Ship of Fools: Boating books

Thread: Boating books Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

To visit this thread, use this URL:
http://forum.ship-of-fools.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=70;t=027109

Posted by moron (# 206) on :

Presuming some few are attracted here because of a love of being on the malleable water I posted this thread.

I recently read Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before The Mast which was very much worth reading; in particular, his concluding words resonated with me.

(Coincidentally I'm heading to San Diego with the folding kayak stowed tomorrow.)

And Hannes Lindemann's Alone At Sea remains one of my favorites.

He's still alive so if you actually want to PAY him for his writing: http://www.amazon.com/Alone-at-Sea-Hannes-Lindemann/dp/1406750794

Any others you'd recommend? TIA.

Posted by HCH (# 14313) on :

Try "The Boat That Wouldn't Float" by Farley Mowat.

Posted by Yangtze (# 4965) on :

Great thread for this Ship...

There's always the classic Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

quote:
"there is nothing—absolute nothing—half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats"

Posted by MrsBeaky (# 17663) on :

I've just finished "One Summer's Grace" by Libby Purves and I really enjoyed it.

It has some brilliant descriptions of sailing, family life and the glories of the UK coastline.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

We had a thread on this very subject not so long ago when Luvanddaisies was looking for some maritime-themed reading material. The perennial favourites are C S Forester's "Hornblower" books and Patrick O'Brian's "Aubrey-Maturin" novels (people tend to fall firmly into one of two camps here), plus a lesser following for Dudley Pope's "Ramage" novels.

However, "being on the water" could include rivers as well as seas, so could be a broader scope than the last thread. There's the children's classics, the Arthur Ransome novels, about boating on the Norfolk Broads (and beyond). And Tim Severin's voyages in reconstructed antique boats, following journeys of legend, may be old now but are still a good read.

Posted by Garasu (# 17152) on :

Pretty much anything by Arthur Ransome!

Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :

Arthur Ransome Children's Novels Swallows and Amazons Series has a wide range of setting but if centred anywhere, then in the Lake District. They nearly all involve boats but some are bigger than others.

Jengie

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :

Erskine Childers' The Riddle of the Sands

Jerome K Jerome's Three Men in a Boat?

There are more, which will no doubt surface later.

I'm another person who grew up reading the Swallows and Amazons books, but we sailed in boats various and were given books on boats.

Posted by betjemaniac (# 17618) on :

Well Swallows and Amazons obviously. Patrick O'Brian and Forester (I actually like both but, if forced to choose, PO'B all the way)
Sailing Alone Around The World by Joshua Slocum (Ransome said any boy that didn't like it should be shot at dawn)

Read most of them during my own time at sea with the Grey Funnel Line...

Posted by HCH (# 14313) on :

By all means, "Three Men in a Boat".

Posted by betjemaniac (# 17618) on :

Of course, I seem to have forgotten the real classics there:

Capt Marryatt - Mr Midshipman Easy
Erskine Childers - The Riddle of the Sands

Posted by betjemaniac (# 17618) on :

Sorry, I keep thinking of others...

Nicholas Monsarratt - The Cruel Sea, Three Corvettes, HMS Marlborough will Enter Harbour, The Ship That Died of Shame

Philip Seymour - Where the Hell is Africa
Philip Ziegler - Mountbatten
John Winton - We Joined the Navy (very funny)
CS Forester - The Ship
Edward Young - One of Our Submarines
Roland Huntford - Shackleton
Jan Morris - Fisher's Face
Christina Hardyment - Arthur Ransome and Captain Flint's Trunk
Roger Wardale - Nancy Blackett: Under Sail with Arthur Ransome
David Cordingley - Billy Ruffian
NAM Rodger - The Wooden World; An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy
Ewen Southby-Tailyour - The Falkland Islands Shores

Posted by Ricardus (# 8757) on :

The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monserrat, although incredibly depressing.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

Ah, now, there's a whole shelf of wartime sea stories. "The Caine Mutiny" by Herman Wouk is arguably one of the best.

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

James Bisset wrote a three-volume autobiography of his life at sea. He started in the late 1890s as an apprentice on a sailing ship and ended up as captain of the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth.

The first volume, Sail Ho is about his career on sailing ships. Tramps and Ladies is about his early career on steamships. Among other interesting experiences, he was Second Officer on the Carpathia when they went to pick up the Titanic survivors.

The third book, Commodore is good, but IMO not as good as the first two. He was captain of the Queen Mary in World War 2, when it was being used as a troopship. The record number of people on one voyage was almost seventeen thousand. I think the reason Commodore is not so interesting is that Bisset did everything he could to avoid trouble, and he succeeded very well.

He comes across as someone with a zest for life who loved the responsibility of being a ship's captain. He also comes across as someone with a great sense of humor. I would love to have had him for a next-door neighbor.

These three books were published in the 1950s, and second-hand copies can be expensive. The first two were published in the US as well as in Britain and Australia. The third was not published in the US, and I had difficulty in finding a copy.

These three books are excellent.

Moo

Posted by Horseman Bree (# 5290) on :

Is "boating" a term applied to "boats" or does it include "ships" as well? (or would that be "shipping", which implies something a bit different?)

Can't add to your list, since most of what I like is already there.

I would add that reading the Swallows & Amazons, et seq., in landlocked Winnipeg 60 years ago led to my taking on boat-building as a retirement pastime 10 years ago. (Actually, I'm building a boat" was extremely helpful in getting me out of a lot of activities that other people wanted me to do!)

The first one was a Penobscot 14-ft dinghy (Arch Davis design) which was recommended as the nearest thing to Swallow, without the excess weight. Didn't need all those pigs of lead, for instance, but sailed like a dream. Easy to recommend for beginners.

Posted by Barnabas Aus (# 15869) on :

While in Canada this time last year, I was recommended to read The Curve of Time by M Wylie Blanchet. This is a memoir of a widow and her five children who cruised the waters of British Columbia in a small cabin cruiser. It is beautifully written, evocative of both the boating experience and the amazing country. I read it from cover to cover on the homeward flight.

Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :

Have you read any of Daniel V. Gallery's books? He wrote fiction and non-fiction. My dad would get the books from the library, and after he laughed his way through them, I'd get to read them. I think the favorite of both of us was the non-fiction Eight Bells and All's Well.

[One of the privileges of being a host, you get to correct your grammar any time you want.]

[ 09. May 2014, 12:30: Message edited by: jedijudy ]

Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on :

I'm certainly in the Aubrey/Maturin camp.

The Last Grain Race by Eric Newby is a lovely book about an 18 year old on one of the last Grain boats from Australia to Europe in 1938. It's notable among sailing memoirs in that that he took a camera with him which gives a visual sense of the ship.

The Search for Speed Under Sail, 1700-1855 by Chapelle. A history of the evolution of the extreme clippers in America.

Fictional work I've enjoyed include:

Mark Twain's Life on the Missisipi describes pre civil war life on steamboats.

Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling is a romantic story with life on a Atlantic Fishing Boat.

The Bounty Trilogy by Nordhoff and Hall describe the Bounty mutiny and its aftermath.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville, loosely based on the story of the whaling ship Essex.

[ 09. May 2014, 04:44: Message edited by: Palimpsest ]

Posted by Jane R (# 331) on :

Drowned Ammett by Diana Wynne Jones, who obviously had a lot of experience of sailing...

It's part of the 'Dalemark Quartet' (number 2 or number 3, depending on whether you think of The Spellcoats as the first or third) but it does work as a standalone.

Posted by Felafool (# 270) on :

Thor Heyerdahl's 'Kon Tiki' was possibly the first non-fiction book I ever read (I was 9 years old). A fascinating story about building then sailing a raft made out of reeds across the Pacific Ocean.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

Captain Joshua Slocum : The Adventures of America's Best Known Sailor by Victor Slocum - a must read for any serious sailor. JS was the first man to sail alone around the world - and did that at the end of a long life on sailing vessels in both Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

A more modern take on long-distance is Mike Golding's No Law, No God, one of only a handful of sailors to have raced around the world in both directions.

(I confess to daydreaming of doing at least one leg of a round-the-world before I hang up the oilies for good.)

Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :

quote:
Originally posted by MrsBeaky:
I've just finished "One Summer's Grace" by Libby Purves and I really enjoyed it.

It has some brilliant descriptions of sailing, family life and the glories of the UK coastline.

Yes a lovely book. I can never re-read it now though without remembering that Libby Purves' and Paul Heiney's son, Nick, took his own life a few years ago.

Posted by moron (# 206) on :

Thanks much... too many books, too little time.

And on a tangent: please allow me to introduce Tom McNally.

'Mine is smaller than yours'. [Killing me]

Posted by Boadicea Trott (# 9621) on :

The Brendan Voyage, by Tim Severin - re-creating st Brendan's voyage across the Atlantic in a leather and wood glorified coracle...

Posted by Garasu (# 17152) on :

Bit of an out there suggestion, but: A door into ocean, by Joan Slonczewski.

Posted by moron (# 206) on :

quote:
Originally posted by HCH:
Try "The Boat That Wouldn't Float" by Farley Mowat.

Didn't get quite that far yet but I did pick up Never Cry Wolf which was both informative and funny - he's got a new fan - thanks again for the recommendation.

Who would have guessed healthy caribou, including the young, largely ignore wolves?

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Felafool:
Thor Heyerdahl's 'Kon Tiki' was possibly the first non-fiction book I ever read (I was 9 years old). A fascinating story about building then sailing a raft made out of reeds across the Pacific Ocean.

Yes!
Also, very much agree about The Caine Mutiny , and The Boat That Wouldn't Float is flipping hilarious.

Posted by MrsBeaky (# 17663) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sparrow:

Originally posted by MrsBeaky:
I've just finished "One Summer's Grace" by Libby Purves and I really enjoyed it.
It has some brilliant descriptions of sailing, family life and the glories of the UK coastline.
Yes a lovely book. I can never re-read it now though without remembering that Libby Purves' and Paul Heiney's son, Nick, took his own life a few years ago.

Oh my goodness,I'm glad I read it before I discovered this.It certainly adds extra poignancy to an already lovely account.

UBB.classic^TM 6.5.0