Under Sail: Any Voyage Round Cape Horn

Felix Riesenberg; With an Introduction by David W. Bone

Published by Jonathan Cape, London, 1925

About this Item

First English Edition ( 'First published, 1925' ). You can see the covers in the photos. The blue of the front and rear is dulled on the spine. The gilt lettering there looks pretty good. There is a little bit of wear at both spine ends, including a couple of small tears. The cover edges are in very good shape. All four corners have small spots of rub-through. The page edges look clean. On the front end paper there is an inscription that reads 'To the Old Man from the Mate, Xmas, 1927. ' I'm guessing on 'Mate'. The first two letters are clearly 'Ma', the last two letters don't really look like 'te', but what else could it be? There is no other writing to be found anywhere in the book. The binding seems pretty solid. However, the bottom inch or so off the bottom edge at the juncture between the frontispiece and title page is pulled away a little bit. There is also a space at the juncture between the copyright page and the facing dedication page with webbing visible if you look from the side. That's also the case between page 342 and page 343, a space at their juncture. I didn't see any other instances of that, and there are no spaces at the junctures between either of the covers and any of the pages. The pages look pretty good. Scrolling through, I'm not finding any soiling. They are, not surprisingly, lightly toned. There's not much by way of creasing, a fairly small number of bottom corners have a vague little crease just above their tips. I did see any placeholder creases. There are no markings in the book. There is a tiny bookseller label off the bottom edge of the front end paper. The bookseller is Chas. E. Lauriat in Boston. There are no other attachments. From a reader's review: 'Under Sail is a remarkable account of sixteen year old Felix Riesenberg's first voyage on a square rigger from South Street Seaport in New York, to Honolulu and back. He sailed on the A.J. Fuller, a Bath built, copper clad, wooden hulled, three skysail yard medium clipper in the waning days of the age of sail. Riesenberg's prose is clear and concise yet vivid. He captures both the beauty and the hardship of windjammer sailing, as well as the often complicated personalities of his shipmates. He sat down to write Under Sail in his mid-thirties, having served both as officer and able seaman. What makes Under Sail so engaging is that Reisenberg's views are nuanced. He understands and sympathizes with those on both sides of the mast. He knows, first hand, the nearly impossible demands made on the captain and mates as well as the hardships suffered by the able seamen. Under Sail ends with the A.J. Fuller's successful return to New York after loading and discharge in Hawaii and the rounding of, for the second time, Cape Horn. What should be a joyous homecoming is bittersweet as most of the sailors are snapped up by boarding house runners and crimps even before they leave the ship. It is clear that after a few drunken weeks ashore most will have their pockets emptied and will return to sea as the penniless sailors we met at the beginning of the book.'. Seller Inventory # 005047

Bibliographic Details

Title: Under Sail: Any Voyage Round Cape Horn

Publisher: Jonathan Cape, London

Publication Date: 1925

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Good

Edition: 1st Edition