Product Description

Benjamin Lundy crossed oceans under sail in the late nineteenth century and over one hundred years Derek Lundy, his great-great nephew, has re-created that journey. In "The Way of a Ship", he palces Benjamin on board the Beara Head with a community of fellow seamen as they perform the exhausting and dangerous work of sailing a square-rigger across the Atlantic and round Cape Horn. Fed on a diet of pea soup, gristly sat horse, rock hard weevil-infested biscuits and just enough lemon juice to keep scurvy at bay, the seamen were dangerously mal-nourished and sleep-deprived. But their instinct was to give their all through the battering, screaming winds. The equation was simple: they would survive if the ship survived and so they fought to save the ship.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #325292 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Review
'Destined to become a classic of the seas' Eric Newby

About the Author
Derek Lundy is an experienced amateur sailor. A lawyer by training and a writer by profession, this is his fourth book. He lives in Salt Spring Island, B. C.

Customer Reviews

Way of Ship revealed
For anyone with an interest in sailing and life at sea this will be an enlightening and pleasurable read. The author, erudite and and informative throughout, takes the reader on an exhilrating, harrowing and terrible voyage around cape horn, and provides historical perspective to the narrative throughout. Rather than just imparting a tale full of vigourous excitment, Lundy provides insight by basing everything from the weather to the ships victuals on fact. His interesting digressions from the story do a lot to increase the understanding of the reader and therefore the enjoyment. After reading this book you will have some comprehension of the amazing feats of 'Cape Horners' and, as the title the title suggests, an appreciation of the way of a ship.

A Disappointing Read.
The cover of this book states it to be 'A Square-Rigger Voyage in the Last Days of Sail'. The author, Derek Lundy, starts by explaining that an ancestor of his, Benjamin Lundy, sailed on such a ship. On researching this relation he found few hard facts, but was inspired to write a story based around the type of ship he would have served on.
And so begins the story of Benjamin Lundy. For the first few chapters we are drawn into his introduction to the ship and his shipmates, which is done well and captures ones' attention. But at the start of Chapter Four we are suddenly off on a travelogue of the authors own, rather tame, reminiscences of Cape Horn and then a discourse on the history of merchant shipping.
A short visit back to Benjamins' story, then off we go again - t pages about the authors' holiday on a tall ship, homosexuality amongst sailors and constant references to the works of Conrad and Melville.
It is only in the last three chapters that the story returns with any concentration to the 'story' as alluded to on the book's cover, by which time this reader at least, was completed frustrated by the author dashing off from one subject to another, and more than happy to put the book aside.
This book couldn't decide whether it should be a fictional narrative, a factual historical reference work, a piece of travel writing or a literary appreciation. It's almost as if the author got so excited by his research he felt it more important to pass it onto the reader rather than think for himself and create the story he started with. This is a shame because when he does concentrate on the fiction, he creates good interesting writing - his descriptions of the crews first uneasy relationships is excellent.
If you want a good story about Square Riggers, stick with Eric Newbys' 'The Last Grain Race' - he knew what he wanted to say and he said it far better than Mr Lundy.

An Excellent read - A fine example of the genre
I found this book to be a fascinating description of life aboard a sailing ship at the end of the 18th century. The central figure, a young man joining his first ship, is the grandfather of the book's author and the book follows his experiences during the ship's journey from Liverpool to the South Atlantic and "Round the Horn."

The pen pictures of each crew member are written with astonishing clarity and the technical descriptions of the ship, its handling and management, are explained in a manner that even the most landlocked armchair sailor will appreciate.

Throughout the book there are short passages which digress from the main story, but these are, in the main, used to give examples of similar historic activities and events to those being experienced by the ship.

An exceelen readable book - thouroughly recommended.