New and Neglected Nautical Writing — All books Post-Free in the UK
Cruising in Denmark
George Holmes’s illustrated and often hand-written cruise accounts frequently appeared in the pages of the Humber Yawl Club Yearbook, and later in The Yachting Monthly. Here is a cruise he made in Denmark in 1894, and written up a few years later. He and his companion…
A legacy of riches
When barely sixteen I spent two months with my slightly younger brother Dave hitch-hiking, and often rough sleeping, around Scotland watching birds. We went as far north as the Shetland isle Fetlar to see the snowy owls which bred there, and managed to cadge an…
The Yorkshire Coble
Perhaps the most curious craft which is found in use by the fishermen round the coasts of Britain is the Yorkshire coble [writes George Holmes in 1912]. Along with the Sheringham boat—referred to and described in a former number—this type is used for crabbing by the…
Words written on water
Our first book had sold out a few years before, and we had the feeling it was time for a new edition in our now-standard robust softcover format, and that there remained an unplumbed audience among people who, though perhaps not habitual readers of sailing books,…
CORONAVIRUS NEWS
Our distributor has reopened with a skeleton staff, so we are now able once more to service orders on the website, though deliveries will take longer than normal. Thank you for your patience!
Progress on Emerald
One of the reasons these blog posts are so infrequent is I have a few distractions, two of which are Albert Strange yachts. One, Leona (1906) awaits attention when I finally retire (or make me an offer). The other, Emerald (built 1937 to a design of 1910),…
Strange’s MIST shortlisted for Classic Boat’s Restoration of the Year
Readers will know we have a soft spot for the designs of Albert Strange and those who work to preserve them. One such was Woodbridge-based boatbuilder John Krejsa, who in 2006 took on the virtual wreck of Mist (built 1907) and performed a magnificent…
Tilman and ‘Viola’—lost footage unearthed
The BFI has recently unearthed and put online ‘lost’ colour film footage of a number of Tilman expeditions. It currently lacks any form of commentary and needs a bit of an edit. There are links to it on Bob Comlay’s website. Two reels feature a 1971…
A bit ‘Father Ted’
I became the new keeper of the Albert Strange canoe yawl Emerald in October 2017. Although she was functionally in very good order, her external brightwork (varnish) had suffered lately, as her owner of the previous twenty-five years had been unable,…
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An invitation I just couldn’t resist
Charlie Stock was a singular sailor, who was for sixty years a part of the scenery on his home waters of the Thames Estuary. In his last book, published posthumously, he describes and handles the local features and hazards meeting the small boat sailor, not only in…
A mindful scrutiny
Gloria Wilson has been writing about, photographing and drawing the North Sea fishing industry for half a century. Of her drawings in particular she writes:In making the drawings, with my own photographs for reference, I have enjoyed a mindful scrutiny of the boats…
Handy with a toolbox
Martin O’Scannall has enjoyed a love affair of more than forty years with his 1913 gaff cutter Sauntress, beginning with her rebuild and culminating in the glories pictured here. Below is his account of her sojourn in a boatyard at Brentford on the Thames in west…
Forgotten and lonely backwaters
Tony Smith is now the keeper of Charlie Stock’s game little 16-foot gaff cutter Shoal Waters, and has made it his business to take her the length and breadth of the Thames estuary, and into nooks and crannies most of us have never heard of, let alone visited. One such…