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The Log of the "Cutty Sark"
Vintage book
- GenresNautical
Hardcover
Published January 1, 1974
About the author
Basil Lubbock
43 books2 followersAlfred Basil Lubbock MC (9 September 1876 – 3 September 1944 at Monks Orchard, Seaford) was a British historian, sailor and soldier. He was a prolific writer on the last generation of commercial sailing vessels in the Age of Sail. He was an early (1911) member of the Society for Nautical Research, served on its council (1921–1924) and contributed to its journal, The Mariner's Mirror.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 29, 2014
Below is a truncated version of my review. To read the full review please click here: http://joshuarigsby.com/2014/09/28/bo...
This book is for the die hard fan of nautical history. It takes a blow by blow account of Cutty Sark's construction, voyages, and ultimate fate.
In several places Lubbock quotes directly from the abstract log, in others, he extrapolates data based on other ship's logs, hearsay, and interviews with former captains and crew. This leads to an interesting blend of ships times, weights, and compass coordinates with splashes of sailing stories and near death experiences.
If you are intimidated by nautical jargon, this book is not for you. Lubbock is writing for his sea-loving colleagues and contemporaries, not for landlubbing 21st century suburbanites. As such, you may want to keep a nautical dictionary close by. I usually referred to my "Nautical Terms Glossary" app and/or Wikipedia when I didn't know what was going on.
It is obvious from the text that Lubbock cares a great deal about preserving and telling the stories of great sailing ships. We have him to thank for compiling this data in one place. My only minor quibble is that I wished he had flushed out a few more primary source documents before making some of his claims. Though, finding these documents today is considerably easier than when he wrote this book nearly a hundred years ago.
If you are interested in the Cutty Sark and/or maritime history you should definitely give this one a read. Also, be sure to follow "Cutty Sark Log" on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CuttySarkLog. This account tweets through the ship's log in real time.
You can also read more of my research on 19th century tea trading ships on my website: http://joshuarigsby.com/category/tea-...
For a full review of this book visit this blog entry: http://joshuarigsby.com/2014/09/28/bo...
This book is for the die hard fan of nautical history. It takes a blow by blow account of Cutty Sark's construction, voyages, and ultimate fate.
In several places Lubbock quotes directly from the abstract log, in others, he extrapolates data based on other ship's logs, hearsay, and interviews with former captains and crew. This leads to an interesting blend of ships times, weights, and compass coordinates with splashes of sailing stories and near death experiences.
If you are intimidated by nautical jargon, this book is not for you. Lubbock is writing for his sea-loving colleagues and contemporaries, not for landlubbing 21st century suburbanites. As such, you may want to keep a nautical dictionary close by. I usually referred to my "Nautical Terms Glossary" app and/or Wikipedia when I didn't know what was going on.
It is obvious from the text that Lubbock cares a great deal about preserving and telling the stories of great sailing ships. We have him to thank for compiling this data in one place. My only minor quibble is that I wished he had flushed out a few more primary source documents before making some of his claims. Though, finding these documents today is considerably easier than when he wrote this book nearly a hundred years ago.
If you are interested in the Cutty Sark and/or maritime history you should definitely give this one a read. Also, be sure to follow "Cutty Sark Log" on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CuttySarkLog. This account tweets through the ship's log in real time.
You can also read more of my research on 19th century tea trading ships on my website: http://joshuarigsby.com/category/tea-...
For a full review of this book visit this blog entry: http://joshuarigsby.com/2014/09/28/bo...
Displaying 1 of 1 review