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Better Together
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Michael S. Sanders describes the birth of a ship with the love of a parent, relating how the naval destroyer USS Donald Cook was "assembled over four years piece by piece, steel plate by steel plate, from the first half-moon slices of keel to topmost radar mast, almost by hand." The Yard is a land-based tale focusing on the thousands of men and women in Bath, Maine, who practice the old craft of shipbuilding. Their business has adapted itself to modern ways, but Sanders intriguingly shows how ancient Phoenicians would nevertheless recognize important parts of today's construction process. Sanders spends plenty of time explaining what goes into making a ship: the engineering, the materials, and the labor. He also tells of an industry in peril, as American shipyards compete against foreign builders whose governments subsidize their work. Yet The Yard is ultimately about ordinary people who build: "electricians, pipefitters, welders, braziers, tinknockers, riggers, anglesmiths, straighteners, blasters, and shipfitters" plus "legions of naval architects, draftsmen, and marine engineers." The Yard may lack the dazzle of Blind Man's Bluff and its stories of submarine espionage, but it will hold a similarly strong attraction for readers drawn to human endeavor on the open sea and what makes it possible. --John J. Miller --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
This book is richAin content, in texture and not least in integrity. Sanders has been a ghostwriter, but he finds his own voice in this story of a shipyard, a ship and their people. The yard is the Bath Iron Works (BIW), in Maine, and it has been building ships for more than a century. The ship is the U.S.S. Donald Cook, a state-of-the-art destroyer. From the first rough sizing of the plates to the actual launching takes almost four years. Sanders's greatest triumph is his description of shipbuilding processes in language that a lay reader can readily understand. His second achievement is his depiction of the shipyard culture. Sanders eschews an elegiac approach, depicting a shipbuilding community whose ties and loyalties cut across management-labor lines. Shipbuilding is a skilled craft that demands a synergy of strength and artistry. It is dirty. It is dangerous. And BIW's employees merit respect for their skills. At the book's end BIW, rather than fading from the scene, is poised to enter the 21st century at the cutting edge of ship construction. When the navy takes over, the Cook becomes the focus of a different but equally effective kind of crew. The shipyard community is local, coming largely from Bath itself, and it is essentially male. The Cook's commissioning crew is cosmopolitan, with a broad spectrum of backgrounds and experiences, and it includes three dozen women. The men and women who serve on the Cook are like their ship and its builders: among the best in the world. Sanders's own craftsmanship is as worthy of recognition as that of the shipbuilders whose story he so ably tells. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews
Michael S. Sanders describes the birth of a ship with the love of a parent, relating how the naval destroyer USS Donald Cook was "assembled over four years piece by piece, steel plate by steel plate, from the first half-moon slices of keel to topmost radar mast, almost by hand." The Yard is a land-based tale focusing on the thousands of men and women in Bath, Maine, who practice the old craft of shipbuilding. Their business has adapted itself to modern ways, but Sanders intriguingly shows how ancient Phoenicians would nevertheless recognize important parts of today's construction process. Sanders spends plenty of time explaining what goes into making a ship: the engineering, the materials, and the labor. He also tells of an industry in peril, as American shipyards compete against foreign builders whose governments subsidize their work. Yet The Yard is ultimately about ordinary people who build: "electricians, pipefitters, welders, braziers, tinknockers, riggers, anglesmiths, straighteners, blasters, and shipfitters" plus "legions of naval architects, draftsmen, and marine engineers." The Yard may lack the dazzle of Blind Man's Bluff and its stories of submarine espionage, but it will hold a similarly strong attraction for readers drawn to human endeavor on the open sea and what makes it possible. --John J. Miller --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
This book is richAin content, in texture and not least in integrity. Sanders has been a ghostwriter, but he finds his own voice in this story of a shipyard, a ship and their people. The yard is the Bath Iron Works (BIW), in Maine, and it has been building ships for more than a century. The ship is the U.S.S. Donald Cook, a state-of-the-art destroyer. From the first rough sizing of the plates to the actual launching takes almost four years. Sanders's greatest triumph is his description of shipbuilding processes in language that a lay reader can readily understand. His second achievement is his depiction of the shipyard culture. Sanders eschews an elegiac approach, depicting a shipbuilding community whose ties and loyalties cut across management-labor lines. Shipbuilding is a skilled craft that demands a synergy of strength and artistry. It is dirty. It is dangerous. And BIW's employees merit respect for their skills. At the book's end BIW, rather than fading from the scene, is poised to enter the 21st century at the cutting edge of ship construction. When the navy takes over, the Cook becomes the focus of a different but equally effective kind of crew. The shipyard community is local, coming largely from Bath itself, and it is essentially male. The Cook's commissioning crew is cosmopolitan, with a broad spectrum of backgrounds and experiences, and it includes three dozen women. The men and women who serve on the Cook are like their ship and its builders: among the best in the world. Sanders's own craftsmanship is as worthy of recognition as that of the shipbuilders whose story he so ably tells. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews
Product Details
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