Customer Reviews

Before the Wind: The Memoir of an American Sea Captain, 1808-1833

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In the early days of American history, the merchant trade was the predominant occupation on the Eastern Seaboard. Charles Tyng's memoir, "Before the Wind," captures that life in a way histories written today never can. Tyng lived a colorful, adventurous life, and had the ability to record it in a fresh and vivid style. Tyng's early life reads like a combination of Charles Dickens and Horatio Alger. The son of an affluent but no-nonsense father, Tyng was farmed out to various relatives and school headmasters until his father sent him to sea, hoping to cure his son's self-confessed rebellious streak, and to teach him a trade. Although this sounds rather severe, it was far from uncommon, especially in large families such as Tyng's to apprentice or force children to seek their way at a very early age.

Once at sea, Tyng experienced a variety of hardships at the hands of sadistic shipmates who seemed to have no regard for a boy's safety or well-being. However, his early experiences at sea energized Tyng's dormant ambition to rise above the position of sailor and become a ship's officer. The memoir contains recollections of Tyng's studies, trips, and early efforts at trading on a small scale. Eventually Tyng rose through the ranks to become a ship's officer, captain, and eventually the owner of two ships. His memoir is filled with recollections of entrepreneurial deals, mutinies, and pirates. It is also filled with the day-to-day details of life aboard a merchant vessel. In a more general sense, it is also filled with the routine, but now forgotten, details of life in the early 19th century. One notable quality of this memoir is how Tyng's tone actually changes from that of an overwhelmed and somewhat unruly "ship's boy" to a mature, ambitious, and self-assured ship's captain and merchant. This change and growth in character seems natural and unforced, which lends a greater air of credibility to this book.

Tyng's story is typical of many New England boys who turned to the sea and the merchant trade to make their fortune. In his case, Tyng actually succeeded at both his chosen trade and in his ability to recount a life once common, but now forgotten. Highly recommended.

I came across a reference to this book when checking the book reviews of another amazon.com reviewer. It is an autobiography of Captain Charles Tyng, covering the early part of his life and, in particular, his career in as a merchant mariner from the time he was 13 to the time he was 31. It was taken from a hand written manuscript which he wrote 45 years after the last event detailed, and not published until 120 years after his death after being found by one of his descendents. He started as a ship's boy, shortly after the end of the War of 1812 on a voyage to Canton, China; rapidly rose to a ship's captain by his own initiative, family connections, and matters of chance; and established his early fortune by the private trading allowed to ships' captains, trading in things as exotic as live monkeys, parrots, bird nests, and other commodities. He had an eye for potential profit. The book details the harsh life of merchant sailors, with miserly ship owners often giving them insufficient food and low pay (if they did not try to steal even that), and bad treatment from some sadistic ships' officers. Captain Tyng managed to become a ship owner at an early age, and was a successful merchant brokering cargo by the time he was 31 (the ending point of the tale). The last chapter covers a conflict in Charleston, SC, between the State and the Federal Government about 30 years before the Civil War when South Carolina passed the Nullification Act, refusing to pay duties on imported goods, and President Jackson sent a frigate to Charleston to enforce the customs and General Scott to restore order in the city. The book is the manuscript pretty much as written and has a few flaws as a novel, e.g., excessive repetition of the phrase, "I can't remember his name," some repetition of descriptions, and a lot of short digressions. It is an interesting historical account providing details of the U.S. merchant service during the early 19th century including shipwrecks, pirates, mutinies, connivery, etc., as well as extensive details of the merchantile business of that era when it was possible to make large profits on a well placed investment. There are some side details such as the U.S. and British business of smuggling opium into China.

This is an interesting memoir of the early life of sailor, captain, and businessman. Unlike other memoirs of the sea, this covers life on the sea from bottom to top: from Tyne's start as a child-sailor, to his rise to captain, finally to ship owner and commodities speculator. It includes some very good passages, which vididly portray the many dangers of a life at sea in the early 19th century. Most of it is interestings and enlightening, but this book is not the literary equal of Two Years Before The Mast.

While Charles Tyng's brothers became wealthy as doctors, lawyers and land-based businessmen, Charles (due to his poor study habits) was forced to pursue the much more dangerous and uncertain vocation of sailor and sea-merchant. This is definitely no dry account of business deals. This story is about Charles' struggles against cruel and incompetent superiors, ferocious storms at sea, mutinous and violent crews, pirate attacks, shark attacks and, for good measure a bout with cholera. If even half of Tyng's account is true, he was very, very lucky to live to old age. Tyng was obviously a man who was very curious by nature and so he was able to describe in detail many aspects of the people, places and operations that he witnessed (such as whale hunting, sugar processing, and opium smuggling). Most of it is very interesting because it paints a piture of a world very different from our modern world. Tyng himself is likable, for the most part, although he definitely was a bit of a rogue; he pulls a few pratical jokes on people that adds some humor to the story. I only give it four stars because there were a couple short dry patches in the book. Overall, though, very enjoyable.

If you're not already into this stuff, it will put you to sleep.

If on the other hand, like me, the mere mention of the days of tall ships fills your lungs with salt air, gets your sea legs in motion, and gives you a faraway thrill, then this becomes the definitive life story of every sailor who ever went to sea.

And this guy has been through it all: pirates, mutinies, shipwrecks, storms, cruel officers, exotic foreign shores, wars (on both land and sea, including the American revolution and the China traders), sharks, starvation, marriage (that ultimate adventure), disease, and even "haunted" ships.

Beautifully written in the eloquent style of a man who had been an illiterate cabin boy and eventually educated himself with distinction, it even chronicles the effects that his life at sea had upon the way his family saw him and the business world dealt with him, and contains vignettes about minute aspects of life back then that I'd never been aware of.

What a find!

Charles Tyng tells a most exciting real life tale which is better than the fiction which movies are made of.
To think of the hardships of a rather rebelious little boy from his mother dying who overcame to become a most successful gentleman is a profile in courage and chivalry. Tyng honestly overcame more by the time he was 15 than most people do in their entire lives.
This would make a most telling movie, but for now this is the perfect diary of life almost unknown from 1812 in America.
A 5 star enthusiastic review.

I listened to the audiotape version of this book. Very enjoyable, though the author is very understated in his reporting of events. The author's courtship got no explanation and his marriage no more than a sentence, and he barely mentions his wife thereafter; an encounter with a pirate vessel is reported in a matter-of-fact manner that is not as gripping as it probably was in reality. If you're looking for "The Perfect Storm" this book does not have the same level of drama, but nonetheless it is an interesting and accurate portrayal of what life was like for a real sea captain in the early 1880s. Recommended!

a remarkably readable book about the american shipping industry in the early 19th century, told as a personal memoir by a man who rose through the ranks to become a ship owner.

This was a fine book , a tale of a 19th century mearchant captain who rose through the ranks. It is a log of his life,a book of adventures. Although I rated it 4 stars ( it became confusing in some parts, he wrote as if his actions were ovious and left some things out). It was a great book. I highly recomend it.

This book is the real thing. If you want to know what it took to be a sea captain in the early 19th century, this is the book for you. informative fascinating, it shows how by force of personality, an ability to command, a bit of luck you,starting with no money, you could rise up through the ranks from sailor to owning your own ship and become a merchant prince. Very inspiring.