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The Cruise of the Snark; Jack London Seafarer Books,2000, 1st pub.1911; ISBN 0-9538180-0-4; £ n/a; CA 15746
"The Cruise of the Snark" has long been known as one of the
classic accounts of a long-distance cruise. The famous author, Jack
London, his wife and crew undertook a two year passage from San Francisco
to Hawaii, the Marquesas, the Society, Fiji and the Solomon Islands in a
55 foot ketch. London had been commissioned to send back a series of
articles whilst under way; and occasional repetitions bear evidence of
this structure.
Some of the chapters are Purves-like humorous accounts of trials and tribulations - the boat, despite being newly commissioned and built, had many pretty basic defects; or trying to work out the position by astro calculations. Other chapters concern sightseeing and accounts of the various islanders and their customs, such as stone-ficking; driving fish ashore by smiting the water apparently causing a disturbing vibration; and an account of Typee, no longer the civilisation Melville wrote about but overrun by disease.
The last two chapters, while attempting to maintain the humourous tone, describe the dangers to the white traders from the warlike cannibals of Malaita and the painful various illnesses suffered by the crew. London himself got a painful condition of peeling skin, apparently caused by excess ultra-violet rays, resulting in five weeks in an Australian hospital and the nding of the voyage.
Sadly, the black and white photographs of this edition add little, often being indecipherable, but "The Cruise of the Snark" remains a classic account of cruising at the turn of the last century. - MPB
Page prepared 9 October 2000
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