There is only one way to find out. The main charactor is a cross between Nelson and Cochrane. If you have never read this series for the young you are missing out. Action, adventure, women, and then more action! Churchill, when asked about the books, replied " I find Hornblower admirable."
A nautical series that I read more than any other is the "Hornblower" series. Who hove the line that saved the "Pluto"? Who led the mutany aboard the "Flame"? Who lost their leg at the Battle of Rosas? There is only one way to find out. The main charactor is a cross between Nelson and Cochrane. If you have never read this series for the young you are missing out. Action, adventure, women, and then more action! Churchill, when asked about the books, replied " I find Hornblower admirable."
Prairie Schooner
Jeff & Donna, E35-3 purchased 7/21
Your opinion on
The Raft Book by Harold Gatty ???????
If you've seen it or own it, how useful is this book?
John Kretschmer speaks highly of it. They're going for about $100+ on eBay, with charts, tape, sleeve. I don't have one and haven't seen one IRL. 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, for less?
Thanks, Jeff
* I posted this shortly before Christmas with no response. I'm giving it another shot here in the doldrums of winter.
The Raft Book by Harold Gatty ???????
If you've seen it or own it, how useful is this book?
John Kretschmer speaks highly of it. They're going for about $100+ on eBay, with charts, tape, sleeve. I don't have one and haven't seen one IRL. 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, for less?
Thanks, Jeff
* I posted this shortly before Christmas with no response. I'm giving it another shot here in the doldrums of winter.
I had as a kid a similar book. It was actually a Navy publication, and I memorized it. It said don't drink urine, showed how to use a penknife as a fish hook, and advocated letting crewmen smoke in the raft because it calmed them. It was a wonderful read, about the physical format of the Gatty book. It was very big on not drinking seawater and keeping a hat on, using the raft mirror to attract ships, not giving up and so on.
Based on that, I can't imagine wartime-era advice being much use today, except as a collector's item. We just have so many navigation and rescue options that the old stuff is mostly quaint.
Based on that, I can't imagine wartime-era advice being much use today, except as a collector's item. We just have so many navigation and rescue options that the old stuff is mostly quaint.
Prairie Schooner
Jeff & Donna, E35-3 purchased 7/21
@Christian Williams - That's what I thought too, and have spent similar time enjoying those types of books. With the same fascination I bought a surplus WWII folding mesh radar reflector still packed in olive drab waxed paper at the Old Defender (rip) spring sale.
I did a little more digging on this and the Gatty book is all about navigation.
"This book has been written for those who, without previous experience in navigation and without navigating instruments, find themselves in small craft in the open sea and who have to make their way to land."
I even found a digital copy online.
I'll probably hold off on purchasing one for a while and see how I like the digital version first.
I did a little more digging on this and the Gatty book is all about navigation.
"This book has been written for those who, without previous experience in navigation and without navigating instruments, find themselves in small craft in the open sea and who have to make their way to land."
I even found a digital copy online.
The Raft Book : Harold Gatty : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Timeless book of practical navigation and survival information.
archive.org
Tooluser
Flǎneur
Just finished _Sailing the Bay_ by Kimball Livingston.
It's nominally region-specific, describing as it does the SF Bay Area and immediate coastal waters. But it's stylistically gorgeous. @Christian Williams I think of you as a stylist and a lover of good prose and you'll note that Livingston too was a journalist, and has done what the occasional journalist does (or used to do?). The turns of phrase are tight.
And even though it's region-specific, the waters here are legendary for a reason and I think many of the lessons are applicable, even if only to the degree that detailed inspection is rewarded with great appreciation of the subtlety to be found anywhere there's water. For example, for the chapter on our tides and their currents and countercurrents, and the dizzying way the north bay ebbs into a flood into the South Bay at ebb, and all the other hydrological marvels, he has sections from U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist Ralph Ta-Shun Cheng. Similarly for racers and the history of the races on and around the bay.
It's available again, I think, and used if not. I found a copy on the wall at the Bay View Boat Club and got a used copy from Abe Books for myself.
It's nominally region-specific, describing as it does the SF Bay Area and immediate coastal waters. But it's stylistically gorgeous. @Christian Williams I think of you as a stylist and a lover of good prose and you'll note that Livingston too was a journalist, and has done what the occasional journalist does (or used to do?). The turns of phrase are tight.
And even though it's region-specific, the waters here are legendary for a reason and I think many of the lessons are applicable, even if only to the degree that detailed inspection is rewarded with great appreciation of the subtlety to be found anywhere there's water. For example, for the chapter on our tides and their currents and countercurrents, and the dizzying way the north bay ebbs into a flood into the South Bay at ebb, and all the other hydrological marvels, he has sections from U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist Ralph Ta-Shun Cheng. Similarly for racers and the history of the races on and around the bay.
It's available again, I think, and used if not. I found a copy on the wall at the Bay View Boat Club and got a used copy from Abe Books for myself.
alcodiesel
Bill McLean
I enjoyed this one. During covid lock down this chap went on an extended cruise to isolate. He's an old hand at sailing.
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Prairie Schooner
Jeff & Donna, E35-3 purchased 7/21
Rereading the Aubrey/Maturin books, yet again, I came across this wonderful line, "The sea, if it teaches nothing else, does at least compel a submission to the inevitable, which resembles patience." Blue At The Mizzen
Well chaps I dare say not a captain amongst you shall understand his vessel until such time as consultation with the ship herself be your own. Ordinarily this ain't possible, as me and my mates having discovered over many a year -- that they just won't talk. Ships, that is. While in a hurricano or beached for paint, they don't give up their lessons easy, but rather just sit there mute and saying nothing at all of what they know.
Very rarely indeed are we invited to the internal conversation of keel and frame, rigging and spars, which goes on don't you know right continuously whilst although beyond our limited range, such that when a mast comes afalling down unexpected, well, if that mast were to speak it, and we to have listened, would have seen it coming all along.
But as i say, ordinarily your seaman is not privy to such conversation. Except once, as related by Mr. Kipling, which if such goings on belowdeck entertains any interest, can be found by scrolling down to the account called "The Ship That Found Herself," a cracking good yarn and one I'll wager you ain't heard before because of just plain not listening..
Note: by reducing view-window size, Guttenberg files can be read book-like on screen
Very rarely indeed are we invited to the internal conversation of keel and frame, rigging and spars, which goes on don't you know right continuously whilst although beyond our limited range, such that when a mast comes afalling down unexpected, well, if that mast were to speak it, and we to have listened, would have seen it coming all along.
But as i say, ordinarily your seaman is not privy to such conversation. Except once, as related by Mr. Kipling, which if such goings on belowdeck entertains any interest, can be found by scrolling down to the account called "The Ship That Found Herself," a cracking good yarn and one I'll wager you ain't heard before because of just plain not listening..
The Day's Work - Part 1
www.gutenberg.org
Note: by reducing view-window size, Guttenberg files can be read book-like on screen
Bepi
E27 Roxanne
That is my favorite book of all time. I enjoyed "The Ship that Found Herself" but my favorites are "The Bridge Builders" and " The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea".....and "The Tomb of his Fathers". Really, the whole book is just fantastic, but those ones stick out for me. Kiplings fiction and poetry stay with you..." so if you're left to die on Afghanistan's plains, and the women come out to cut up what remains, roll o'er on your rifle and b*** out your b**** and go to your God like a soldier, a soldier of the Queen." Smashing.Well chaps I dare say not a captain amongst you shall understand his vessel until such time as consultation with the ship herself be your own. Ordinarily this ain't possible, as me and my mates having discovered over many a year -- that they just won't talk. Ships, that is. While in a hurricano or beached for paint, they don't give up their lessons easy, but rather just sit there mute and saying nothing at all of what they know.
Very rarely indeed are we invited to the internal conversation of keel and frame, rigging and spars, which goes on don't you know right continuously whilst although beyond our limited range, such that when a mast comes afalling down unexpected, well, if that mast were to speak it, and we to have listened, would have seen it coming all along.
But as i say, ordinarily your seaman is not privy to such conversation. Except once, as related by Mr. Kipling, which if such goings on belowdeck entertains any interest, can be found by scrolling down to the account called "The Ship That Found Herself," a cracking good yarn and one I'll wager you ain't heard before because of just plain not listening..
The Day's Work - Part 1
www.gutenberg.org
Note: by reducing view-window size, Guttenberg files can be read book-like on screen
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alcodiesel
Bill McLean
Re reading the Hornblower series (love), Moby Dick audiobook (great humor I didn't get when young), the Rudyard Kipling stories mentioned above (haven't yet fully acquired the taste), and Bosun's Bag by Tom Conliffe (readable is small chunks but fun.
A few weeks ago I finished “A Voyage for Madmen” by Peter Nichols, about the inaugural Golden Globe Race in 1968.
It prompted me to start Bernard Moitessier’s, “The Long Way”. Moitessier abandoned the ‘68 race after rounding Cape Horn, in the lead by most accounts, not far from the finish, and continued on a second circumnavigation ending up in Tahiti for a while. He had celebrity status from his previous sailing exploits and just didn’t want to get caught up in it again.
I find that fascinating.
It prompted me to start Bernard Moitessier’s, “The Long Way”. Moitessier abandoned the ‘68 race after rounding Cape Horn, in the lead by most accounts, not far from the finish, and continued on a second circumnavigation ending up in Tahiti for a while. He had celebrity status from his previous sailing exploits and just didn’t want to get caught up in it again.
I find that fascinating.
Erik F. (Filkee) sent me "Six Frigates,' by Ian Toll. It's a nonfiction page turner in the spirit of Patrick O'Brian. US tries to start a Navy, argues about whether it's necessary, then comes up with Old Ironsides and others as a design superior to English warships for reasons of our native oak and the subtleties of two-deck or three-deck design. Gosh, reminded again how brutal ship encounters were, with every other chap having his arm or head blown off whilst standing next to you. A riveting read, at least until peace comes. That is very hard on careers and wooden ships, why, to get ahead we really ought to have war all the time. Jack Aubrey though the same.
alcodiesel
Bill McLean
Yeah, I liked 6 frigates so much I read it a couple of times.
I think I'll re read some of the above selections.
Always had a problem with Patrick. Maybe I'll give him another try.
I think I'll re read some of the above selections.
Always had a problem with Patrick. Maybe I'll give him another try.
+1 on Six Frigates.
For other glimpses of what naval war was like back then, any of a number of books on the battle of trafalgar are worth reading. Nocholas Best's "Trafalgar" is a good one.
Semi-related, I found Stephen Bown's "Madness, Betrayal and the Lash" about George Vancouver to be really interesting. (plus, of course, there are a ton of Captain Cook biographies worth recommending.
Different topic, but Toll's 3-volume set on WW2 in the Pacific is also very good.
For other glimpses of what naval war was like back then, any of a number of books on the battle of trafalgar are worth reading. Nocholas Best's "Trafalgar" is a good one.
Semi-related, I found Stephen Bown's "Madness, Betrayal and the Lash" about George Vancouver to be really interesting. (plus, of course, there are a ton of Captain Cook biographies worth recommending.
Different topic, but Toll's 3-volume set on WW2 in the Pacific is also very good.
Allow me to point to the best cheap edition of Moby Dick i have found. I had four versions lost in the fire, one a first edition, but this was the one I turned to.
It was produced by Easton Press as part of a sort of book-of-the-month club pitch, and is now available used from various sources, Ebay and others. May take a bit of searching but there are scores for sale in the $30-50 range.
Leather bound, handsome and legible font and type size, attractive illustrations (not too many) and gilded page edges.
There is a no better gift, to yourself or for any loved one.
And as an amusement factor, there is the tone-deaf introduction by the fart Clifton Fadiman, whose analysis finds Melville humorless and a doomsday pessimist--this of a work that begins with a sitcom of young innocent in bed with a tattooed headshrinker, and throughout sings with love of life and buoyant marvel.
...
It was produced by Easton Press as part of a sort of book-of-the-month club pitch, and is now available used from various sources, Ebay and others. May take a bit of searching but there are scores for sale in the $30-50 range.
Leather bound, handsome and legible font and type size, attractive illustrations (not too many) and gilded page edges.
There is a no better gift, to yourself or for any loved one.
And as an amusement factor, there is the tone-deaf introduction by the fart Clifton Fadiman, whose analysis finds Melville humorless and a doomsday pessimist--this of a work that begins with a sitcom of young innocent in bed with a tattooed headshrinker, and throughout sings with love of life and buoyant marvel.
...