Winter nautical reading

[John Danicic]

To all:

Always a good topic this time of year. Any suggestions for nautical books to read this winter?
Let's find out what we are reading in front of the fire.

Sail on

John Danicic
CD36 - Mariah - #124
Lake Superior - The Apostle Islands
CDSOA # 655

[Dick Villamil]

Well - almost nautical - Champlain's Dream - I am 3/4 of the way through this fantastic biography of Samuel de Champlain - he crossed the Atlantic numerous times, started in a nautical town on the coast of France and did some major mapping of the St. Lawrence River valley. This book is a historical account of Champlain and how he almost singlehandedly developed Canada and imparted a major French culture into Canada and North America. This is a MUST READ....

[Jim Walsh]

Rangeing The Maine Coast by Alf Loomis, circa 1939. Loaded with historical perspective, including Champlain, and Loomis's wonderful writing style at its best. I have a large library and added six books this weekend. I get nervous if I don't have a backlog of unread books. Most of the magazines, excluding Woodenboat, are so full of fluff they rarely last more than a day or two. I find I read Hiscock, and Roth's books over and over. One of my prized posessions is an autographed Hiscock book which was in Hal Roth's collection and is also autographed by Roth. I have a couple other books from Roth's collection in which he used a pencil to correct the grammer and spelling. He must have been a proofreader at heart. Sometimes he would just put a question mark after passage. They also bear his signature.

[Joe Montana]

I second "Chaplain's Dream." After "Mayflower" (worthwhile, but a quick read by comparison), it's refreshing to find an explorer who respected the indigenous people he encountered in the New World. On the subject of gentleman-captain-explorers, there's no beating Captain Cook. If you can find a copy of "The Life of Captain James Cook" by J.C. Beaglehole, you'll have one of the best biographies you'll ever read, and one that will fill the long nights of at least one entire winter. It's full of detailed journal entries from Cook's many voyages of discovery. His encounter with the Great Barrier Reef -- the first ever recorded -- is vivid and unforgettable.

[Joe Montana]

Jim, thanks for the Loomis recommendation. You might like "The Lobster Coast" by Colin Woodard. I did. It does an excellent job of making sense of Maine's very complicated history, and relating it to current Downeast social, economic and political issues.

[Neil Gordon]

Not that I'm planning on reading it cover to cover, but my Spring season started Saturday with the purchase of the 2010 Eldridge. I do refer to it over the Winter, pretending that I'll actually schedule my cruises to coincide with fair tides and the like.

[John Danicic]

I second "Lobster Coast". Read that last winter and it gave me a much better understanding of Maine.
"The Maine Coast" is now on my list as is Champlains Dream.

For Cook readers, There is "Sea of Dangers" Geoffrey Blainey. Beaglehole is drawn on as well as others in this well written account of Cook and his French rivals close encounters in the South Pacific.

For fiction, may I suggest the "Kydd Series by Julian Stockwin.

Any other suggestions for nautical fiction out there?

Sail on

John Danicic
CD36 - Mariah - #124
Lake Superior - The Apostle Islands
CDSOA # 655

[The Patriot]

... Any other suggestions for nautical fiction out there? ...

When it comes to nautical fiction I'm tempted to nominate the weather forecast we got prior to departing from Barnegat for New England last July.

[M. R. Bober]

Well the landing at Inchon was certainly naval/nautical, I just finished David Halberstam's, "The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War." It may be the best contemporary history that I have read in many years, on a par with Rhodes, "The Making of the Atomic Bomb."

It filled in a glaring hole in my knowledge of American history, and was exceptional well told. In all a great book for the winter.

My hat is off to the veterans of that campaign.

Mitchell Bober
Sunny Lancaster (just below the 38th parallel,) VA

[Oswego John]

Read up on the "Frozen Chosan" reservoir and the Yalu River.

[MFC]

North to the Night is a fascinating book. Non fiction, but gripping.

[Troy Scott]

Friends,

Of course in "The Deep South" we don't really have "winter" like you folks up North have it. Ours is just a cooler, wetter continuation of life as usual.

My winter reading: Instruction books for the items in the refit, my Spanish language materials, Good Old Boat, etc..

What I have difficulty understanding is how some folks have time for video games and television. Life is too short. If I could find the time I would read more of my Carl Sagan books. I believe I have them all.

John, I've been there, both Summer and Winter. Winter there IS COLD!

[jim ventrilio]

Any Patrick O'Brian Auburey-Mautrin novel. When you've finished the series, you're ready to begin them again.

[barfwinkle]

Lucky Jack Arghhhh

But don't do like I did and buy the books by the oneizes.. Buy the whole series, its much cheaper! I am on #14!!!!!

I love reading them.

Happy Thanksgiving

[Joe Montana]

If you enjoy reading about famous sea battles, skip to the last chapters of "Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World" by Roger Crowley. There's a vivid description of the short but brutal Battle of Lepanto off the Greek coast (1571) between ships of the Ottomans and the Holy League (Venice, Spain). There's a passage based on a survivor's first-hand account of what the Ottoman war galleys looked like -- with their gold-embroidered sails and enormous pennants sparkling in the sunshine -- as they closed with the League's ships. I think anyone who has ever sailed among a fleet of sailboats with spinnakers deployed will find it especially spellbinding.