New and Neglected Nautical Writing
Lonely backwaters
[Sea-Country is now out of print but we thought you’d still enjoy this extract]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…
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,…
Like a box of jewels
Someone, somewhere wrote that George Millar was incapable of writing a dull sentence, and never was that more true than in his three books of sailing memoirs. Oyster River, set in the Morbihan in Brittany, and Isabel and the Sea, relating a voyage through the French…
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…
No better test of character
Most people reading this have enjoyed lives markedly more comfortable than those of their parents or grandparents. My own father served at sea when a teenager during World War II, as a stoker and coal trimmer on tramp steamers and later on deep-sea rescue tugs, on…
Ghost ship of Grytviken
The Albert Strange Association (bear with me), in which I am heavily implicated, held its Annual General Meeting in Lincoln a few years ago, and our very engaging guest speaker was Dr Robb Robinson, a maritime historian at the University of Hull. His subject was…
To readers in North America, Australia, and New Zealand
We’re sorry that international shipping, since Covid, has become so expensive. But there is some good news: Some of our books are stocked by WoodenBoat and Small Craft Advisor in the US, and most of them are held by our new distributors in Australia and New Zealand,…
James Wharram 1928–2021
With sadness, but appreciation of his life and achievements, we report that James Wharram died on Tuesday 14 December at the age of 93. He leaves an unparalleled legacy in his development of, and voyaging in, affordable sea-going craft modelled on the Polynesian…
Loft Floor launch party
We had a great turnout at arts venue The Cornish Bank in Falmouth on Saturday, to celebrate the launch of Christian Topf’s book From the Loft Floor to the Sea, on the building of the Falmouth pilot cutter Pellew. Taking pictures was not our priority, but here are…
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To readers in North America, Australia, and New Zealand
We’re sorry that international shipping, since Covid, has become so expensive. But there is some good news: Some of our books are stocked by WoodenBoat and Small Craft Advisor in the US, and most of them are held by our new distributors in Australia and New Zealand,…
James Wharram 1928–2021
With sadness, but appreciation of his life and achievements, we report that James Wharram died on Tuesday 14 December at the age of 93. He leaves an unparalleled legacy in his development of, and voyaging in, affordable sea-going craft modelled on the Polynesian…
Loft Floor launch party
We had a great turnout at arts venue The Cornish Bank in Falmouth on Saturday, to celebrate the launch of Christian Topf’s book From the Loft Floor to the Sea, on the building of the Falmouth pilot cutter Pellew. Taking pictures was not our priority, but here are…