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Book Reviews Book Reviews Sasha Barac and Roger Boxall. danger, like the Indian Ocean and the Cruisers Exposed: Marvels of the East Indies, are avoided. World seen in the travels of Ednbal. In the popular cruising seas there Self-published, www.ednbal.com, are places and events when cruisers 2016. 468 pp., maps. US $85.99, get together—hundreds, sometimes paper; ISBN 978-1-53479-161-9. thousands of boats congregating in (Kindle version available.) one harbour. That is a considerable itinerant population. Crossing the The authors of this book, Sasha Barac Atlantic to attend one of these events and Roger Boxall, hail from Western is almost commonplace. Needless to Australia. They are members of the say, few of these cruisers spend one surprisingly large, international, hundred percent of their time afloat. floating population of long-distance Most sailors have a house ashore to cruisers. Their own boat, Ednbal, is which they must return from time to a Beneteau 393, and is typical of the time. Some have children and grand- smaller class of long-distance cruis- children who join the boat for the ing sailing yachts. A yacht in the 10- holidays, but some have small to 15-metre range is a seaworthy children who live on board and are vessel and modern electronic instru- home- (or boat-) schooled. ments and communications have That is the world described in greatly improved safety at sea. Of Cruisers Exposed. The book is a course, any vessel can be over- logbook of sorts, recounting Ednbal’s whelmed if the weather is bad journeys from 2007 to 2015 but it is enough, but there are not a lot of not arranged in chronological order. disasters among cruising yachts. Rather, it is an account of their There are always adventurers friendship with other yacht dwellers who want to challenge the Arctic or with whom they cruise for a while Antarctic seas, but for the most part, and pursue adventures ashore. They these cruisers frequent warmer waters part, but some months or years later, — although not everywhere. The they reconnect and so the chapters of Mediterranean, the Caribbean and the the book are named for their friends’ South Pacific draw great congre- boats and recount the cruises they gations of these sea gypsies but have taken in company. There are regions where piracy is a constant thirteen of these sections. In the course of the authors’ travels they The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord, XXVI, No. 4 (Oct. 2016), 435-483. 436 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord naturally did some extended sight- Brad Beaven, Karl Bell, Robert seeing ashore. For example, while in James (eds.). Port Towns and Urban Turkey they travelled to Georgia and Cultures, International Histories of later to Petra, and while in Colombia, the Waterfront, c.1700-2000. to Machu Picchu in Peru. After the London: Palgrave Macmillan, www. initial expense of the boat, the palgrave.com, 2016. 289 pp., illus- cruising life is not all that expensive, trations, tables, notes, bibliography. especially when you buy in local US $29.95, paper; ISBN: 978-1-137- markets and catch a lot of your own 48315-7 (E-book available, ISBN fish, although you still need an 978-1-137-48316-4.) income in the background to pay for trips ashore, spare parts, harbour fees Hey Sailor, Looking for Trouble? and, in many places, bribes. One nice feature of the book is the recipes for Ports are measured by the annual food and drink. It is plain Sasha and number of million tonnes of cargo Roger lived well, especially in secure handled, the number of cargo anchorages, socializing with other containers loaded and unloaded, the sailors. The maps attached to each size of the port area, the number of section show the immense distances ships entering and leaving, the total Ednbal travelled (and is still length of quay walls, the number of travelling. At the time of writing, she freight trains filled and emptied, was in French Polynesia). market share and the value of all Who would benefit from and cargo. Often, the annual results are a enjoy this book? Anyone who dips port's economic indicators. Ship's into it, especially if he or she has crews have always been of less been to some of the places described. concern to results-driven port Its greatest benefit, however, would authorities. They leave these temp- be to those who are contemplating oral guests largely to their own extended cruising. The accounts are devices in the ports in which they full of practical hints. One very visit or stay over. practical admonition: if you are prone The majority of studies into to seasickness, this life is not for you! urban-maritime history focus on the Nor should one forget that life on port’s role within a variety of board is not always idyllic. Sailors economic networks. The cultural sig- all have to cope with sudden gales, nificance of this maritime-urban hidden reefs, dragging anchors and, space has been generally ignored. In not least, officialdom. These days, it Port Towns and Urban Cultures the is the yacht sailors who are the true editors’ aim, through the exploration repository of seamanship skills. of a series of ports from around the globe, is to advance the reader's Charles Maginley understanding of how each port was Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia a crucible for the forging of distinctive urban and maritime identities. Moreover, it examines the Book Reviews 437 relationship of the port with its urban it a somewhat bewildering combin- hinterland, together with the cultural ation. The editors, however, have connections that may have existed succeeded in their mission. This between international ports. book most certainly contributes to Port districts have always had a urban-maritime history. Moreover, it wide array of facilities that could is a good read. provide sailors with all sorts of pleasures and necessities. Pubs and Jacob Bart Hak boarding houses served as crossroads Leiden, The Netherlands. of maritime communication on shipping news, jobs and local Ian Dear. The Tattie Lads: The untold information. The sailor's stereo- story of the Rescue Tug Service in typical image included whoring, Two World Wars and its battles to heavy drinking, brawling and save cargoes, ships and lives. violence. It becomes clear, however, L o n d o n : B l o o m s b u r y , that in his free time ashore the www.bloomsbury.com, 2016. seaman had to associate with his viii+312 pp., illustrations, appendix, work colleagues, or wander alone in notes, bibliography, index. UK a strange environment. In a culture £20.00, US $40.00, hardback; ISBN of male honour, violence was seen as 978-1-8448-64-1-0. (E-book a natural way of resolving conflicts available.) among men. Outsiders talked about ports as 'sinks of infamy, and Much has been written about abominations of almost every hardship and heroes in the Battle of description'. Lovely stories. But the Atlantic, but virtually nothing has there is more to history than digging been available on the stoic rescue up old clichés. This book’s approach tugs that salvaged men and ships to the nature and character of sailor from the clutches of the enemy and town culture and port-town life, and the vileness of the North Atlantic. the representations of port towns that Ian Dear has helped fill that gap in were forged both within and beyond our knowledge with his splendid urban-maritime communities delivers book The Tattie Lads. insight in the lives and deaths of ports The real focus of Dear’s work is themselves, as if they are living the Second World War, which he entities. In a way, a port is just as tracks through eight chapters. His alive as the men and women who account is roughly chronological, depend on it. starting in chapter 2 at the The book contains twelve studies, concentration of rescue tugs at six of them focus on English ports Campbelton early in the war, and and cultures, and three are about follows a somewhat anecdotal course ports in South Africa, Australia and through the various classes and New Zealand. The remaining studies theatres. Having tackled the originals discuss urban-maritime life in (the “Saints and Brigands”) in Sweden and Finland. The latter make chapter 3, Dear moves on to the 438 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord exploits of the Dutch rescue tugs keep them on course: manila line and which arrived following the collapse wire cables chaffed and parted with of Western Europe in 1940, then alarming frequency. Days of gruell- picks up the exploits of the first war- ing work often ended with the built tugs, the Assurance class, in the damaged ship foundering near the Battle of the Atlantic in chapter 4. coast. The rescue tug service expanded Twenty rescue tugs were lost to tremendously when the USA entered, enemy action or to the sea. and as the mid-war building programs Englishman was swarmed by aircraft in Britain began to bear fruit: these and sunk in January 1941, and stories are the subject of chapter 6. Empire Wold simply disappeared off Mediterranean operations follow in Iceland one brutal winter day in chapter 7, the “Jaunty, the cripples November 1944: no trace was ever and the feisty Empire class” in found. It proved easy to find Sesame chapter 8, and the Normandy after she disappeared with all hands campaign of 1944 in chapter 9. A on 11 June 1944. She was towing a short epilogue tells a brief tale about portion of the artificial harbour to one Pacific tug.
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