Originally written in 1933, this classic sea adventure tells of the Blackgauntlet and her homeward-bound race from China to London. Disaster strikes when the ship is struck at night by a passing steamer—only half of the crew manages to escape to the lifeboat while the others perish. Cruiser, the 22-year-old second mate who has always longed to be captain, takes command of the survivors as they plan to sail 700 miles to the island of Fayal. Cruiser and his crew battle all odds, including sharks, potential mutiny, a leaky boat, too few provisions, and the sea herself, in this taut and haunting narrative.
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About the Author
John Masefield was Poet Laureate of Great Britain and the author of The Box of Delights, The Midnight Folk, and Salt-Water Ballards. He spent many years traveling by ship, including years working on a hospital ship for the Red Cross.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Mariner's Must,
By James A. Forrest "Signal20" (Bradenton, Fl.) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Bird of Dawning (Hardcover)
What a fantastic story of a 2nd Mate aboard a Clipper running a race from China to London when the ship goes down."Are you going to follow the sea, Chedglow?" Cruiser asked. "No, sir; not after this." "Don't be so sure," Cruiser said. "You'll be glad of this after it is over. This is a real thing, and somehow few people get anything real into their lives." "What do you call real, sir?" "Real?" Cruiser said. "When you've got nothing except just your bare life and you're up against destiny or death. When you're up against your Fortune whether it goes for or against you." If you think you have the slightest bit of brine running through your veins then you need to read this book.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A ripping yarn,
By
This review is from: The Bird of Dawning (Caird Library Reprints) (Hardcover)
When in 1946 Heinemann's decided to be selective in its reprints of Masefield numerous novels, it billed The Bird of Dawning as 'his great novel'. This led me to read it with the wrong expectations, and it was years before I went on to his other novels. In fact, Masefield's novels are hugely varied and almost all worth reading (which one could not say of his terribly unequal volumes of verse). The Bird of Dawning gets going more swiftly, and maintains the pace more surely, than almost all the others. Its accounts of the hazards of the sea and sailoring are stunningly vivid. The one possible disappointment for the reader is that the sinister atmosphere of the opening is not maintained, and what starts like a great novel finishes up as a splendid entertainment. But splendid it is, and this most attractive and portable reprint deserves every success. (If you prefer to hunt out a secondhand copy, the original printing by Macmillan's can be recommended for its handsome type, though it is not so neat a volume as this reprint.)
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