Practical seamanship
and boatbuilding
I
REMEMBER THE TALL SHIPS
Frank Brookesmith
The story of a young New Zealander, serving his time for a mate's ticket in the last days of commercial deepwater sail.
'… writes very well indeed of the day to day life in such ships, with its constant hardships and ever present dangers.'
Lloyd's List
'… a flair for impressive almost poetic description.'
The Nautical Magazine
216 x 138 mm | 268 pp illus. | ISBN 085036 327 6 | £8.95 SB pbk
Gordon Brown
One or two skippers of the sailing barges that crowded the Thames in the 1930s have given accounts of their lives as sailormen; now it is the turn of the mate to tell his story.
' … a must for all sailing barge lovers.'
Yachting World
'… rich in the authentic flavours of London river and barge life of a bygone era.'
Lloyd's List
214 x 132 mm | 158 pp | ISBN 085036 444 2 | £6.95 SB pbk
Homeward round the Horn
Capt. Jim Cottier
The lively story of a modern voyage under sail round Cape Horn.
' … the vivid experience of a highly intelligent group of men and women who had the spirit to embrace this once-in-a-lifetime adventure with whole hearted attention and enthusiasm'
Lloyd's List
210 x 148 mm | 220 pp illus. | ISBN 085036 482 5 |£10.95 SB pbk
The True Story of a Boy Who Went to Sea and Came Back a Man
Russ Hofvendahl
As the San Francisco waterfront struggled in the grip of the Great Depression, fifteen-year-old Russ Hofvendahl talked his way aboard a four-masted schooner and sailed out to catch cod in the Bering Sea. Full of laconic candour, Hard on the Wind Featuring many period photos of the ship and crew, Hofvendahl's laconic, candid and compelling narrative recounts this formative journey with vivid anecdotes depicting a world that exists today only in memory.
216 x 137 mm | 251 pp illus.| ISBN 1 57409 194 8 | £12.95 SH pbk
Bob Roberts
Bob Roberts first went to sea aged fifteen in the barquentine, Waterwitch. He crossed the Atlantic in a 27-foot smack, and was sunk twice during the Second World War. He traded and fished on the coasts of East Anglia and owned and sailed the last working sailing vessel under the red ensign, the spritsail barge, Cambria. Here, he recounts adventures in brine, ice and fire, introducing the vessels he sailed and the colourful characters he met over the years, and telling of the places that figured in his life - not only on the coasts of the North Sea, but places as far flung as the West Indies, Ascension Island, West Africa, and Brazil.
135 x 214 mm | 176 pp illus.| ISBN 0 9542750 6 3 | £9.95 SB hbk
LAST
OF THE SAILORMEN
Bob Roberts
'Sailormen' was what the old Thames barge men called their vessels - the last sailing vessels to carry a commercial cargo. The last of them all was Cambria - and Bob Roberts was her skipper. With line drawings by Archie White.
'… one of the classic accounts of the Thames sailing barge and the work it did, the men who sailed them and the hard life they lived …'
Lloyd's List
Illustrated with line drawings by Archie White, and photos
216 x 135 mm | 138 pp illus. | ISBN 95381 804 7 | £8.95 SB pbk
COASTING
BARGEMASTER
Bob Roberts
A vivid account of the romance and the reality of coastal trade in sailing vessels in the nineteen thirties and forties.
'… an extraordinary story because it takes place within living memory, and yet it portrays a way of life that has been completely obliterated by the advance of technology… there's lots of interest for the non-sailor, as he captures life in Britain in the inter-war years.'
Classic Boat, January 2000
Foreword by Des Sleightholme
216 x 135 mm | 176 pp illus. | ISBN 0 95381 801 2 | £9.95 SB pbk
ROUGH
AND TUMBLE
Bob Roberts
Bob Roberts and his friend Bully saved all they could make to buy Thelma, a 27-foot Looe smack, and fit her out. After testing her out in the North Sea, they headed for Panama. Australia was in their minds, as times were hard in England, but their epic voyage ended in shipwreck in the Cocos islands.
'Understated tales from the last sail-only barge skipper on the Thames. Now he's in the Pacific in a small boat and comes to grief with aplomb'
With a foreword by Richard May
216 x 135 mm | 168 pp illus. | ISBN 0 95381 809 8 | £9.95 SB pbk
SLOPE
OF THE WIND
Adrian Seligman
Seligman's lively prose describes the trials and pleasures of a life under sail: Cape Horn, adventures with sharks, drunken captains, stowaways - and an idyll with lovely Elsa in the Åland Islands.
'Of the many books I have read by young men who ran away to sea … I found this one by far the most absorbing.'
Captain Michael Willoughby, Seaways
234 x 156 mm | 220 pp, illus. | ISBN 085036 443 4 | £10.95 SB pbk
THE
VOYAGE OF THE CAP PILAR
Adrian Seligman
With money from his grandfather and experience before the mast in square-rigged ships, the author bought a three-masted barquentine of 295 tons, and fitted her out to sail around the world with an amateur crew and his newly-married wife.
'Do read this book … it will gladden your heart.'
The Seafarers Editor's Choice
'… a most creditable performance to have circumnavigated the world without a serious incident.'
RNSA Journal
216 x 138 mm | 360 pp illus. | ISBN 0 85036 438 8 | £10.95 SB pbk
CRUISE
OF THE CONRAD
Alan Villiers
To sail a fully rigged ship round the world: to stand
at the helm of a ship perfect in every detail but only one hundred feet
long, and two hundred tons burthen: to command a band of young men in
a two year voyage in a ship such as the great adventurers used in their
discoveries : this is what Alan Villiers set out to do in 1934.
In Cruise of the Conrad he tells how he did his job; how his little
frigate, after crossing the Atlantic was blown on the Brooklyn rocks
in a harbour blizzard; how refloating his ship, he sailed south with
his youthful crew to Rio then across to the Cape of Good Hope; how with
the Joseph Conrad racing before the Roaring Forties, he reached the
Far East Indies, then on to Singapore north by Australia, to New Zealand
and eastwards to the South Pacific finally rounding the Horn and back
to port.
This is the truthful story of a great voyage, packed with adventure
and the joy of a fine ship under sail.
This new edition, with a foreword by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston highlights
Alan Villiers' early contribution to sail training and the biography
of Alan Villiers by William Facey celebrates the remarkable life of
the author and his contribution to maritime literature.
216 x 135 mm | 416 pp illus.| ISBN 0 9547062 8 5 | £12.95 pbk
JOSEPH
CONRAD, MASTER MARINER
Peter Villiers
Before he published his first novel in 1895, Joseph Conrad spent 20 years in the merchant navy, eventually obtaining his master’s ticket and commanding a full-rigged ship. This book tells the story of his career at sea, and shows how Captain Jozef Konrad Korzeniowski, master mariner, became Joseph Conrad, master novelist.
Alan Villiers, author of such classics as Cruise of the Conrad and The Way of a Ship, was uniquely qualified to comment on Conrad’s life at sea. Like Conrad himself, he was both highly regarded author and master mariner in the days of the square rigger. This study started by Alan Villiers before his death in 1982, has now been completed by his son, Peter Villiers.
This is a unique document, providing not only a new analysis of Conrad as mariner but also a wealth of detail about the merchant navy in the late nineteenth century – the economics of sail, the cargoes, the competition with steam, the skill, the difficulty and the danger involved in manoeuvring a clipper under sail.
260 x 202 mms • 1400 pages Illus • ISBN 0 9547062 9 3 • Price: £14.95 pbk
SAILING
TALL
Around the world on the square-rigged Passat (1946-1948)
Max Wood
Max Wood served his apprenticeship on one of the last commercial voyages of any cargo square-rigger. He documents a lost way of life, as it really was: the exhaustion, the cameraderie, the the terrors, the sexual frustration, and the pride of being among those who have challenged the awesome forces of nature for little reward.
'This is an important work … very readable and recommended'
Martin Lee, The Journal of Master Mariners
234 x 156 mm | 168 pp illus. | ISBN 0 95427 502 0 | £12.95 SBSH pbk
© Seafarer Books Ltd 2006
102 Redwald Road • Rendlesham • Suffolk IP12 2TE • UK