Customer Reviews

Sail's Last Century: The Merchant Sailing Ship 1830-1930 (Conway's History of the Ship)

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As a reader of Great Lakes maritime history I see a lot of different ships mentioned in passing. Here is a book that will give you the technical details on those ships and what factors drove the particulars of their construction. Of couse this book is a study of seafaring worldwide, but much of this technology was in heavy use on the inland seas in the late nineteenth century. This makes this book a valuable addition to the maritime enthusiast's library.

This is one of the Conway's History of the Ship series and like all of them, consists of a set of essays by various historians rather than a continuous narrative. After a helpful introduction, two chapters cover wooden sailing ships over and under 300 tons, then two chapters cover the transition to iron and steel sailing ships and a final chapter put all sailing ships in the nineteenth century under consideration. Next there are chapters covering schooners in American and Britain, Baltic sailing ships and finally, an intriguing chapter on the changing problems of shiphandling in the nineteenth century. There is a very good annotated bibliography and a reasonably complete glossary at the end.

So what does all this give you? First the various essayists cover the economics of shipbuilding and operation in considerable detail. Next they relate that to the technical and operational advantages of sailing ships vs. steam ships and wooden ships vs. iron and steel ships. There is also knowledgable discussion of the pros and cons of various sail rigs and their effect on operations. Ship stability and structure are explicitly explained and considered though, as would be expected by the work of historians, no quantitative analysis is offered.

In some of the essays the level of detail might seem a bit overpowering for a general reader but can passed through without difficulty if needed. One thing apparent is the real affection and respect the various writers have for the ships being described and for the people who sailed them. The illustrations are quite numerous, of variable quality since contemperaneous, and well related to the text.

I have no hesitation recomending this book for someone with an interest in nautical matters who wants to dig deeper and learn more.