William Longyard
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By: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Boats, Floats and Bars of Soap on the High Seas 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.
Okay, so there are no stories of trans-oceanic voyages on soap bars in this book; just needed a catchy rhyme for the title. But this fascinating seaman's yarn covers just about every other buoyant contrivance that went to sea, at least those twenty feet long or less. This limitation is my only slight quibble about the book. Although in the beginning some boats are covered which exceed the twenty-foot benchmark established by the author, it does seem a bit arbitrary. Why not include Josh Slocum's marvelous circumnavigation in a 37-footer that was
already a century old when he obtained her? It should be noted that solo circumnavigations are covered by the 1974 book by Tod Holms (unfortunately long out of print and hard to obtain). That said, Longyard has provided a delightful compendium of
seamanship in Lillipution craft. Many might be written off as
publicity stunts and gimmicks, which they were. None could be duplicated by anyone other than the most intrepid and hardy sailor. Even then, the voyager turned up half dead, if he survived at all.
This is not a dry technical manual on small boat seamanship, although there are a lot of nuggets for the sailor in the tales. Human interest predominates. There are tales of cruelty and chicanery as in the story of Voss's seagoing canoe, and those invoking great sympathy as in how Andrews enticed an advernturesome young New Jersey farm girl to join him in a transatlantic stunt which ended in the disappearance of both somewhere beneath the tempestuous waves. All in all, brisk and
delightful reading cover to cover.
Editorial Review:
Throughout history, the bold, the desperate, and the foolhardy have dared the wide oceans in the tiniest of boats The unique and wonderful A Speck on the Sea looks back half a millennium to chronicle the greatest ocean voyages attempted in the littlest boats--rowboats, canoes, tiny sailboats, even a pair of wooden floats strapped to one adventurer's feet.
Driven by desperation, a spirit of adventure, or irrepressible exuberance, these amazing feats include:
- Diego Mendez's voyage to rescue Columbus
- William Okeley's 1639 escape from slavery in a folding rowboat
- Hugo Vihlen's 1968 ocean crossing in the six-foot sailboat April Fool
- Ernest Shackleton and William Bligh's death-cheating journeys
- The tragic story of Peter Bird's attempt to row across the Pacific
- And many more
Never have sailors dared the sea in frailer boats. This fascinating history will appeal to sailors and landlubbers alike.
