Customer Reviews

Voyaging: Southward from the Strait of Magellan

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Armchair adventurers who love sailing, roughing it through forests, bogs and mountains in strange lands, and meeting new people in brief encounters will love "Voyaging," by Rockwell Kent. The book begins with a shocking confession in the Introduction, and carries the reader through 184 pages of high excitement and magnificent descriptions of one of the most desolate and forsaken places in the world -- the area about Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America.

The book's main characters are (1) Kent, about 40; (2) his mate, a Norwegian of 26 years who started his life by shipping to sea under his father when 14, who after a few months of beatings jumped ship, cursing as he went, apparently never to see his father again; (3) a lifeboat, which Kent bought for $20 and named Kathleen, and with a group of tradesmen modified to include cabin, mast and rigging for sails; (4) the West Wind, which whistled ceaselessly and tossed the little boat about dangerously, and (5) a menagerie of people along the way who extended hospitality, most with loving kindness, a few with malice.

A touching moment came on Bailey Island when Kent asked 20-year-old Margarita García, the name of her three-month-old suckling daughter. The baby has no name because she has not been baptized, Margarita replied. There in that inhospitable land Kent converted a dirty hovel into a cathedral and "baptized" the child, giving her his wife's name Kathleen Kent García. Kent writes that Father García, a murderer who earlier was released from a nearby prison after serving time, said "the ceremony had pleased him particularly as it was in truth the baptism of his child."

Characteristically, Kent illustrates the book well with black-and-white drawings of the stark landscape, and a few portraits of his new acquaintances. He also includes several maps by which the reader may follow the men's attempt to sail around Cape Horn -- an adventure that did not always go according to plan, as the reader will discover. -- Allen Long, Arlington, VA.

Although Rockwell Kent is mainly known as an artist and illustrator he also deserves a fine reputation as a travel/adventure writer. This book describes his months of small boat sailing and trekking in the islands and channels of Tierra del Fuego at the very southern tip of South America.
This was in the 1920's, a time well before ecotourism became a business. Going off on an adventure had a very different meaning: no reliable maps, no aerial photos, no GPS, no satellite phone to let you bail out when it got a little tough - it was actually dangerous out there. The book lets you in on an experience probably unobtainable in the modern world.
The wonderful illustrations by Kent are a bonus, but the style is more grandiloquent than his classic "N by E".

Get them this book. If they are an artist .. even better! Rockwell Kent lived and documented many of his trips and experiences. He is a great writer. Superb painter. This little book was a very fun read.