Arts of the Sailor - Softcover

Smith, Hervey Garret

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0308900391 ISBN 13: 9780308900394

Publisher: Funk Wagnalls Publishing Co

2012 Reprint of 1953 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Illustrated Edition. A maritime expert offers boating and yachting enthusiasts a complete course in rigging, working, and maintaining a ship. The perfect shipboard reference, this volume is packed with useful "hands-on" information: sailor's tools, basic knots, and useful hitches; hand sewing and canvas work; and dozens of other topics important to safety, economy, and efficiency. Over 100 illustrations. Few twentieth-century writers could equal Hervey Garrett Smith's works on the traditional arts of the sailor; none could surpass them. His descriptions of knotting, splicing, fancy work, canvas work, and the practice of marlinspike seamanship are clear, concise, and evocative. So, too, are his drawings, which are technically accurate, easy to follow, and a joy to behold. The "Arts of the Sailor" is Smith's finest book, a compendium of information that runs the gamut: the anatomy of rope, sailor's tools, knots, hitches, splicing, whipping, wire and rope service, hand sewing, decorative rope work, chafing gear, reefing, towing, cleats, rope-stropped blocks, and making all sorts of gear, including rope mats, a heaving line, a bosun's chair, and a ditty bag.

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From the Back Cover:

Over 150 years ago, the skills needed to operate a merchant sailing vessel were many and varied. While not nearly as much in demand today as they were in the days of the Yankee clippers, these skills nevertheless remain important and necessary to today's yachtsmen and owners of smaller pleasure boats.
In this excellent handbook on basic shipboard skills, marine expert Hervey Garrett Smith offers boating and yachting enthusiasts a complete course in rigging, working, and maintaining a ship. More than 100 illustrations help the reader grasp the fundamentals and fine points of handling a ship while the author describes in detail a sailor's tools, basic knots, and useful hitches as well as the arts of splicing, handsewing, and canvas work.
Other topics equally important to safe, economical, and efficient boat maintenance and management include belaying, coiling, and stowing; towing procedures; how to make a chafing gear; and much more. Easy-to-follow instructions for fashioning decorative knots, ornamental coverings, and nettings, and even how to make a proper bucket round out this engaging and informative guide.
Packed with useful "hands-on" information conveyed in a chatty, humorous style, The Arts of the Sailor is the perfect book to keep aboard ship for study and for ready reference when the need arises. It also makes delightful reading for armchair sailors and the legions of landlubbers with an interest in the sea.

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