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The Man Who Thought like a Ship

Loren C. Steffy (Goodreads Author)

4.25 · Rating details · 8 ratings · 3 reviews

J. Richard “Dick” Steffy stood inside the limestone hall of the Crusader castle in Cyprus and looked at the wood fragments arrayed before him. They were old beyond belief. For more than two millennia they had remained on the sea floor, eaten by worms and soaking up seawater until they had the consistency of wet cardboard. There were some 6,000 pieces in all, and Steffy’s j J. Richard “Dick” Steffy stood inside the limestone hall of the Crusader castle in Cyprus and looked at the wood fragments arrayed before him. They were old beyond belief. For more than two millennia they had remained on the sea floor, eaten by worms and soaking up seawater until they had the consistency of wet cardboard. There were some 6,000 pieces in all, and Steffy’s job was to put them all back together in their original shape like some massive, ancient jigsaw puzzle.

He had volunteered for the job even though he had no qualifications for it. For twenty-five years he’d been an electrician in a small, land-locked town in Pennsylvania. He held no advanced degrees—his understanding of ships was entirely self-taught. Yet he would find himself half a world away from his home town, planning to reassemble a ship that last sailed during the reign of Alexander the Great, and he planned to do it using mathematical formulas and modeling techniques that he’d developed in his basement as a hobby.

The first person ever to reconstruct an ancient ship from its sunken fragments, Steffy said ships spoke to him. Steffy joined a team, including friend and fellow scholar George Bass, that laid a foundation for the field of nautical archaeology. Eventually moving to Texas A&M University, his lack of the usual academic credentials caused him to be initially viewed with skepticism by the university’s administration. However, his impressive record of publications and his skilled teaching eventually led to his being named a full professor. During the next thirty years of study, reconstruction, and modeling of submerged wrecks, Steffy would win a prestigious MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant and would train most of the preeminent scholars in the emerging field of nautical archaeology.

Richard Steffy’s son Loren, an accomplished journalist, has mined family memories, archives at Texas A&M and elsewhere, his father’s papers, and interviews with former colleagues to craft not only a professional biography and adventure story of the highest caliber, but also the first history of a field that continues to harvest important new discoveries from the depths of the world’s oceans. ...more

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Hardcover, 256 pages

Published March 19th 2012 by Texas A University Press

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Aug 26, 2012 Al Sumrall rated it it was amazing

I had the opportunity to attend a presentation by Loren Steffy reference this book at the Houston Maritime Museum. His pleasant presentation did an excellent job of preparing me for the book which I purchased and now have read. As titled the book is about the man much more than nautical archaeology that is the interesting background of the story. It's a well written narrative by a witness who saw a non-academic, Richard "Dick" Steffy, an everyman who initially lived a "normal life", who over tim ...more

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May 14, 2012 Ashley rated it really liked it

I absolutely loved reading "The Man Who Thought Like a Ship." Once I started reading it I knew it was going to devour it. I actually became so enthralled with the story of Dick Steffy that I read the whole book in a day then felt so overwhelmed I read the book a second time over the next two days so I could take my time and feel the history. It was a great book and the story of Dick Steffy is tremendous.

I will say that I was very captivated with the story of Dick Steffy and watching this man's I absolutely loved reading "The Man Who Thought Like a Ship." Once I started reading it I knew it was going to devour it. I actually became so enthralled with the story of Dick Steffy that I read the whole book in a day then felt so overwhelmed I read the book a second time over the next two days so I could take my time and feel the history. It was a great book and the story of Dick Steffy is tremendous.

I will say that I was very captivated with the story of Dick Steffy and watching this man's lifelong dreams come true. It reminded me of a true life fairy tale. Watching this landlocked little boy with an interest in ships grow up to become the world's first ancient ship reconstructor was an amazing adventure. Loren Steffy did a great job of making his father very relatable and the pictures in the beginning of the book were a wonderful addition. As the story progressed I felt very connected to Dick Steffy and his family. I was able to understand Dick's desire to work with ships and feel him struggling with the decision over whether or not to pursue his dream or provide stability for his young family. I also loved reading about his sense of humor. When I read the joke about how many men could fit in the "Jesus Ship" from the Sea of Galilee I cracked up. It was a dry wit but I liked it.

The only drawback I had about this ship was the sudden lack of inclusion of Dick's family. During the majority of the book Loren Steffy included his mother, Lucille, his brother, David, and himself in Dick Steffy's adventures. We understood how Dick's adventures with the ships affected his family from Milt Steffy's business to Lucille health to the boys schooling. We read all about their uprooting and relocation to Cyprus to study the Kyrenia ship (crooked aleppo) and the boys homeschooling but once the family returned from Cyprus we didn't really hear much about them again. When AINA became part of Texas A&M and Dick started teaching there we didn't know if his family relocated to Texas or if they stayed in Pennsylvania while Dick taught for his obligatory semester. It felt a little disjointed here because of the sudden lack of family involvement but I assume it's because the boys had grown up and were no longer at home, I just wish it would have been made a little more clear.

I loved reading about the nautical archaelogy and it's creation as an accepted field of study. I love history, especially ancient history, so this was a very pleasant book for me. I am sure I will read it many more times and it has also caused me to take to the internet to Google the Kyrenia ship and other ships that Dick Steffy worked on just to find pictures and more information.

I won this book as a giveaway on GoodReads and it is no doubt the best giveaway book I have ever received. If you have any interest whatsoever in history or ships this book has to go on the must-read list. ...more

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Jul 07, 2012 Paul rated it liked it

From the technical side the process for ship reconstruction could use more detail and likely more illustration. The narrative itself is pleasant but everything seems inevitable and there is no real tension in the story. If the discipline of nautical archaeology was such an upstart in the field there should be ways to prove it. The story itself is inspiring and the author has written a good biography of his father.

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The race to save the Kyrenia Ship again	2	3	Jun 07, 2012 06:46AM
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About Loren C. Steffy

Loren C. Steffy

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Loren Steffy is the author of George P. Mitchell: Fracking, Sustainability and an Unorthodox Quest to Save the Planet (to be published in October 2019), The Man Who Thought Like a Ship, and Drowning in Oil: BP and the Reckless Pursuit of Profit. He is a writer at large for Texas Monthly, an executive producer for Rational Middle Media and a former business columnist for the Houston Chronicle.

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