The Way of a Ship: A Square Rigger Voyage in the Last Days of Sail - Hardcover

Lundy, Derek

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 067697371X ISBN 13: 9780676973716

Publisher: Knopf Canada, 2002

Synopsis

From the author of Godforsaken Sea -- a #1 bestseller in Canada and “one of the best books ever written about sailing” (Time magazine) -- comes a magnificent re-creation of a square-rigger voyage round Cape Horn at the end
of the 19th century.

In The Way of a Ship, Derek Lundy places his seafaring great-great uncle, Benjamin Lundy, on board the Beara Head and brings to life the ship’s community as it performs the exhausting and dangerous work of sailing a square-rigger across the sea.

The “beautiful, widow-making, deep-sea” sailing ships could sail fast in almost all weather and carry substantial cargo. Handling square-riggers demanded detailed and specialized skills, and life at sea, although romanticized by sea-voyage chroniclers, was often brutal. Seamen were sleep deprived and malnourished, at times half-starved, and scurvy was still a possibility. Derek Lundy reminds readers what Melville and Conrad expressed so well: that the sea voyage is an overarching metaphor for life itself. As Benjamin Lundy nears the Horn and its attendant terrors, the traditional qualities of the sailor -- fatalism, stoicism, courage, obedience to a strict hierarchy, even sentimentality -- are revealed in their dying days, as sail gave way to steam.

Derek Lundy tells his gripping tale with the kind of storytelling skill and writerly breadth that is usually the ken of our finest novelists, and in so doing, imagines a harrowing and wholly credible history for his seafaring Irish-Canadian ancestor.

About this title

Review:

"A seaman himself, Lundy interpolates his own experiences under sail, nicely contrasting modern-day standards and mindsets with 19th-century conditions and attitudes" (The Times)

"Lundy, too, has saltwater in his blood and his knowledge of the most arcane seafaring terms and traditions, coupled with careful research on 19th-century square-rigger voyages, makes this a tremendously elucidating, frequently thrilling read-he writes with verve and authority" (Sunday Telegraph)

"With this book Lundy leaps into the front ranks of maritime historians" (Sunday Times)

"An exceptionally rich and satisfying weave. Hoisting sail aboard his ship Beara Head in 1885, Lundy sails her on an enthralling voyage through maritime literature, history, sociology and folklore... Heir to the tradition of Dana, Melville and Conrad" (Jonathan Raban)

"Excellent... Lundy has researched the subject deeply and writes about it with feeling... Powerful, convincing and enthralling" (Times Literary Supplement)

Book Description:

'Destined to become a classic of the seas' - Eric Newby

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf Canada
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 067697371X
• ISBN 13: 9780676973716
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 464