Square Rigger Days

Publisher: Seaforth Publishing, £25
Publication Date: 2007

If you think you were born too late to go to sea in genuine sailing vessels in the merchant navy then this is the book to find out what it would have been like and what you have missed. Devoted to collecting and illustrating the recollections of the last generation to have manned these great ships, each chapter covers a different person, ship and voyage. There are contemporary pictures of most of the vessels as well as some details that will surprise as to the sheer size of some of the last ones to be constructed. Overall it paints a picture of a very hard life with little time to enjoy the pleasures of sailing across idyllic seas. The book is in large format and impressive especially for those collectors of the history of a bygone era when sail dominated world trade. – A J Mulholland