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Author and historian, William Longyard, has compiled a comprehensive collection of facts about small boat yoyagers, their motivations, achievements and failures; then with panache and style he has summarized these nautical nuggets chronologically from the early first century AD until recent times, while relating them to contemporaneous events. This has resulted in a book which makes for compulsive reading as one is gripped by real happenings, which would seem to border on incredulity were it not for verifiable evidence.
I was bowled over with the author's knowledge and ability to paint vivid word pictures, as if one were present when tiny vessels were being overwhelmed by storms, or when their crews clung to life through famine and thirst while enduring the fitful doldrums. These sailors, both men and women showed great resourcefulness, endurance and determination, often overcoming seeminly impossible odds. Of such victors, there was Howard Blackburn who lost the fingers of both hands through frostbite, yet made two crossings of the Atlantic, as did William Andrews of the same era. There was captain Bligh of the Bounty, who through mutiny was forced to become a castaway with loyal companions in an open boat hundreds of miles from land. Franz Romer in his folding Deutscher Sport canoe suffered much pain during an east west crossing of the Atlantic, only to lose his life in a hurricane while en route to New York from the Virgin Islands. In spite of all odds, tenacious Poon Lim survived for 133 days on a life raft drifting in the Atlantic towards the equatorial coast of Brazil.
'A Speck on the Sea' includes precis describing the achievements of trend-setting characters such as John MacGregor, who popularized the sports of recreational canoeing and sailing, and the small boat circumnavigators John Guzzwell, Shane Acton, and Serge Testa who sowed seeds of ambition in the hearts of would-be ocean sailors. It also features crazy record breakers like Hugo Vihlen and Tom McNally, both of whom drifted across the Atlantic in craft no longer than five-and-a-half feet to satisfy their craving to be in the Guinness Book of Records! These represent but a handful of numerous mind-boggling tales in this fantastic handbook.
Included within its 375 tightly packed pages there are many monochrome illustrations showing historical detail in the form of drawings, paintings, diagrams or photographs. There is a comprehensive index; a full bibliography, and pertinent sub notes. This almost tome-like compendium of notable small boat voyaging is a superlative work of reference, while being a delight to read. I can without reservation recommend it to all those with an interest in matters of the sea and give it my highest commendation as a book that must be read by all who would have aspirations for small boat voyaging. Merit must go to William Longyard for his scholarly contribution to the annals of maritime history.
To buy this book online visit:Nautical Books or click one of the two thumbnails above. The cheaper of the two is the paperback edition.
Bill. 14.02.05 http://www.smallsailboats.co.uk