How to Build a Tin Canoe: Confessions of an Old Salt [Hardcover]

Robb White (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 14, 2003

While still a young boy, Robb White built his first boat, hewn from the tin roof of an abandoned chicken coop in the backyard-stamping and primping it into shape, then testing it out in the back creek. Today, without any formal training, White constructs some of the most sought after small wooden boats around. This colorful portrait of the author's life invites readers into his special world-a world uncluttered by computers, telephones, and rush orders. With chapters such as 'Seagull: In which I learn not to be so gullible' and 'The canned ham incident: In which I did not participate, so hurrah for the other side,' White shares some of his wisdom gained from boat-building. Here as well are tall tales of a childhood spent exploring the Gulf of Mexico, and lessons learned from having his own family. Both wise and entertaining, How to Build a Tin Canoe will find a place on the shelves of readers who love Bailey White (the author's sister), Roy Blount, and Garrison Keillor.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Most readers will never need to build their own boat, tin or otherwise, but this memoir rarely fails to delight and sometimes even informs. White passes his days building boats and his nights writing for publications like Wooden Boat and Messing About in Boats-not surprisingly, there's plenty of talk of keels, sterns, tumblehomes and beam ratios here. Mixed in are his observations on how television rots children's minds, and the ways in which the Enron scandal resembles cannibalism in the Pre-Columbian Antilles. Like many skilled storytellers, White wanders a bit. His childhood, which he spent building boats, getting into trouble and exploring the South's swamps and ponds, resembles his adult life, with the latter boasting deeper and more treacherous waters. In the chapter "King Tut," for example, White tires while waiting for his tugboat to clear the Mississippi's locks and decides to swim across the river to see a King Tut exhibit at the Sugar Bowl. After nearly being run over by an oil barge and losing all of his clothes, he does. There's no telling, of course, how much fact there is to these tales. According to the book's disclaimer, "none of these stories is true... not a single word."
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

White, who overflows with down-home charm, has been building boats since he was a youngster, beginning with a canoe made from the tin roof of a chicken coop and then, without ever receiving any training, graduating to vessels of various design and artistry. Now he's among the most respected boat builders in the U.S and a familiar contributor to such magazines as Wooden Boat and Messing about in Boats. Here he guides us through his life and adventures. It's a remarkable odyssey, the story of a southerner who created a whole life for himself with little but his hands and his wits. While White seems to enjoy playing the country raconteur (he peppers his tale with homey aphorisms), his narrative reveals him to be a man of considerable and wide-ranging knowledge: references abound to such things as Where the Wild Things Are, diplanthera (a kind of grass), and the color of a box turtle's eyes. Endlessly enjoyable, especially for those who like to mess about in boats. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion; 1 edition (May 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401300278
• ISBN-13: 978-1401300272
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,000,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just the BEST BOOK IN YEARS!, March 2, 2006

By 

Lowell P. Thomas (Naples, FL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: How to Build a Tin Canoe: Confessions of an Old Salt (Hardcover)

Robb White's descriptions of growing up along the Florida Panhandle sets the stage for one of the funniest, most entertaining books I have read in years. Beginning with a gang of kids, toddlers in diapers to gawky teenagers, who wandered shallow bays and sandy beaches from dawn to dark, White moves on to his Navy years in Puerto Rico, where he spent his off hours (and there were a lot of off them) watching local boat builders, and finally beginning his own boat building business. Stateside, he followed the boat-building trade as best he could, struggling to earn a bare living, with long periods of cash-money work such as crewing aboard tugboats which pushed oil-laden barges around the Gulf Coast and up tiny tidal waterways. I practically rolled on the floor laughing at his accounts of life aboard the tugs, which included ritual trading of tattered "porn" magazines and a crewmate who literally "gutted" an annoying tug captain. Interspersed through lively, often hysterical, accounts of his travels and travails, are delightful chapters about small boats and boating: jury rigging ancient outboard motors, building classic fishing skiffs and featherweight sailing canoes, capturing and cooking the sealife of the Gulf. I couldn't put the "Tin Canoe" down, read it through without stopping and loved every page!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quality, rightness and virtue: the wildman's revenge!, May 22, 2003

By 

Jeff Potter "outyourbackdoor" (Williamston, MI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: How to Build a Tin Canoe: Confessions of an Old Salt (Hardcover)

Robb White writes of his wild childhood and wild boating life. And he gets away with it because he's so good! This is candid, uproarious writing of the best sort. It's specific. And you know he knows what he's talking about because he's been there. What a tonic! His work reminds me of Jack Saunders. : ) --A fellow folk writer who hasn't gotten his break yet. Robb's is rough'n'tumble family storytelling, yet it's gentle. It's personal...and it's general. Just the right stuff. More! ...OK, I have to let the cat out of the bag: if you want more, subscribe to the thrifty, friendly little magazine "Messing About In Boats" right now. Robb has been writing biweekly columns for it for years now. What great good times! And fiesty, helpful boating (and living) info, too. (Did you know that Robb is the world's best bass fisherman? He'll tell you why sometime...)

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Reading, but not mainly canoe, September 28, 2003

By 

Bob Spiwak (Winthrop, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Build a Tin Canoe: Confessions of an Old Salt (Hardcover)

I got this from the library as I am a canoe nut. Turned out more of a continuing "autobiography"(?) in the McManus tradition (THEY SHOOT CANOES. DON'T THEY?)only this is all in the deep south. It is funny, informative and best of all highly irreverant. This guy was corrupted by some of the same forces that did me six decades ago. I am ordering it now for a keeper.