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The Way of a Ship: A Square-Rigger Voyage in the Last Days of Sail
When, as a young man in the 1880s, Benjamin Lundy signed up for duty aboard a square-rigged commercial sailing vessel, he began a journey more exciting, and more terrifying, than he could have ever a treacherous, white-knuckle passage around that notorious "graveyard of ships," Cape Horn.
A century later, Derek Lundy, author of the bestselling Godforsaken Sea and an accomplished amateur seaman himself, set out to recount his forebear's journey. The Way of a Ship is a mesmerizing account of life on board a square-rigger, a remarkable reconstruction of a harrowing voyage through the most dangerous waters. Derek Lundy's masterful account evokes the excitement, romance, and brutality of a bygone era -- "a fantastic ride through one of the greatest moments in the history of adventure" (Seattle Times).
A century later, Derek Lundy, author of the bestselling Godforsaken Sea and an accomplished amateur seaman himself, set out to recount his forebear's journey. The Way of a Ship is a mesmerizing account of life on board a square-rigger, a remarkable reconstruction of a harrowing voyage through the most dangerous waters. Derek Lundy's masterful account evokes the excitement, romance, and brutality of a bygone era -- "a fantastic ride through one of the greatest moments in the history of adventure" (Seattle Times).
372 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2002
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February 21, 2010
"Keep your arse tight," was the advice from shipmates as they struggled to furl a sail in 60 knot winds, more than 100 feet off the deck, being lashed by rain and snow, knuckles bleeding, hands cracked, the sail flapping yet stiff as a board, feet clamped to the foot-rope as they lean over the edge of the yard, their feet often swinging above their heads while the ship careens at a 45 degree angle, masts swinging wildly in huge arcs from side to side.
The Beara Head, a collier was much larger than Lundy's grandfather was used to; he usually plied the coastal trade rather than this trip around the Horn bound for Valpariso. The scale was intimidating. The mainmast yard weighted 4 tons and stretched 20 feet beyond the edge of the deck on either side for a total of 84 feet. "But he was discovering that height, the square-rigger sailor's dimension was a unique category of distance with its own rules of perception, its special calculus of fear. He remembered a deep-water sailor telling him that the height of the yards and masts on a square-rigger meant nothing. Past thirty feet or so the fall would kill you as surely as from 150 feet. The only difference was the amount of time you had to think about things on the way down."
The ship first had to be loaded with coal. As steam ships increased in number, they required coal and the cheapest way to ship coal was by sail. As more coal was transported the number of steamships increased in a vicious circle that eventually doomed the sailing ship. In the meantime, though, soft coal was dumped into the hold by cranes which was then shoveled by hand throughout to balance the ship correctly. Coal dust was everywhere and a good sign. Lack of dust meant wet coal, which was more likely to overheat and self-ignite, something to be avoided. So the sailors just breathed in as little as possible and tried not to think of the consequences. An OSHA inspector would probably have had a heart attack, or perhaps a citation-writing wet-dream.
Food was terrible (the weevils probably the most nutritious part), the living conditions deplorable, the officers despotic, often more than cruel, and the dangers extreme. Yet men kept signing up and often missed the grandeur of the sea and the known quantity of the life. Conrad was a seaman for twenty years and even after three years of marriage and a baby thought about returning to the orderly yet adventurous life: "that un-tempted life presenting no disquieting problems, invested with an elementary moral beauty by the absolute straightforwardness of its appeal and by the singleness of its purpose."
Lundy has a wonderfully clear way of explaining the obscure, at least to this landlubber. On pg 51 he describes the sails' pattern that looks overly complicated but "this impression is really result of repetition rather than genuine complexity. [yeah, right:] There are only two species of sails -- square sails and fore-and-aft-sails--and each kind, together with its controlling lines, is a simple mechanism by itself. The apparent complexity arises only because each sail is repeated many times over."
I finally now understand the difference between "wearing" and "tacking." "Seamen letting go main and crojack lines and hauling the sails up by their clew lines so they'll swing free; the barque coming up closer to the wind, sails flogging and rattling, lines flailing, masts vibrating--the seamen can feel it in their feet through the deck. The turn slowing now as sails lose the wind's force, waves slapping and pounding on the weather side, resisting the vessel's pivot. Now the ship is almost head to the wind, its momentum lost; the captain standing square, facing forward, straining to see, his head swaying from side to side to catch the precise direction of the wind in relation to his ship's bow.
"He can't see but senses the bowsprit wihtin a point or so of head to wind. He yells the crucial order: 'Mainsail haul!'
"At once, the seamen haul hard and fast on the main and mizzen braces. . . .Yards swing round at the run, just enough momentum to bring the bow through, foremast sails untouched, now aback, wind blowing into their forward side, helping the ship's turn; men getting the yards round and trimmed as close as possible on the new tack before the wind fills the sails--to avoid hauling the wind as well--sheeting the fore-and-aft sails onto the new tack, haujling round topgallant and royal braces as the main and mizzen sails begin to draw. The ship pushes ahead, waves helping now as they butt the bow to leeward, men belaying lines. . . ."
This feat had to be done hundreds of times as the ship traveled into the wind. They were forced to travel over a thousand miles to go 240 miles south. The gales that prevented ships from exiting the British Isles had consequences. For the Spanish Armada it was disaster, for 1170 vessels in one year alone! it meant destruction, including thirty in one day. On the other hand it was good training ground for the amateurs that were pressed into service before they got into the Atlantic.
The common seaman, a man with extraordinary skills and endurance, was nevertheless mere chattel, "contemptible but necessary," much like the common soldier. "(It was an ancient perspective, and it would persist through Balaclava, Gettysburg, the Somme and Verdun, Dieppe, and the Yalu.) Without these lower forms of life, it would be impossible to do the great and necessary work of society and the empire. The same cold be said for the workers in the new industrial factories and mills, and for coal miners. It was no different for seamen." In fact, being killed in battle, the ostensible reason men were pressed on to warships, was statistically insignificant. During the Seven Years War there were 134,000 men killed while at sea. Of those, only 1,512 were killed in battle, the rest by disease or accident. Between 1792 and 1815 only 6% of the naval deaths were in battle.
Conventional wisdom has it that the opening of the Suez Canal for steamships meant the demise of sailing ships. This was not quite true and, in fact, sailing ships made a real comeback in the late 19th century because they were the cheapest and most efficient way to transport bulk cargo. Until power plants could develop at least 60 lbs per square inch of pressure, steamships could barely carry enough coal to get them where they were going let alone provide space for cargo. Larger sailing ships, like the Beara Head used the wind to get them where they were going, provided free storage for a cargo that often changed hands many times during the voyage, and delivered coal for free. Human lives, as was also apparent in the First World War, were expendable. Britain, having a large amount of coal, became the Persian Gulf of the late 19th century.
Making the voyages even more efficient was the work of Matthew Fontaine Maury who had been invalided out of the US Navy in the 1830's and made his life's work a study of wind and sea currents by collecting data from ship captains. He discovered that the traditional routes were the least efficient and soon ships were making the voyage from England to Australia in as little as 65 days by sailing as much as 10 degrees of latitude south of the Cape and through the "roaring forties." Tougher on the seaman--waves might freeze on the bowsprit--but a lot faster, often making 10 - 14 knots, the equivalent of steamers.
By 1891, with the development of the triple expansion engine, steel hulls, and consistency through calm winds, the end of the sailing ship was clear. The Aberdeen made a passage from England to Australia in 42 days using "half an ounce of coal for each mile per ton of cargo, about one tenth the requirements of the old compound engines. l
By the way: You can book a voyage on a barque called the Europa:
http://www.barkeuropa.com/en/fotoboek...
Little pieces of trivia that I delight in: Lots of quaint little traditions. Each sailor was required to present his knife early in the voyage to the carpenter who knocked off the point "leaving a sharp edge but a blunt tip." The purpose was "So we can't stick 'em each other, m'boy," Ben was told. Several kept additional sharply pointed knives in their kits, anyway. And steel ships cause huge problems for the ship's compass. In fact, insurers would refuse to cover iron vessels on deep-sea voyages.Finally, they discovered that placing little sift iron balls on either side of the compass would neutralize the magnetic fields causing the compass deviations.
Just a couple of peeves: the book needs an index for trivia junkies like myself. Lots of information in the book, but hard to access. And why would they give this book the a title so similar to the one by Alan Villiers: THE WAY OF A SHIP; BEING SOME ACCOUNT OF THE ULTIMATE DEVELOPMENT OF THE OCEAN-GOING SQUARE-RIGGED SAILING VESSEL, AND THE MANNER OF HER HANDLING, HER VOYAGE-MAKING, HER PERSONNEL, HER ECONOMICS, HER PERFORMANCE, AND HER END
The Beara Head, a collier was much larger than Lundy's grandfather was used to; he usually plied the coastal trade rather than this trip around the Horn bound for Valpariso. The scale was intimidating. The mainmast yard weighted 4 tons and stretched 20 feet beyond the edge of the deck on either side for a total of 84 feet. "But he was discovering that height, the square-rigger sailor's dimension was a unique category of distance with its own rules of perception, its special calculus of fear. He remembered a deep-water sailor telling him that the height of the yards and masts on a square-rigger meant nothing. Past thirty feet or so the fall would kill you as surely as from 150 feet. The only difference was the amount of time you had to think about things on the way down."
The ship first had to be loaded with coal. As steam ships increased in number, they required coal and the cheapest way to ship coal was by sail. As more coal was transported the number of steamships increased in a vicious circle that eventually doomed the sailing ship. In the meantime, though, soft coal was dumped into the hold by cranes which was then shoveled by hand throughout to balance the ship correctly. Coal dust was everywhere and a good sign. Lack of dust meant wet coal, which was more likely to overheat and self-ignite, something to be avoided. So the sailors just breathed in as little as possible and tried not to think of the consequences. An OSHA inspector would probably have had a heart attack, or perhaps a citation-writing wet-dream.
Food was terrible (the weevils probably the most nutritious part), the living conditions deplorable, the officers despotic, often more than cruel, and the dangers extreme. Yet men kept signing up and often missed the grandeur of the sea and the known quantity of the life. Conrad was a seaman for twenty years and even after three years of marriage and a baby thought about returning to the orderly yet adventurous life: "that un-tempted life presenting no disquieting problems, invested with an elementary moral beauty by the absolute straightforwardness of its appeal and by the singleness of its purpose."
Lundy has a wonderfully clear way of explaining the obscure, at least to this landlubber. On pg 51 he describes the sails' pattern that looks overly complicated but "this impression is really result of repetition rather than genuine complexity. [yeah, right:] There are only two species of sails -- square sails and fore-and-aft-sails--and each kind, together with its controlling lines, is a simple mechanism by itself. The apparent complexity arises only because each sail is repeated many times over."
I finally now understand the difference between "wearing" and "tacking." "Seamen letting go main and crojack lines and hauling the sails up by their clew lines so they'll swing free; the barque coming up closer to the wind, sails flogging and rattling, lines flailing, masts vibrating--the seamen can feel it in their feet through the deck. The turn slowing now as sails lose the wind's force, waves slapping and pounding on the weather side, resisting the vessel's pivot. Now the ship is almost head to the wind, its momentum lost; the captain standing square, facing forward, straining to see, his head swaying from side to side to catch the precise direction of the wind in relation to his ship's bow.
"He can't see but senses the bowsprit wihtin a point or so of head to wind. He yells the crucial order: 'Mainsail haul!'
"At once, the seamen haul hard and fast on the main and mizzen braces. . . .Yards swing round at the run, just enough momentum to bring the bow through, foremast sails untouched, now aback, wind blowing into their forward side, helping the ship's turn; men getting the yards round and trimmed as close as possible on the new tack before the wind fills the sails--to avoid hauling the wind as well--sheeting the fore-and-aft sails onto the new tack, haujling round topgallant and royal braces as the main and mizzen sails begin to draw. The ship pushes ahead, waves helping now as they butt the bow to leeward, men belaying lines. . . ."
This feat had to be done hundreds of times as the ship traveled into the wind. They were forced to travel over a thousand miles to go 240 miles south. The gales that prevented ships from exiting the British Isles had consequences. For the Spanish Armada it was disaster, for 1170 vessels in one year alone! it meant destruction, including thirty in one day. On the other hand it was good training ground for the amateurs that were pressed into service before they got into the Atlantic.
The common seaman, a man with extraordinary skills and endurance, was nevertheless mere chattel, "contemptible but necessary," much like the common soldier. "(It was an ancient perspective, and it would persist through Balaclava, Gettysburg, the Somme and Verdun, Dieppe, and the Yalu.) Without these lower forms of life, it would be impossible to do the great and necessary work of society and the empire. The same cold be said for the workers in the new industrial factories and mills, and for coal miners. It was no different for seamen." In fact, being killed in battle, the ostensible reason men were pressed on to warships, was statistically insignificant. During the Seven Years War there were 134,000 men killed while at sea. Of those, only 1,512 were killed in battle, the rest by disease or accident. Between 1792 and 1815 only 6% of the naval deaths were in battle.
Conventional wisdom has it that the opening of the Suez Canal for steamships meant the demise of sailing ships. This was not quite true and, in fact, sailing ships made a real comeback in the late 19th century because they were the cheapest and most efficient way to transport bulk cargo. Until power plants could develop at least 60 lbs per square inch of pressure, steamships could barely carry enough coal to get them where they were going let alone provide space for cargo. Larger sailing ships, like the Beara Head used the wind to get them where they were going, provided free storage for a cargo that often changed hands many times during the voyage, and delivered coal for free. Human lives, as was also apparent in the First World War, were expendable. Britain, having a large amount of coal, became the Persian Gulf of the late 19th century.
Making the voyages even more efficient was the work of Matthew Fontaine Maury who had been invalided out of the US Navy in the 1830's and made his life's work a study of wind and sea currents by collecting data from ship captains. He discovered that the traditional routes were the least efficient and soon ships were making the voyage from England to Australia in as little as 65 days by sailing as much as 10 degrees of latitude south of the Cape and through the "roaring forties." Tougher on the seaman--waves might freeze on the bowsprit--but a lot faster, often making 10 - 14 knots, the equivalent of steamers.
By 1891, with the development of the triple expansion engine, steel hulls, and consistency through calm winds, the end of the sailing ship was clear. The Aberdeen made a passage from England to Australia in 42 days using "half an ounce of coal for each mile per ton of cargo, about one tenth the requirements of the old compound engines. l
By the way: You can book a voyage on a barque called the Europa:
http://www.barkeuropa.com/en/fotoboek...
Little pieces of trivia that I delight in: Lots of quaint little traditions. Each sailor was required to present his knife early in the voyage to the carpenter who knocked off the point "leaving a sharp edge but a blunt tip." The purpose was "So we can't stick 'em each other, m'boy," Ben was told. Several kept additional sharply pointed knives in their kits, anyway. And steel ships cause huge problems for the ship's compass. In fact, insurers would refuse to cover iron vessels on deep-sea voyages.Finally, they discovered that placing little sift iron balls on either side of the compass would neutralize the magnetic fields causing the compass deviations.
Just a couple of peeves: the book needs an index for trivia junkies like myself. Lots of information in the book, but hard to access. And why would they give this book the a title so similar to the one by Alan Villiers: THE WAY OF A SHIP; BEING SOME ACCOUNT OF THE ULTIMATE DEVELOPMENT OF THE OCEAN-GOING SQUARE-RIGGED SAILING VESSEL, AND THE MANNER OF HER HANDLING, HER VOYAGE-MAKING, HER PERSONNEL, HER ECONOMICS, HER PERFORMANCE, AND HER END
May 1, 2009
Fascinating insights into a world that has disappeared.
Derek Lundy signed on to a modern-day yacht trip around perilous Cape Horn to retrace part of the journey his forebear Benjamin took a century before. As Derek traveled in the relative safety of a contemporary vessel, he became fascinated with how different, and how much more dangerous, Benjamin's immigration trip must have been.
In the end, Derek decided to tell Benjamin's story in a unique way. Way of a Ship alternates chapters of factual information about the lives of 19th century square-rigged sailors with a semi-imagined, fictional novelization of Benjamin Lundy's time "before the mast."
As someone who has had a lifetime love affair with the era of tall ships--and who will read any novel or book about those times--I can say that I have never read anything that informed me better about square-rigged ships and the men that sailed them. While the novels of Patrick O'Brian and Herman Melville certainly are rich in such detail, they also assume a lot without much explanation. Derek Lundy, on the other hand, patiently and lovingly helps those who wouldn't know a back stay from a yardarm to get a deep working knowledge of those glorious vessels. Part of his genius is to show us how sailing ships necessitated and bred a symbiotic relationship between man and machine that has rarely been seen before or since.
The Way of a Ship is not only a novel about turn of the 19th-to-20th century sailing, it is also a beautiful elegy for the passing of a time never to return. Benjamin Lundy made his passage 'round the Horn during the dying days of sail. The big square riggers were already being replaced by the faster, more efficient steam ships. Benjamin's ancestor Derek captures for us a thought-provoking picture of one of the hidden costs of progress: the loss of a way of life, the way of a ship.
Derek Lundy signed on to a modern-day yacht trip around perilous Cape Horn to retrace part of the journey his forebear Benjamin took a century before. As Derek traveled in the relative safety of a contemporary vessel, he became fascinated with how different, and how much more dangerous, Benjamin's immigration trip must have been.
In the end, Derek decided to tell Benjamin's story in a unique way. Way of a Ship alternates chapters of factual information about the lives of 19th century square-rigged sailors with a semi-imagined, fictional novelization of Benjamin Lundy's time "before the mast."
As someone who has had a lifetime love affair with the era of tall ships--and who will read any novel or book about those times--I can say that I have never read anything that informed me better about square-rigged ships and the men that sailed them. While the novels of Patrick O'Brian and Herman Melville certainly are rich in such detail, they also assume a lot without much explanation. Derek Lundy, on the other hand, patiently and lovingly helps those who wouldn't know a back stay from a yardarm to get a deep working knowledge of those glorious vessels. Part of his genius is to show us how sailing ships necessitated and bred a symbiotic relationship between man and machine that has rarely been seen before or since.
The Way of a Ship is not only a novel about turn of the 19th-to-20th century sailing, it is also a beautiful elegy for the passing of a time never to return. Benjamin Lundy made his passage 'round the Horn during the dying days of sail. The big square riggers were already being replaced by the faster, more efficient steam ships. Benjamin's ancestor Derek captures for us a thought-provoking picture of one of the hidden costs of progress: the loss of a way of life, the way of a ship.
February 18, 2013
I picked this up at the library only to leaf through it superficially, looking for sailing terminology in context for my Technical Translation class - our professor had chosen sailing as our subject for the semester. (A much more interesting one than refrigeration would have been, so no no one will hear any complaints from me!)
Somehow I ended up reading the whole thing, it was just so interesting. Derek Lundy writes well, incorporating historical facts and literary anecdotes by and about Herman Melville and especially Joseph Conrad into a historical fiction narrative about his great-great-uncle Benjamin, who sailed around Cape Horn in, as Lundy puts it, "the last days of sail."
It is the story of an average voyage and at the same time of an epic adventure. There are technical explanations and frightening descriptions of the many things that happened to the ship and crew. By the end of the book, when Lundy writes, "Many years later, when he was dying of tuberculosis..." I was so attached to Benjamin that I felt nostalgic and a little bit sad that I had never met him.
I would definitely recommend this book.
Somehow I ended up reading the whole thing, it was just so interesting. Derek Lundy writes well, incorporating historical facts and literary anecdotes by and about Herman Melville and especially Joseph Conrad into a historical fiction narrative about his great-great-uncle Benjamin, who sailed around Cape Horn in, as Lundy puts it, "the last days of sail."
It is the story of an average voyage and at the same time of an epic adventure. There are technical explanations and frightening descriptions of the many things that happened to the ship and crew. By the end of the book, when Lundy writes, "Many years later, when he was dying of tuberculosis..." I was so attached to Benjamin that I felt nostalgic and a little bit sad that I had never met him.
I would definitely recommend this book.
February 8, 2011
The book was a good introduction into the subject of life aboard a square rigger at the end of the era of sail. Like others had said in their reviews, it is centered around a fictional character and his voyage, interspersed with facts and opinions Lundy had gathered from his research.
I give praise for Lundy to create such a book, it does show good imagination, and it does grab the reader, well done in that regard, however......
However, since reading this book I have read others on the same subject, written by the men of that time and place and who had lived the life at sea. The reality of this book is that it is but a faded shadow of an echo from the past.
It does appear that most of Lundy's facts came from a couple of Villier's books "The War with Cape Horn" published just before his death in 1971, and "The Way of a Ship". Originally Lundy gave me an impression that he had researched extensively for this book. Other than reading Villiers book, and going on a cruise around Cape Horn, most of his opinions on square riggers appear to be identical to what Villiers preaches in his books. I suggest reading Villiers book instead.
I give praise for Lundy to create such a book, it does show good imagination, and it does grab the reader, well done in that regard, however......
However, since reading this book I have read others on the same subject, written by the men of that time and place and who had lived the life at sea. The reality of this book is that it is but a faded shadow of an echo from the past.
It does appear that most of Lundy's facts came from a couple of Villier's books "The War with Cape Horn" published just before his death in 1971, and "The Way of a Ship". Originally Lundy gave me an impression that he had researched extensively for this book. Other than reading Villiers book, and going on a cruise around Cape Horn, most of his opinions on square riggers appear to be identical to what Villiers preaches in his books. I suggest reading Villiers book instead.
February 14, 2020
Captivating story of square-rig sailors in the late 1800’s. It ranks with the great books about climbing the tallest mountains, or fighting in the greatest battles. You will have trouble keeping yourself from reading passages to anyone nearby.
May 10, 2008
Based on the info about the book on the cover, I was expecting something different. What I got was reasonably good, but probably not as interesting as the book I was expecting.
The cover matter makes you think that Lundy completely retraces a voyage, recreating it based on historical evidence. It's only when you start reading that you realize that Lundy didn't really have anything to work with, and planned on largely fictionalizing the voyage. That, too, could have been a more interesting book.
But throughout the voyage, sometimes interspersed throughout the fiction, sometimes as separate, more factual chapters, Lundy delves deep into facts and historical information about other ships at the end of sail, and the dangerous journey around Cape Horn. I'm pretty sure even an extensive historical look at the end of sail, or Cape Horn, would have been a more interesting book. Instead what you get is good and interesting in parts, but very uneven. The historical fact distracts you from the fiction. Then the historical fact gets interesting, and the fiction cuts in again. Lundy may have done better to pick one or the other, or look at a different structure for the book.
The cover matter makes you think that Lundy completely retraces a voyage, recreating it based on historical evidence. It's only when you start reading that you realize that Lundy didn't really have anything to work with, and planned on largely fictionalizing the voyage. That, too, could have been a more interesting book.
But throughout the voyage, sometimes interspersed throughout the fiction, sometimes as separate, more factual chapters, Lundy delves deep into facts and historical information about other ships at the end of sail, and the dangerous journey around Cape Horn. I'm pretty sure even an extensive historical look at the end of sail, or Cape Horn, would have been a more interesting book. Instead what you get is good and interesting in parts, but very uneven. The historical fact distracts you from the fiction. Then the historical fact gets interesting, and the fiction cuts in again. Lundy may have done better to pick one or the other, or look at a different structure for the book.
February 17, 2018
This was a very informative book, sometimes told from the perspective of the author, but mostly from the perspective of his ancestor Benjamin Lundy. Similarly, the story was a mix of the fictional retelling of Benjamin’s journey, and the author’s own experiences at sea, interspersed with descriptions of various historical events to add background to what was happening in the book.
It is in effect a piece of travel writing, as the journey from England to Cape Horn is what forms the backbone of the plot.
If I was reading it for simple enjoyment, I may have said it was too detailed. However, I picked this book up with the specific aim of learning more about life on a square-rigger, so I was particularly happy that I can now tell the difference between tacking and wearing, and what specific orders are given to complete each manoeuvre. The descriptions of life on the Beara Head including food, sailing manoeuvres, parts of the ship, and the dangers posed by storms, overheating cargo, or clashes between crew members, are incredibly vivid.
Recommended if you want to know more about sailing a ship in the 19th century.
Not really recommended for light reading.
It is in effect a piece of travel writing, as the journey from England to Cape Horn is what forms the backbone of the plot.
If I was reading it for simple enjoyment, I may have said it was too detailed. However, I picked this book up with the specific aim of learning more about life on a square-rigger, so I was particularly happy that I can now tell the difference between tacking and wearing, and what specific orders are given to complete each manoeuvre. The descriptions of life on the Beara Head including food, sailing manoeuvres, parts of the ship, and the dangers posed by storms, overheating cargo, or clashes between crew members, are incredibly vivid.
Recommended if you want to know more about sailing a ship in the 19th century.
Not really recommended for light reading.
December 16, 2013
This looked interesting to me because I like Patrick O'Brian's books. Lundy's idea to build a historical imagining of a new sailor's first trip around The Horn around his search for a relative's life experience is first-rate (to use a sea term), and his research is abundantly evident. That said, sometimes too much of a good thing can be a little off-putting....in this case, too much sail-tech and sailor talk, and far too much quoting of Joseph Conrad for my taste. But if you want to learn about the extremely hard life of a 19th-C sailor, and get some truly vivid images of hell at sea, this is your book. I really liked what I learned from Lundy's work, but slightly overwrought execution brought it down just a notch for me.
February 8, 2020
I sailed with them
I’ve sailed on US Coast Guard Barque Eagle five times, climbed 125 feet to the foremast yard, helped haul lines on its 35 sails, heeled over 35 degrees in stormyweather, jumped off the deck to swim in the Gulf Stream and regained my Navy sea legs. I now feel as if I’d sailed with Benjamin around the Horn. I’ve hit the beach again with him in foreign lands and lived a sailors life. Thanks to Derek Lundy for taking me along on this cruise and for bringing back memories of the sea and it’d ports. This researched and well written excellent book is a joy to behold, told in rich nautical language that puts one right there with him at the helm and into the rigging.
I’ve sailed on US Coast Guard Barque Eagle five times, climbed 125 feet to the foremast yard, helped haul lines on its 35 sails, heeled over 35 degrees in stormyweather, jumped off the deck to swim in the Gulf Stream and regained my Navy sea legs. I now feel as if I’d sailed with Benjamin around the Horn. I’ve hit the beach again with him in foreign lands and lived a sailors life. Thanks to Derek Lundy for taking me along on this cruise and for bringing back memories of the sea and it’d ports. This researched and well written excellent book is a joy to behold, told in rich nautical language that puts one right there with him at the helm and into the rigging.
March 29, 2017
Interesting to me, but it would be fascinating for someone who has a working knowledge of ships and can more easily visualize what's being described with the sailor lingo.
June 23, 2022
Ever wonder what it would be like 74 feet up the mast of a sailing ship tying off an enormous flapping sail in the middle huge waves and insanely windy storm off Cape Horn?
Derek Lundy's "The Way of a Ship" is the book for you.
Tall iron hull square-rigged ships once transported huge amounts of raw materials across oceans in good time with virtually no carbon footprint. The sailors who formed the crew of these ships were an extremely tough breed of guys. Many sailors were lost at sea in the 1890s. Some fell off the mast into the sea or were washed overboard and drowned or went down with the ship or were thrown by waves up against the rocks when ships went aground on a rocky shore.
Derek Lundy has written a fictional story about a relative who sailed aboard these ships in the late 1800s. His relative, Benjamin Lundy, sailed aboard the "Beara Head", which carries a huge load of coal to be delivered to Valparaiso, Chile after a frustrating and treacherous passage around Cape Horn.
It is a classic tale of one square-rigged ship's battle with the cruel unforgiving sea. Lundy details various sea conditions in the waters near Cape Horn and the sturdy mindset of the sailors coupled with complete descriptions of the hull, deck, sails, spars and rigging of these ships necessary for them to execute a limited range of sailing maneuvers.
The "Beara Head's" journey is as exciting as the best sea tales from the 1800s all the way up to today's single-handed round-the-world races.
This book is for sailors or people interested in becoming sailors or people who love the old tall ships and the sea. Lundy carefully explains most all the essentials of the tall ships, their sails, masts, how the crew handled the sails and how the skipper navigated and sailed the ship in different conditions. He liberally quotes from nautical authors Joseph Conrad, Herman Melville and Richard Henry Dana.
Lundy has done some exemplary research but his own journey aboard a tall ship helped him see exactly how these ships were put together and how the sails were set or furled and how all the gear worked. He also shows the differences between huge steamer and the tall ships and the advantages of iron over wood and wind power over steam.
Some of these old sailing ships are being used today to bring huge bulk loads of coffee from South America to European markets. And new ones are being built to handle increased demand. Will the huge fleets of bunker oil tankers, container ships or huge freighters with their huge carbon footprint ever be displaced by smaller green iron sailing ships? Who knows?
Huge changes often start with intrepid small ones. Much of the gear and sails are of much better quality than in the day. But the strong, gritty almost indestructible men of that time are very rare these days except for single-handed circumnavigation race sailors particularly in south sea between the Antarctica and the southern tip of South America.
This book is a classical look at a tougher time when there were ingenious and artful ship designs coupled with the stubborn resilience of the human urge to survive and triumph in these ships' battles with the sea and going around Cape Horn.
Some readers might find this book difficult because of all the sailing terminology but terms and concepts can be googled. This may be added work for the reader but they will need to decide whether it would be worth it or not. The adventure of the situation keeps you reading. You might read something that doesn't use a lot of nautical terminology on the same topic but it might be much less compelling.
As it is "The Way of a Ship" is adventurous great reading and wonderful armchair sailing under the worst ocean conditions without actually having to personally experience them!
Derek Lundy's "The Way of a Ship" is the book for you.
Tall iron hull square-rigged ships once transported huge amounts of raw materials across oceans in good time with virtually no carbon footprint. The sailors who formed the crew of these ships were an extremely tough breed of guys. Many sailors were lost at sea in the 1890s. Some fell off the mast into the sea or were washed overboard and drowned or went down with the ship or were thrown by waves up against the rocks when ships went aground on a rocky shore.
Derek Lundy has written a fictional story about a relative who sailed aboard these ships in the late 1800s. His relative, Benjamin Lundy, sailed aboard the "Beara Head", which carries a huge load of coal to be delivered to Valparaiso, Chile after a frustrating and treacherous passage around Cape Horn.
It is a classic tale of one square-rigged ship's battle with the cruel unforgiving sea. Lundy details various sea conditions in the waters near Cape Horn and the sturdy mindset of the sailors coupled with complete descriptions of the hull, deck, sails, spars and rigging of these ships necessary for them to execute a limited range of sailing maneuvers.
The "Beara Head's" journey is as exciting as the best sea tales from the 1800s all the way up to today's single-handed round-the-world races.
This book is for sailors or people interested in becoming sailors or people who love the old tall ships and the sea. Lundy carefully explains most all the essentials of the tall ships, their sails, masts, how the crew handled the sails and how the skipper navigated and sailed the ship in different conditions. He liberally quotes from nautical authors Joseph Conrad, Herman Melville and Richard Henry Dana.
Lundy has done some exemplary research but his own journey aboard a tall ship helped him see exactly how these ships were put together and how the sails were set or furled and how all the gear worked. He also shows the differences between huge steamer and the tall ships and the advantages of iron over wood and wind power over steam.
Some of these old sailing ships are being used today to bring huge bulk loads of coffee from South America to European markets. And new ones are being built to handle increased demand. Will the huge fleets of bunker oil tankers, container ships or huge freighters with their huge carbon footprint ever be displaced by smaller green iron sailing ships? Who knows?
Huge changes often start with intrepid small ones. Much of the gear and sails are of much better quality than in the day. But the strong, gritty almost indestructible men of that time are very rare these days except for single-handed circumnavigation race sailors particularly in south sea between the Antarctica and the southern tip of South America.
This book is a classical look at a tougher time when there were ingenious and artful ship designs coupled with the stubborn resilience of the human urge to survive and triumph in these ships' battles with the sea and going around Cape Horn.
Some readers might find this book difficult because of all the sailing terminology but terms and concepts can be googled. This may be added work for the reader but they will need to decide whether it would be worth it or not. The adventure of the situation keeps you reading. You might read something that doesn't use a lot of nautical terminology on the same topic but it might be much less compelling.
As it is "The Way of a Ship" is adventurous great reading and wonderful armchair sailing under the worst ocean conditions without actually having to personally experience them!
May 14, 2023
I try not to give out '5s' liberally but this book is at least a 4.5 and I will round up for the effort and the unique approach to what is an arcane subject at this point in history but remains fascinating. I was a big fan of Patrick O'Brien and some C.S. Forester but this book deals with sailing ships in a far different era and milieu. Not warships, but merchants in the dying days of sail as steamships rose to eclipse them, the period from roughly 1860-1910. It is part history book, part novel, and part philosophical inquiry. The author's great-great uncle served on one of these merchant sailing vessels (4-masters) in 1885 and the story is a fictional account of a journey of one such ship, the Beara Head on route from Liverpool to Valparaiso carrying a heavy load of coal. The book is superbly researched with interesting facts about ships, men, weather, commerce all packed into a mesmerizing story--will they make it around the vaunted Horn? Cape Horn that is, often referred to as 'Cape Stiff' owing no doubt the stiff resistance of wind and current to west-bound ships. The 'double-round' of the deadly Cape is portrayed as one of the great nautical challenges ever devised, perhaps the greatest. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of ships did not make it, lost at sea to an unknown combination of wind, sea, ice and often human vanity or miscalculation. The novel portion brings those factors to life in a way that the statistics cannot in a brilliant synthesis. In the end it all comes down to the men who worked these ships, the Captains of course responsible for the crucial life and death decisions but it is the crews--mostly poor, uneducated, the lowest 'dregs' of society mostly British and Irish but other nationalities too, that are the real heroes. Their suffering was literally unimaginable to human beings today, climbing 100-foot masts in rain, snow, sleet, with gale-force winds or higher and seas running to 30 to 50 feet for days, sometimes weeks on end and no respite, lest the ship founder. Often injured or killed, abused by the officers, not enough food, no Gore-Tex layers! You may feel guilty sitting there drinking your coffee. The insanity of it all in the relentless quest for money (for the owners).
Anyway, the book is also informed in many places by the great nautical writers Herman Melville, Richard Henry Dana and Joseph Conrad whose observations are quoted often. If you have any interest in nautical history or writing I would call this book indispensable.
Anyway, the book is also informed in many places by the great nautical writers Herman Melville, Richard Henry Dana and Joseph Conrad whose observations are quoted often. If you have any interest in nautical history or writing I would call this book indispensable.
September 5, 2022
Heaven help the man who whistles when the wind is blowing already. Brings a storm or a hurricane for sure. The superstitions of seaman plus the 17 verse songs of Paddy gave a ship its rhythm. To fill out the hundreds of thousands of sailors needed to fill the King’s warships and the square-riggers hauling coal, men were routinely “ Shanghaied.” The unfortunates taken forcibly to the ship - the first port they’d see later might be Shanghai.
Wind was their master and bane. Sometimes the small boats were lowered and hand oared to drag the ship from the calms. With 250 tons of ballast and the weight of the ship, this was an almost impossible task.
Waves might drag a seaman overboard just as he reaches an inch too far to fasten the mast. His possessions auctioned off later that day.
The square rigger became outdated by steamers. But the greatest challenge of the sea captain was the rounding of Cape Horn.
An intimate look at sailing in the late 1800s. You can’t imagine how he fills the pages.
Wind was their master and bane. Sometimes the small boats were lowered and hand oared to drag the ship from the calms. With 250 tons of ballast and the weight of the ship, this was an almost impossible task.
Waves might drag a seaman overboard just as he reaches an inch too far to fasten the mast. His possessions auctioned off later that day.
The square rigger became outdated by steamers. But the greatest challenge of the sea captain was the rounding of Cape Horn.
An intimate look at sailing in the late 1800s. You can’t imagine how he fills the pages.
December 3, 2022
Magnificent book. It offers a full immersion in the life of the crew of one of the last of the commercial sailing ships as it crosses the Atlantic and rounds the Horn in 1885. Very well written by an author who has lived his subject and has a personal stake in the story. You get immersed in the language and technology, in all aspects of the crew's life, and also immersed in vivid and often dramatic accounts of storms, squalls and a rogue wave, and even just of plain sailing. Their 50-day battle to round Cape Horn is dramatic and horrifying, and yet authentic. The author weaves into his fictional account histories of sailing ships, voyages, sea commerce, and nautical lore, and his primary aim is to educate; knowing that a well-told story is the best form of education.
I don't know about the romance of the sea - certainly there was a lot of romancing (of a kind) in the ports - but after reading of the torments, trials, triumphs and tragedies these men underwent, you can understand the mystique and solitary pride of the old-time sailors.
I don't know about the romance of the sea - certainly there was a lot of romancing (of a kind) in the ports - but after reading of the torments, trials, triumphs and tragedies these men underwent, you can understand the mystique and solitary pride of the old-time sailors.
May 29, 2024
I really enjoyed this semi-fictional/reconstructed account of a square-rigged sailing ship's voyage towards the end of the 19th century. It's loosely based on the fact that the author's relative made that voyage, but the account is pieced together from records of lots of other voyages. The narrative peak is the rounding of Cape Horn (to get from the Atlantic to the Pacific). The whole thing is packed with interesting detail, and the format allows for much more explanation than (for example) Patrick O'Brian can put into a novel. There are a few snippets of the author's own experience of a trip as a temporary 'trainee' on a similar sort of ship.
Very readable. Very long chapters meant that it maybe took me a bit longer to read it, because the temptation is to avoid starting a chapter unless I think I can stay awake long enough to finish it.
Very readable. Very long chapters meant that it maybe took me a bit longer to read it, because the temptation is to avoid starting a chapter unless I think I can stay awake long enough to finish it.
June 18, 2020
The author's great-great-uncle was, for at least one voyage, a sailor on one of the last of the sailing ships toward the end of the 19th century. This book is two things. One is the story of a hypothetical voyage his uncle might have taken. The other is a history of sailing ships with a particular emphasis on the dangers to both ships and men that were part of this form of travel. The author strikes a nice balance between the excitement of the fictitious voyage and the historical information that supports his description of that voyage.
December 24, 2021
"The Way of a Ship" is a historical account of the sea voyage of the British sailing ship Beara Head as it sets out from Liverpool to the distant port of Valparaiso. Among the last of the classic square rigged sailing ships, the Beara Head battles through storms and ice as it fights its way around treacherous Cape Horn. For fans of seafaring history this book is a great look back at the most adventurous era in maritime lore. A great read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 24, 2018
An intriguing book about the hardships and perils at sea for a seaman on a windship in 1885. The authors uses many nautical terms for sailing and mastering of a sailing ship. At times, it is rather difficult to grasp the true horror of the moment, but it is a period in history that must be understood or European emigration loses an understanding of the hardship the people endured.
September 2, 2020
I really enjoyed this book; I love sailing, and was fascinated by all of the information that the author gave about square-riggers. I have a better understanding of what it was like sailing on one of these magnificent wind ships, and reading about the trials they faced rounding the Horn was something I am glad I learned about. The author really did his research, and I benefited because of it.
February 21, 2021
I clawed through this hodgepodge of sea musings with the same labored and painfully slow progress of Beara Head clawing her way around the horn. I've read volumes and volumes of sea books and never dreaded any the way I did this. The author couldn't tell if he wanted to write a weather report, a sea story, a book report, or his own diary. You can't have it all in one book, Mr. Lundy.
March 12, 2020
Really captured the hard work and incredibly harsh weather
Lundy seems to understand the perspective of every crew member. Really insightful! If you have ever sailed, even on a small boat, this book will hold your attention.
Lundy seems to understand the perspective of every crew member. Really insightful! If you have ever sailed, even on a small boat, this book will hold your attention.
February 6, 2023
DNF pg. 192. Largely a fictional tale, it has its ups and downs. There’s a lot of good historical information buried in the text, but I’m not dedicated enough to continue to pull the good bits out of the chaff.
December 5, 2024
The subject and history were appealing. However, I wasn't able to get past the forever minutia and detail referencing back to parts of a ship, sail, mast, and ropes. I eventually tired of referring back to the sketches and indicators of what was where.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 5, 2019
Derek Lundy did a good job. I really liked this book and will be reading more of his work. Well written, well researched. Good for snuggling up in the middle of a winter night in front of a fire.
January 12, 2022
It is well written. The descriptions are accurate about life aboard a square masted ship.
June 25, 2017
I found this really interesting. Being a great fan of Patrick O'Brien, I thought this would give me some extra insights into the tough lives of the hard men who sailed wind-powered ships, and it did. The author imagines the life of his great-uncle Benjamin on board the ship Beara Head sailing with a cargo of coal from Liverpool to Valparaiso in Chile, going round the infamous Cape Horn on a journey of over 4 months. The sailing conditions he describes so realistically are a revelation; it made me really admire and respect the extraordinary strong men who worked the ships, often sacrificing their lives as part of the job. By the end of the account, you can indeed begin to understand why men who have experienced the sea in all its moods can become addicted to a sailor's life, even though it is so tough.
A really good read.
I read this book in 2013 and then gave it to a charity shop.
However, 4 years on I had to find it again on - well, you know, THAT website- because I enjoyed it so much that I want to reread it..
But first I'm going to read D Lundy's other maritime book, Godforsaken Sea.
June 2017
A really good read.
I read this book in 2013 and then gave it to a charity shop.
However, 4 years on I had to find it again on - well, you know, THAT website- because I enjoyed it so much that I want to reread it..
But first I'm going to read D Lundy's other maritime book, Godforsaken Sea.
June 2017
May 19, 2020
Truly a well-written account that kept my interest throughout. The author had to be judicious about how much explanation he did. Since I was reading it for research, I would have like more explanation of the ship's maneuvers. But that's because I knew absolutely notion about square-riggers. Others might be quite content with what Lundy offers.
The story is at times riveting, and I wonder why anyone would have wanted to be a sailor on one of those ships: harrowing phenomena, terrible food, onerous treatment and back-breaking work for a pittance of pay.
The story is at times riveting, and I wonder why anyone would have wanted to be a sailor on one of those ships: harrowing phenomena, terrible food, onerous treatment and back-breaking work for a pittance of pay.
November 23, 2010
For a landlubber trying to wrap her head around what it might have been like to crew one of the big sailing ships during the era of sail, a useful read. Some wonderful atmospheric passages. As narrative history, it is reasonably successful: gripping in sections, but with a climax that never quite comes together. But I didn't read for *story*, rather for information, and I definitely got what I came for.
September 18, 2012
Absolutely superb! I have read his other work about racing in the south seas and it makes me want to sail as well.. you know those old timers had balls of steel and hearts of oak. The three pillars of the King's Royal navy according to Churchill - Rum, sodomy and the lash. I like rum but gotta stop there.. Not too keen to try the others haha.
This fella lives on Salt spring island as well so that made it doubly cool. Great read.
This fella lives on Salt spring island as well so that made it doubly cool. Great read.
July 16, 2008
Read this for research purposes but found myself reading it for pleasure. Superb account (+ history) of the life on one of the last great sailing ships that rounded the Horn at the end of the 1800s. Highly recommended for all maritime history buffs.
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