Sea Struck : Has anyone read this book?

[tony morales]

I like to know if anyone has read, and what they think of this book by William Bunntin

[rbgarr]

I haven't read it, but did hear him speak on it at a local library function. He's a wonderful speaker and I've enjoyed all his other writings and books. I bet it's a good one, too, according to the Amazon snippets of editorial descriptions and writer's reviews:

-Book Description
Some people seem to be born with salt water running in their veins and as soon as they are able, "go to sea." For certain young men at the turn of the last century, this was as much a rite of passage as, for others, a "season" abroad. The experience was a transitory adventure for some; for others it was a life-shaping experience. Sea Struck is about the final decades of American square-rigged sail, as recorded in firsthand accounts of voyages made by three genteel young men from Massachusetts. There is plenty of adventure for our young men--storms, men overboard, a cargo of "Chinese passengers," discipline that bordered on brutality, and exotic Far East ports--but these interwoven stories also demonstrate the fascinating web of connections in the New England maritime community.

-From the Inside Flap
"If I’m any judge, this marvelous book should be hailed as an instant classic—that is a book that will be read with continued interest and pleasure, passed from hand to hand, talked about, quoted from, read aloud, cited as a model of splendid scholarship and love of subject, for many long years to come. I don’t know when I’ve become so immediately absorbed in a book about people I had never heard or and knew nothing about. But W. H. Bunting knows so much—about sailing ships, life at sea, and American maritime history-and he writes with such refreshing vitality that one is swept along as if on a grand adventure. There are passages, both in what he writes and in the remarkable letters included, that might be from Robert Louis Stevenson. The account of the explosion of Krakatoa is but one stunning example. Even the footnotes are entertaining. Give yourself a treat. Settle in for an evening with Sea Struck."
—David McCullough

[JeffH]

Got it, love it. I do very much enjoy all of Bill Bunting's work, right down to the book reviews that he does in WoodenBoat. He has a wonderful eye for a photo, and manages to extract a tremendous amount of well-researched info and fascinating stories out of a seemingly simple scene (although I still wonder where he got the story in an earlier book of a fellow who copper sheathed a ship singlehandedly in five days. Apparently it took 3,500 sheets of copper, with each sheet getting seventy nails. If the guy worked, say, a fifteen hour day, thats a bit shy of a nail a second nonstop. Hmmm...). Sea Struck is more or less the same style of writing done out to book length, and it works well. It is not purely academic history, which is good since it is readable and interesting and doesn't get bogged down in too much detail. It's a fun look at what day-to-day life was actually like on sailing ships near the end of their heyday. Highly recommended.

By the way, if anybody sees one of his earlier books around (Portrait of a Port, for example), let me know since my local used book dealer unfortunately knows what they're worth.

Jeff

[Hughman]

Also worth spending quality time with is the two volume "A Days Work"

annotated photos of New England in the 19th C.