Seamanship: A Voyage Along the Wild Coasts of the British Isles – A Revelatory Sailing Memoir of Disasters, Discoveries, and Being Alive

by Adam Nicolson

From Land's End to Cape Clear, past Roaringwater Bay and Cod's Head, on past Inishvickillane and Inishtooskert, up through the Hebrides, to Orkney and on to the Faeroes stretches the richest and wildest coastline in Europe. Adam Nicolson decided to sail this coast in the Auk , a 42-foot wooden ketch, embarking on a 1,500-mile voyage through what he hoped would be a sequence of revelatory landscapes. He was not disappointed. Seamanship is more than a travel journal. It describes an inner journey as much as an outer one—disasters and discoveries, powerful landscapes and modern visionaries, and encounters with the animals living on the wild edge of the Atlantic. Above all, it is about the gaps that open up between those who go and those who stay at home. Seamanship , in the end, is not about the sea. It's about being alive.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Memoir, Adventure, Maritime

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Adam Nicolson writes a celebrated column for The Sunday Telegraph. His books include Sissinghurst, God’s Secretaries, When God Spoke English, Wetland, Life in the Somerset Levels, Perch Hill, Restoration, and the acclaimed Gentry. He is winner of the Somerset Maugham Award and the British Topography Prize and lives on a farm in Sussex.

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book sucks. I didn't quit only because it's such a small book, and I almost never give up on books. It has the kernel of an interesting idea - something about the personal journey of leaving peace and quiet for places on the edge of danger and challenge, and what that means - and the potential for a decent narrative, but it largely abandons those for a bunch of meaningless, saccharine, romanticist frippery that I just could not parse. I guess Nicolson was trying to be poetic and broad and expansive and impressive, but mostly I was left with the impression that about every other chapter - the ones with the words that mean things about things that happen in the world - had been cut out without anybody telling me about it. Too much frosting and not nearly enough cake. I was reminded of everything I didn't like about Seize the Fire, and this book actually made me like that one less, though I read it five years ago and hardly remember it.

The last chapter, in which the author at long last -- at the end of a six-month voyage -- realizes that you cannot have an authentic and meaningful experience of being a sailor by being a passenger and a tourist, is nearly the only worthwhile bit in the book.

Note to self: this is what you get when you just pluck something off the library shelf because there's a boat on the cover.

Note to everyone else: don't read this book.

[DoctorM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely memoir of sailing the coasts of the British Isles, of learning to sail and learning to read the seas and understand empty spaces and rough coasts. Not a book about knots and sails--- a book about facing the idea of emptiness and the meaning of voyaging. Well done.

[Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just plain don't think I like this guy, but he's an evocative writer. 3.5.

[Kelly Sedinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably closer to 3.5 stars, but rounding up because there are some wonderful passages here. It's a little book--I read the whole thing in a few hours over a single weekend--and it's pretty much exactly what it says it is, a brief account of a yacht trek from Cornwall to the west coast of Ireland, back to the west coast of Scotland, and then ultimately to the Faeroes. I almost feel like the book was TOO short; that journey sounds pretty epic and it's clear that Nicolson feels so, too...and yet, this book only seems to occasionally get to the epic heart of such a trek. Other reviewers seem frustrated at Nicolson's tendency to focus more on the stops along the way, but I think that's part-and-parcel of Nicolson's own view of the sea as an utter novice, which is something he confronts in the back part of the book as he notes the friction that develops between himself, the novice who undertook this journey almost on a whim, and George, the experienced seaman he hired and crewed under. Toward the end when George points out the inherent difficulty in their relationship--"I'm your employee AND your skipper"--a lot of Nicolson's attitude springs into focus. And anyway, for many people, a boat is transportation from Point A to Point B, and not some existential thing of its own.

That brings me to my conclusion about this book: it's good but not enough. It's not a great time investment, and there's some really good stuff in here...but you know that supposed rule, "Always leave 'em wanting more"? Well, sometimes the reason they want more is that you didn't give 'em enough. Food for thought....

ADDITIONAL THOUGHT: You know, this is a book that cries out for photos. Maybe just a small photo section in the middle, but I had to stop and google some of the stunning places Nicolson visits. Also, a diagram of the boat itself would have been useful. Maps in the frontispiece are excellent, though.

[Katherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know why this book was published. It seems unfinished, incomplete, as if it were meant as an outline to a real book. The author waxes poetic about.......well, poetry.........lots of poetry, seemingly included as a boost to his own ego or to impress the readers as to how well-read the author is. This is not, as one would expect, a travel or adventure book. There are adventures to be told within the 1,500 mile voyage, but he barely touches on them or gives them the space needed, other than a few paragraphs. Mostly he talks about himself, poetry, history, and the growing rift between his sailing companion/friend and himself. Luckily, the book was short or I would not have finished it.

[Paula LyMz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted something more from this book…

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tough one to rate. I loved many moments in this book and the overall idea behind it: a guy in midlife decides he needs to have an adventure that will test his limits, explore the “wild coasts” of Atlantic Britain [and Ireland--no longer a "British Isle"--and the Faeroes, which are part of Denmark] and his own character, on an ocean-worthy sailboat. But it doesn’t turn out to be the straightforward story I expected; in fact, the book and its author seem downright deceptive and self-deceived. Does he really want to take and write about a sailing adventure, or does he actually want to undertake a series of pilgrimages to monasteries and ancient holy sites? Does he want to discover qualities in himself and his companions or stage a publicity stunt to promote his writing career? For we learn halfway through the book that a BBC-TV crew is filming a documentary of the voyage, which of course affects not only the whole shape of the voyage but also puts a lot of pressure on the precarious friendship and co-dependence of the two sailors, Adam and his friend/skipper George, who is the experienced one who must teach, rescue more than once, and do the lion’s share of the work for Adam, while the latter gallivants off to hang out with monks and do other movie mis-en-scenes. Adam realizes at some point, likely when he can’t ignore George’s blatant anger any longer, that George is not happy about all this, and I frankly sympathize totally with George.

I suppose this is what you-all call a "spoiler," since the book cover, the blurbs, and the author himself are careful not to reveal anything about the TV documentary. (And I’m sure that’s not because they imagine it to be a pleasing twist.) Sorry—if you’re actually thinking about reading this book. But I can’t help ranting a bit about it, since for me it wrecks what should have been a “profound and magical” book, to quote the cover blurb by Nathaniel Philbrick (an author I’ve admired—you may know [about] his book on the disaster of the whaling ship Essex, “In the Heart of the Sea”). My benefit-of-the-doubt is that it’s a case of confused purpose; Nicolson just didn’t quite figure out what sort of book he wanted to write. And many of the most enduring and provocative books do have that kind of core ambivalence, so who knows, maybe I’ll reread it some day and feel more forgiving. His theme of asceticism—the ongoing analogy between monastic traditions and the hardships of the sea—is quite provocative. I could quote both weirdly structured, unclear sentences and passages of considerable beauty, but here’s one I wrote down in my little notebook: “I once asked a man on Barra in the Outer Hebrides what it was like to live in such a remote place. ‘Remote from where?’ he asked me.” Chew on that thought for a bit….

[Carrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise of this book was great. I think my main issue with it was that it didn't deliver on the premise. Instead of a true story of the journey, the reader gets a very high-level synopsis. It's not in-depth enough to really be called a book.

If it were twice as long, though, I still don't think it would be an enjoyable read. The book is titled "Seamanship," but it seems to be more about abandoning your shipmate. I grew more and more frustrated with the author, until, by the end, I'd come to the conclusion that he was a self-centered jerk.

[Patricia Joynton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this book to Olin because of his desire to sail and intention to purchase a sailboat. Good book about a year-long voyage along "the wild coasts of the British Isles." I do not think I understand the interest in sailing: it sounds very uncomfortable, dangerous, and boring--all for a few exquisite views and adventures. Very poetic author bound with a sensible captain/skipper who tries to keep them all alive while Adam, the author, is pursuing and enjoying the wildness of the trip.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, not a book that I would choose to read, but since I had it, I read it. I rather enjoyed it, even though I know next to nothing about sailing. It is more a book about finding oneself than an adventure book.

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall, I enjoyed some of the tales told and even though the author admits to some of his failings as a sailor, I still had the desire to give him a cuff upside the head for his devil may care attitude about his sailing responsibilities.

[Sherrie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Such self absorbed tripe...