Customer Reviews

Historic Sail: The Glory of the Sailing Ship from the 13th to the 19th Century (Greenhill Historic Series)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you are a just lover of Historic Tall Ships and especially if you are a serious Model Shipwright, this book is a must! The *large* pictures and historic details, make this book well worth the price. ...and the price here is a deal. I bought this book when it came out for the full price and don't feel I've missed out not getting it for the lower price here. I promise you, you will enjoy this book forever!

A young lad is inspired to draw ships by a challenge from his friend's mother - this developed into a life-long passion and in this book we see the results of that passion. 91 exquisitely-drawn pictures of historic craft from the 13th to the 19th Century are just part of this man's production - would that we could see more.
The detail is amazing; all the stays, halliards, sheets and braces are all in the correct positions; the rake of masts, type of tops, position of gunports etc. is accurate. All this is the result of years of travel and visits to museums, libraries and naval archives, in order to portray the heyday of sail as accurately as possible.
Arranged on facing pages, text by Stephen Howarth on the left, drawing on the right, this is the best collection I have seen in print.
Much of the early data is lost so the drawings of those ships must necessarily be educated guesswork, but generally speaking, if it looks right, it IS right ... and these do look right.
It is fairly unusual to see orthoganal views, normally they are side-on, but a good portion of Mr.Wheatley's drawings show the vessel in 3/4 profile, which gives a much better view of the whole aspect of the ship.
A pricey book, but a delight to the eyes and an inspiration to the amateur artist or modeller.

If you like sailing ships or tall ships this is a coffee table book you need to get. Can spend hours just looking over the details.

This is certainly a lovely book, but I don't completely agree with the other reviews. Although the renderings are beautifully detailed, the vast majority are two-dimensional profiles; I found very little of anything else. If you have a fair amount of discretionary cash, it may be worth the full price. I have books that are as good that I've paid half as much for (used for $23); but, I can't say I regret the purchase (well maybe a little). The major faults are the number of flat side views (for all the lovely detail, most of the plates are very much the same) and lack of depth in the text (for a book that lists for $120). It may delight someone as a gift. The seller was very straight-forward about the minor defect.