Seamanship in the Age of Sail

Harland, John H. 1985. Seamanship in the Age of Sail: An Account of the Shiphandling of the Sailing Man-Of-War 1600-1860, Based on Contemporary Sources. Illustrated by Mark Myers. Naval Institute Press.

http://www.amazon.com/Seamanship-Age-Sail-Man-War/dp/0870219553/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253169740&sr=1-1&tag=astrodene-20

This is an amazing and also pretty expensive book. About $116 new currently and not much cheaper used. I bought it a couple of years ago now, so the pain has subsided somewhat. Maybe the price has gone up some? Anyway, I've never regretted the purchase.

This is an extremely thorough discussion of the practice of sailing in the periods stated. As such it is mainly concerned with the operating hardware of the ship and how it was worked, and how crews were organized for this. You won't find anything much about hulls or armament. There are lots of good books on those subjects, of course.

You will definitely find extensive discussions of terminology - how it developed, how it changed or varied with time and place, etc. Every profession has an extensive specialist terminology, and when you are trying to reconstruct the systems from incomplete references it is inevitable that you sometimes have to consider the terminology in detail.

Inevitably there is a lot in here about masts, sails, rigging, anchors, etc., but the emphasis is not on the things, but on the procedures for operating them. This would be an interesting read for a modeller, but not the first place a modeller would want to go. Actually, if it has an natural audience today it would the readers, and particularly the writers of naval fiction.

After introductory chapters on terminology, "masts, rigging, and sails", sail plans and underlying principles, Harland deals with

- organization of the crew
- bending, loosing, and furling sail
- making or shortening sail
- reefing
- studdingsails
- steering
- tacking, wearing and boxhauling
- working a ship in a tideway
- towing and warping
- storm
- squalls
- heaving to
- the ship at anchor
- shifting heavy weights
- lowering and hoisting in boats
- man overboard
- accidents

Basically this is a sort of synopsis of the sort of things you find in period reference works like Lever's Sheet Anchor, but explained and clarified.

In each section Harland usually discusses things at several different historical stages, beginning with early usage and proceeding to later, and discussing practice in several different services, but not necessarily in consistent detail. A good deal depends on what materials are available for different periods and on whether he has had to leave the English literature to find out how something was built or operated. The discussion is based, ultimately, on reference sources in most of the languages of Western Europe, due to the difficulty of finding everything in any one, but the presentation is entirely English except for references to terminology in other languages, where this is necessary to understand his conclusions.

One objection I have seen to this book is that it contains many hard words and is full of difficult material. This is quite true. There are some attractive picture books for those for whom this sort of thing is a problem. Actually, I regret to report that while reading this book has made me insufferably better informed it has not made me any smarter. I still make runs at the sections on tacking and anchoring, but I haven't quite got it yet, other than the obvious points. If you think O'Brian was showing off with all his cats and fishes and nippers, you should see what he left out.

Another complaint about this book has been that it is virtually useless for an understanding of how things were done on modern tall ships. This is probably also quite true, at least judging from the descriptions in the book of the technology used toward the end of the period that the book does cover, which ends well short of modern tall ships. So, yes, you will want some other book for that.

However, if you want a book that will help you understand why Jack Aubrey's crews spend so much time taking their masts down and putting them back up again, or that explains clubhauling, or what the differences are between a snow, a brig, and a pink, then this is the book. Or, if you want 50 pages on anchors, getting them out and in, and lying at anchor without developing all kinds of dreadful problems with your cables, this is also the book. In passing there are explanations of 'in the way', 'aloof', and 'in the offing'.

Good review; it has been on my mind to get this, and it is now on order (found an edition for under £30.00).

Thanks, johnk!

Yes, all johnk said and more. An excellent book and certainly one worthy of a reprint.

Anyone interested in this book should check Amazon now ( April 2010). There are copies available for under $60.00. Looks like they are Remainder copies. This book seems to go in and out of print, and is quit expensive when new. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is very complete, and easier to understand that The Sheet anchor or Brady's Kedge anchor, as the grammar is modern.

Lou Illiano
Fair Haven, NJ

If anyone’s interested I've just found this book on Amazon UK for £23.54.

Jonny

Jonny wrote:If anyone’s interested I've just found this book on Amazon UK for £23.54.

Jonny

A bargain!

I bought the book in 1985 for around $60.00 Canadian but found it hard to read because of all the citations in the text. I haven't yet been able to read it . However I live in hope

Now you tell me, I’ve just gone and ordered it.

I don't think you will be disappointed, Jonny.

Got it! – Cheers Borrelpeff you were right, this book is superb. I’ve been looking for something like this for a while. It was Sean Thomas Russell’s authors’ note in Under Enemy Colours that originally put me on to it and then I spotted this thread.

I’ve only managed a flick through so far and I can see what Kramaj means. I looked up “clewing” and found myself having to then find buntlines and leechlines. However, I think that has more to do with my lack of knowledge than the book.

That said, I now fully understand terms like Closed-Hauled, Full and By, Luff and Touch Her and I’m only on page12.

I just discovered a preview of this book is in google books, available to be read online!
http://books.google.com/books?id=g7Jd_o6_s90C&printsec=frontcover

It's also available in my state's library system. I think I might check it out.

Definitely worth it, Reb.