Joshua Slocum

[chrisr]

Originally Posted by Pete7

The Royal Navy have a historical branch, sadly not open to the public. However, we did some work for them and as a reward invited for a visit.

A fascinating place but one book stood out. Its the logs of Captain Cook and his voyages to the SE and north shore of Australia. Some time later another person took a copy of the book back to Australia and updated many of the entries by writing in the margins in pencil, correcting positions and adding detail. That person was a Lt W Bligh, probably on one of his voyages before the Bounty.

Value of this very old book today?

think you are incredibly lucky to get to see such original documents...very envious

but here's another great debate : "who was the better navigator / seaman - cook or bligh ?"

cheers,

[ggray]

I was going to mention this, so glad someone else agrees. A World of My Own - Robin Knox-Johnston

The thing that still sticks in my mind is that even on this long voyage he carried only a handful of drill bits. I think he was down to one at the end. My extravagance in this regard makes me feel pitiful in comparison.

[Lostsailor13]

I can’t believe nobody recommended The Peking Battles by Irving Johnson

[DoubleD]

Many great recommendations. An off the beaten path suggestion is "The Venturesome Voyages of Captain Voss" by Voss John Claus. Similar era (1877) to Slocum.



DD

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by chrisr

a passing reflection : nearly all of the books recommended were written 50 years or more ago

where are the equivalent recent books ?

doesn't anyone write like this now ? or is the world now so much a smaller place that we no longer respect such feats ?

where are todays Mottesier, Chicheters and the rest ?

cheers,

Folks don't write anymore.. they YouTube..

[Mickeyrouse]

The canon of sailing-related works is lengthy and ancient. I haven’t read a bad one yet. Vito Dumas’ book about sailing eastabout while WWII was blazing is pretty good. John Guzzwell’s book “Trekka” is his story of a circumnavigation in a quite small boat. Robin Graham’s “Dove” is the story of the youngest solo circumnavigator up to that time is pretty good. No doubt the Seraffyn books by Lin and Larry Pardey were a great impetus for a lot of us 40-50 years ago. This list is long. The surfaced is unscrathed.

[Fore and Aft]

Boatman61 how about the book Ready to come about by Sue Williams. Published 2019 and it's a great yarn about an Alberg circumnavigating the Atlantic. Or the boat they laughed at by Max Liberson. Published 2012 and it's about a Ferro yacht circumnavigating the Atlantic.
There's still a few good stories being published. Yann Quenet just published his book about circumnavigating in his 5 metre yacht. The only problem is I don't speak/read French.
Cheers

[bcguy]

Thanks Briosche .... that sounds just incredible ... an experience not to be missed..

[bcguy]

Winter still, wood stove stoked .. bottomed out on the twin keels .. good reads out there. Further to Slocum the Librivox Audio Book on Slocum ... top shelf. Thanks for the post .. .cheers.

[bcguy]

Absolutely fab. I loved that book. Realistic epic. And relevant. The Librivox audio book is a treat. Cheers

[bcguy]

I have just anchored off Vancouver Island near Comox. What a great thrill to read the replies from this incredible group at Liveaboards. Breadth of knowledge centered in just one place amazing. I did not handle "replies" very well but sent along some thanks. I do thank everyone for taking the time. The central theme of the recommends seemed all based on self reliance, character, perseverance and courage for starters. I just finished listening to Cruise of the Alerte by Edward Frederick Knight and narrated by LibriVox reader Steven Seitel. You can actually search by "reader name". Seitel presents a great depth of very old books that have been lost in time. He is an excellent reader... pleasing voice and very welcome after exhausting day when picking up a book seems a big chore. All are about that theme ... sailing, exploring, hardships, survival ... from authors out of obscurity. All relate to people of a different era...different ethos living the localized world of their adventures. In retrospect an admirable innocence emerges as stark contrast to current times. Global news? Well nope. Perhaps months or even years after a noteworthy event. Just like Joshua Slocum. Thanks again... Gary

[TrentePieds]

Since the thread was opened by bcguy, I wuz going to toss in Cap'n Voss' book about his voyage in Tillicum out of Victoria BC at the end of the nineteenth century. But DoubleD beat me to it :-)! Tillicum is a log canoe - a big one - built as the indigenous people on this coast still "build" them, by hollowing out a ginormous cedar log. She is on display in our Provincial Museum. "Tillicum" is, by the way, a word in the local lingua franca of the indigenous people hereabouts. Inter alia It means "friend" and I think that was a splendid name for a "New Canadian" - a German - to give to the primitive boat that took him around the world!

So since I wuz aced, I'll have to hold up my end by recommending The Curve of Time by Muriel Wylie Blanchett. Muriel had five young children by the mid-1920s and when Mr. Blanchett died in 1927, she rented out, in the summers, their home, a cottage near Victoria, to tourists. "Capi" (as she became known) then took the five kiddies cruising on the B.C. coast in their 25-foot motorboat. The kiddies really grew up aboard the boat. Very highly recommended!

And since Riddle of the Sands was mentioned, which book is really more about the geo-politics of the Edwardian era than about seafaring, I think I'll trump that suggestion by recommending The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk. Wouk witnessed personally the psychic disintegration of the skipper of a destroyer (USN) during the last stages of WWII and the Court Martial that followed, and he committed those experiences, and a great deal that we must learn from them, to the book. No geo-politics here. That was cut and dried by 1944. Just solid confirmation of an eternal verity I first heard from a short-service lieutenant (RN): "The surest way to destroy a man is to promote him before he is ready for it!" And that is what happened to "Old Yellerstain", the skipper of Wouk's fictitious destroyer.

So there, fellow BCer — have at it :-)!

TrentePieds

[TrentePieds]

bcguy:

You mentioned you have twin keels. Wonderful! I which I had. And if you are near Comox, I hope you've snuck in behind Goose Spit. Spent a night lying on my side there many, many years ago. Slept, sort of, in a standing position leaning on a bulkhead :-0)!

Why Comox? Have you come up through the cadet movement?

TP

[DoubleD]

TrentePieds,


Since you read Voss, did you hear of the recent news related to one of his adventures? Spoiler alert for those that haven't read the book.


DD

[Franziska]

Originally Posted by AiniA

To switch to fiction, I read "Riddle of the Sands" about every 8 to 10 years which means I have read it too many times. Great pre-WWI feel to it and the sailing descriptions are well done.

I read that while sailing through the very same area in which the books story unfolds. The German "Wattenmeer".
Spectacular combination and, yes, well worth a read.