The Good Life Books 103 racehorse,’ writes Ujifusa. four complete decks, and ‘the graceful Tim Cook with Jobs choosing Cook as CEO over The race to build faster ships sped lines of a racing yacht’. She cost the more interesting Jon Iver while The Genius Who Took Ex Libris up with the 1849 California gold rush. $300,000 to build. Towed to New nearing death. You are compelled to Apple to the Next Level Suddenly, ‘East coast merchants could York after her launch and fitting out, read further to find out why. sell manufactured goods to western she took on cargo and was scheduled Chapter two recognises the Cook as LEANDER KAHNEY gold diggers for hard currency rather to sail for Liverpool in late December the ‘hometown hero’ of Robertsdale, Reviews of a sprightly seafaring saga from the 19th than dubious paper notes.’ Shipments 1853, when a fire in downtown the small town in Alabama he grew century and a tech biography that offers little insight of gold bars and coins back east rose Manhattan spread to the East river as TECHNOPHOBES up in. But not many see the globalised from $4.9 million in 1849 to $42.6 the water froze in leather fire hoses. The and non-Mac users CEO as such. Kahney discovers locals’ million in 1851. In 1849, a passage masts and rigging of the mammoth should be aware criticism of Apple’s lack of presence in from New York to California via clipper were consumed and it was that the only the town. This, we know, is personal: by Christopher Silvester and Rasika Sittamparam Cape Horn might take 180 days; by scuttled, though the hull was later biography available the openly gay Cook is still troubled 1851 the standard for a fast run on resurrected by Captain Nat Palmer, of Tim Cook, by the racism of his neighbourhood, the same route was 100 days. who produced ‘a leaner, less heavily Apple’s CEO, is told having witnessed a KKK member The clipper business continued to sparred ship that was much more through the lens of cross-burning in front of a black grow, despite competition from steam economical to operate’, needing a crew an Apple-watcher family’s house – an account many (which had conquered transatlantic of only 50, not the original 100. Great familiar with the company’s myriad residents still dispute. trade). Lessons learned from the Republic ‘never got the chance to surge products, updates and bug fixes. We then start to learn about Cook’s Barons of the Sea Americans and their former colonial China clippers led to the construction along under full sail – most likely Author Leander Kahney runs the uncanny ability to transform Apple’s masters forged a powerful bond of of California clippers. ‘Bigger, faster, smashing every record on the books’. A Cult of Mac, a website that acts as a operations. There are rare revelations And Their Race to Build the common interests and sentiments. “Their ethos and stronger than their predecessors, record time of 89 days and eight hours newswire on all things Apple. of kinks in its process and the wastage World’s Fastest Clipper Ship Once they had returned to the of working they could circumnavigate the world for the New York to San Francisco sea With two decades’ worth of insight, Jobs accrued due to the rise of PC. New York of the 1840s, the men from long hours in record time, able to earn more than passage under sail was actually set by authority and access to many current The highlight of the book is the STEVEN UJIFUSA Yankee New England families took and partying $100,000 in a single successful merchant Moses Grinnell’s Flying and former employees at Apple, Kahney account of Cook’s fearlessness against their place as aspiring merchants. As hard was voyage,’ says Ujifusa. ‘For a brief Cloud in 1854 – and stood until 1989. has unusually omitted interviews with the FBI, as told by Bruce Sewell, who THE CHINA trade Steven Ujifusa writes: ‘In an era before similar to period, the California clipper would Several merchants used their Cook himself. Perhaps there has been was Apple’s general counsel at the in tea from Canton international investment banks and that of a be the envy of the seagoing world.’ earnings to build stately homes or extensive quality control to protect time. He reveals that there had been to New York not multibillion-dollar venture capital Wall Street Vigorous competition came from diversify into new enterprises, such as Apple’s trillion-dollar valuation. The government interest in ‘getting access only gave rise to funds, no New Yorker was socially trading floor Boston shipyard owner Donald railroads and transatlantic telegraph author describes Cook as a solo to phones on a mass basis’, even before several great New loftier than a wealthy merchant. He of the 1980s McKay, an experienced builder of cables. Warren Delano lost his fortune character who grazes on energy bars the San Bernardino shooting which York fortunes in the not only sold goods from abroad and transatlantic packets, who ‘ushered in in other pursuits, then acquired and replies to emails at 3-4am, usually triggered the crackdown on the iOS’s 19th century, but owned fleets of ships but also served the era of the so-called extreme another from importing opium to before or after a workout. security features. also produced those as a source of capital, funding all sorts clippers, enormous vessels with sharp America for pharmaceutical purposes Apple still helped Kahney gather While the book tries make Cook most romantic of of new enterprises.’ The Canton lines and massive spreads of canvas’. – it was used to treat shattered enough material to sing Cook’s appealing despite his lacklustre sailing vessels known as clippers. bachelors joined the Union Club, The speed of these Leviathans, wrote casualties of the Civil War. In this praises. The author, almost dutifully, public persona, instead it tails off into The young American men who modelled on the gentlemen’s clubs of one San Francisco journalist, is ‘so sprightly seafaring saga, Ujifusa, who extols his precision of mind and the PR-like prose. You learn everything sailed these ships to and from China, London, and sought appropriate great, that could power enough be knows his keelson from his arched soft touch approach he exercised – a of the CEO’s operational success, or toiled in the mercantile counting matches, such as that between Warren brought to bear on the hull of an forefoot, intersperses descriptions of complete contrast to the late Steve but you end up knowing very little houses of Canton (known as ‘factories’, Delano and Catherine Lyman, a old-fashioned ship, as to force her changes in ship design with Jobs. From the start, there are about what makes him tick. That, after the practice of factoring, or selling cousin of the Forbes clan. through the water at the same rate, oceanbound exploits, tales of juxtapositions of the belligerent unfortunately for Kahney, reinforces on bills of sale) were dubbed Canton In the competition for the China it would crush her to pieces.’ commercial rivalry, and fluctuating genius of Jobs against the calm the very boring-but-good image he bachelors. Men like Warren Delano II trade, speed of delivery to market was Sometimes these great ships could family fortunes. CS competence of Cook. The book starts tries to protect his subject from. and Robert Forbes forged a valuable of the essence. The first of the clippers, not take the strain, and their upper relationship with formidable Chinese named Houqua after the Chinese masts would come crashing down. opium merchant Houqua. They were merchant, was commanded by Captain Sailors aboard storm-tossed clippers also backed by promissory notes issued Nat Palmer, built in New York, and might fall from the rigging into the by the British bank of Baring Brothers launched in July 1844. Her return raging sea or smash on to the deck & Co. Alongside British merchants voyage from Canton to New York took below. Eventually, the extreme such as William Jardine, they built only 90 days. The merchant William clippers, which required crews of up THREE TO READ seed fortunes from shipping opium Henry Aspinwall commissioned an to 60 men, became uneconomic, from Singapore to Canton in clipper experimental design from John Willis while Captain Nat Palmer’s China schooners, and then shipping green Griffith for his Sea Witch and hired clippers found the right balance POLITICS ECONOMICS ENVIRONMENT tea back home. Captain Robert Waterman as between size of cargo and speed. Siege: Trump People’s Republic Green and Forbidden to fraternise with the consultant and commander, who The apogee of extreme clipper Under Fire of Walmart Prosperous Land local Chinese population, their ethos came up with a huge sail plan of five design and an example of hubris was Michael Wolff Leigh Phillips and Michael Dieter Helm of working long hours and partying tiers of sails on three masts. ‘The Donald McKay’s Great Republic. With Rozworski hard was similar to that of a Wall daring sail plan, coupled with a hull measuring 335 feet (‘longer In a sequel to his scintillating Can we be prosperous and 2018 bestseller Fire and Fury, Arguing the case for Walmart green at the same time? Street trading floor of the 1980s. Griffiths’ lithe, V-bottom hull, created than a modern football field’), she had Wolff evaluates the forces as a model for a new form of Helm makes the economic Thrown together in this way, the a ship as skittish as a thoroughbred four masts instead of the usual three, arrayed against the POTUS.