New and Neglected Nautical Writing — All books Post-Free in the UK
Hole Haven
Despite its unprepossessing name Hole Haven, the creek to the west side of Canvey Island on the lower Thames, is a welcome bolt-hole for those bound up- or downriver needing to get some rest or wait out a tide. It has fulfilled this service since at least the 1890s…
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…
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,…
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…
IMPORTANT: Covid and international shipping
Our overseas deliveries have been affected by Covid, in an erratic way, some deliveries taking more than two months, even within Europe. We use a consolidated airfreight service to keep costs down (if we didn’t, our books would be much more expensive for overseas customers), but if you are ordering from outside the UK and would like to receive your book(s) in days rather than weeks during the pandemic, at additional cost, please contact us (info at lodestarbooks dot com) with your requirements so we can invoice you online for the correct amount before despatch — please don’t place your order on the website as our distributor may react too quickly for the shipping method to be changed.
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A quiet sense of achievement
Spring 2009: Constance is just back from her first Old Gaffers event, the annual East Coast Race weekend at Brightlingsea, where she mixed it with craft large and small, and attracted much admiration for both her looks and speed, praise which rightly belongs to her…
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…
Getting sea-value
My good friend Fabian Bush built me a (-nother!) boat a few years ago and we launched her together in 2014 at West Mersea in Essex. Teal is named for the ‘small dabbling duck’ in recognition of the direction my sailing was expected to take in my dotage, and she has…
To sea for shelter
Herbert Alker Tripp (1883–1954) was a keen sailor and an accomplished artist whose regular occupation was in a civilian capacity with the Metropolitan Police in London from 1902 until his retirement in 1947. Beginning as a clerk, he rose to the rank of Assistant…